Missing in Action !!!!!

Readers of my blog will know I’ve fished Centre Parcs at Elveden a couple of times in the past, the first time I fished it a chance capture of a specimen Perch on sweetcorn caused me to specifically target them for subsequent visits. I had plenty of 2lber’s in November and on the final day I lost a right clonker of a Perch when it violently shook its head and bumped the hook. It would have smashed my 2lb 11oz PB.

The main lake is approximately 20 acres in size and sits within the middle of the 400 acre woodland setting, the majority of anglers that fish the lake from what I can see fish for the scum suckers, there are plenty of them too, apparently the lake was netted and the bigger fish removed but you only have to go over to the beach peninsula where you can feed them with bread and more or less stroke them to know there are still some big fish in residence. Tactics are to dump a load of pellets in the margins during the evening and fish over the top, in that respect no different than lots of Carp venues.

You can fish more or less anywhere on the main lake but from 10am till around 5pm the water sports activities kick in to life so during that time only the designated fishing platforms at the hotel end can be used. Our accommodation was a short stroll from the lake so within 5 minutes I can be fishing so the good thing for me as an early riser (my body clock is knackered) is I get to fish every morning for a few hours before the Wife and kids wake up and it doesn’t spoil the day.

Anyway back to the Perch, a 2 rod attack was planned. At the business end a Korum running rig is fitted with small two-thirds of an ounce lead. The hooklink is 2ft of 6lb 12oz Preston Power line and at the end a size 6 Kamasan B983 hook. Made from high carbon fine steel wire with a ground and chemically etched needle point it’s a large enough pattern for a couple of air-injected lobworms or a small deadbait. It’s also a lightweight hook and damn strong, which adds to the fairly light set-up but if need be, it’s still man enough to stand-up to a double figure carp. A small shot is pinched on to the line to counteract the buoyant hook bait.

Zandavan roll-overs provide more or less resistance free bite indication; they also allow the bail-arm to be left open. When a fish takes the bait and the indicator flips-over I lift the rod, close the bail-arm and strike when my thumb and forefinger feel the resistance, it’s such an effective method my catch rate has improved significantly.

I don’t usually use groundbait for catching Perch but for such a big lake I felt it might help with keeping the bait fish and therefore the predators within the swim I was fishing. It consisted of Red fishmeal groundbait, chopped worm, dead maggots and liquid worm. I threw in a couple of orange sized balls at the start of each session. Red maggots were also catapulted in to the swim every 10 minutes or so.

Anyway, how did it go ?

Err not very well, I managed a Perch of 2lb 9oz's on the first morning on deadbait but then that was it.  My Tenkera fishing rod provided some entertainment though, I fitted it with a pole rig and used maggot as hookbait and fished a couple of meters out I caught well every morning. The Roach were half decent up to a pound and a half and I also managed a few small carp.  I tried 3 different swims but the big Perch were Missing in Action.

Maybe a drop-shot approach would have been better as I could cover the large expanse of water to try and locate the Perch. Oh well you live and learn, 5 enjoyable mornings though. The next time and all that. !!!