Catch Fish with
Mike Ladle

Information Page

Every one knows that perch are predators and of course they can be taken on a wide range of lures. I catch lots of perch on plugs and, at times sport can be hectic.

Perhaps the most popular perch 'spinners' are Mepps type spoons. For some years now, as a variation on this, I have been trying out my mullet spoons for perch fishing. Mullet spoons are home-made, plastic-bodied spinners which can be retrieved very slowly. The idea is simply to bait the hook of the spinner with a worm or even a few worms. The flashing, spinning blade attracts the fish which then takes the worm. In the case of mullet I use ragworms for bait but ordinary garden worms are effective for perch. Unlike the mullet perch are perfectly happy to take unbaited lures but I think that the addition of bait increases the number and quality of bites.

In fact the first perch which I caught on baited spinners were in the estuary of the River Frome when I was fishing for thin lipped mullet. This was something of a surprise because perch are certainly not common in the Frome. As yet I have no evidence that baited spinners catch particularly big perch but they are certainly attractive to small and medium sized fish and I see no reason why the big ones should not take them.

If you have any comments or questions about fish, methods, tactics or 'what have you.'get in touch with me by sending an E-MAIL to - docladle@hotmail.com

INFORMATION SPOT

RIVER FISHING

December 26 2001

A perch taken on a small plug fished by casting downstream and retrieving slowly in a deep glide.

This two pounder seized a Mepps Mino - a rubber fish behind a spinning blade.

A decent perch which took one of my ragworm baited 'mullet' spoons. The treble indicates that this was a very early experiment with baited spoons.

A perch caught from the river on an earthworm baited spoon. The lure is armed with single rather than treble hooks.