The British Record Perch - 5lbs 15oz by Les Brown

The capture of the Perch will probably be my catch of a life time, it certainly caused a lot of excitement with our party who had got together for this session, our first together since May 2005.

Our intentions were to fish for the carp and have a social. Mad I thought but when I heard that Daryl was coming down from Manchester I thought I'd better put in an appearance.
We had planned to fish for three days and on arrival we drew swims and I ended up in a centre swim. The report from the owner was that we could expect to catch on the ends of the lake where there was some cover and we could possibly pick up the odd fish passing through.

I had brought 11pints of maggots with me so I decided to pre-bait a couple of spots with dead maggot, hemp and a few pellets and a sprinkle of sweet corn.

I targeted a bank of dead rushes and a overhanging tree on the far bank. I presented live maggots on a maggot clip with a few artificial ones to just balance the hook and clip. I scaled the size of the tackle down, as there didn't appear to be any snags about.

I was using a running rig with a Kryston Merlin braid tied to a size 8 wide gap hook. Incidentally if you're using a maggot clip on a hair it has a tendency to foul the hook, try fitting it to a D loop with a small oval ring. This gives you chance to swap tactics - eg: take off clip and tie on maggots using the needle and braid method - the one I usually prefer but in the winter the clip is the easier option.

All the maggots had been flavoured, if you break down the maggots into smaller groups with a bit of groundbait mix and let them wriggle around a bit before placing them in the fridge or freezer you will find that they will keep their flavour. I mention this because one high profile angler recently said that flavours wash off quite quickly.

I baited regularly over a period of about 24 hrs. The rod to the far bank was getting knocks quite often so I decided to abandon the other swim. I first caught a really nice roach and a gudgeon, how do they manage to get onto a size 8 hook I will never know.

I had watched fish scattering on several occasions from the baited swim, I knew that there were big perch in the lakes as the owner has pics of them in the on-site cabin but my mind was really still on carp.

Towards the afternoon of the second day I was getting ready to set the second rod when the alarm went off, fish on! I was using Rod Hutchinson IMX rods which have been good to me over the years, lovely soft action ideal for smaller waters.

My first reaction to the bend and feel of the rod was that I had caught a big tench, but it wasn't quite the same knocking that you get with tench - any way I eased the fish to about two thirds of the way across the lake and the fish rolled, it was then that I saw the familiar stripes.

By then my fishing companions had gathered around and looking at the rod assumed that I had a carp on, what is it ? I replied it's a perch, no!

The fish was nearly ready for landing, when it finally slid over the net there were a few comments made and when it was placed on the unhooking mat we really couldn't believe how big it was. I was glad I was over the rods as the perch took - as it was perfectly hooked.

We carefully weighed the perch on a number of scales, which I have since had tested and the fish weighed 5lb 15ozs.

It was only when I got home that I realized the fish could possibly be accepted as a new British record. I was hoping to keep it quiet but my companions who had booked the trip were getting a lot of calls about the fish, so we eventually decided to go public.

Back to Normal
Things are now getting back to normal. My grandson and I had a nice days fishing for rudd over the school holidays, we had a sleeper rod out and he managed to catch a fantastic carp of 16lb 2oz. -beating his personal best by nearly 6lbs.

Kind regards

Les Brown