Like every year, this year, with the arrival of October, I put aside the heavy catfish rod, went for a week on my loved seatrout, and then softened considerably in order to look at the teeth of these fearless punks. If you were to ask me about my top three favorite fish, perch would definitely be among them. A little fighter who always manages to surprise me with his gluttony and incredible "competitiveness". Watching a school of perch compete to see which one will catch a fleeing roach is an incredible sight. A fish that one day takes it like it's deprived of its senses and the next day you can't convince it to take a shot. One of the few predators that can be fished very successfully even in December on topwater lures. Well, it's a perch.
I rarely catch perch on micro baits, like most of my friends. Therefore, even the rod I use for perch would be enough for many of Czech anglers for a light zander spinning rod - Shimano Lunamis 290 cm 6-25 g. But I don't want to enjoy catching a 20 cm perch, I want to safely and without problems pull out a 40+ fish, which can be a problem with UL rods on some overgrown waters. Among my favorite baits are tail spinners, cicadas, seatrout spoons, pops, 7-10 cm long soft baits or earthworm imitations - which one you can find specifically under the article.
It was the first week of October, I was slowly looking around after returning from Denmark and making plans for the striped bandits. The news from friends was not exactly positive. It was still very warm. I set off anyway. The plan was clear. Over the weekend, spend as much time as possible on the water and find if and where the fish are, so that I can catch up on the hunt before work on the following working days, so-called "just in case". The first day ended with a total zero. I went all the way around the lake without taking a single bite. I didn't even see any movement on the surface. So the next day I have to go somewhere else. It is 6 o'clock in the morning and I still come to the water in the dark. With the aim of trying to hit the zander and mainly to catch the breakwater, where there is a chance to see the hunting perch and thus it is easier to locate them. The zander miracle doesn't happen, but I can see perch hunting in many places. I'm experiencing something I haven't in a long time. I catch fish almost every cast. Most of the perch are 15-20 cm, but sometimes you get a better piece. 35+. The largest fish I have measured is 43 cm. Bomb. I catch fish with breaks until lunch and then I go home. In the following days, everything goes like a copier. Perch take less or more but I make at least one 40+ fish every day. With the cooling in sight, I expect a multiplication of perch activity and I have even higher hopes for next week. But the perch will show something that I can't explain. With a cooling wheather, they seem to have disappeared. If I catch 5-10 small ones for a walk, I'm happy. I add 40+ fish in one day. However, what happened in the week before the cooling is no longer repeated. The number of my visits to perch is slowly decreasing. Even so, in 4 weeks (only the first of them took the fish as meaningless) I have 18 visits and I have countless beautiful perch, a few zanders and pike and most of all unforgettable experiences.
I believe that the right time for perch will come, but if not I won't be angry. I'm done for this year.
