Hello, im thinking of doing a bit of perch fishing with a fly , any reccommendatios for fly ?

would i fish on the surface or sub surface...


billy

This might be useful to you:

Tiny brook- Chub & Perch fun.

Hi Billy,

I suggest you follow through the link above. Do not waste too much time and effort on tying up silly and expensive things unless you desperate.
I highly recommend tadpole-type flies tied on jig hooks (from flytyingboutique.com). Buy some size 8, 10 and 14 or 16 in case perch want small flies.

Mainly 4.5mm and some 5.5mm tungsten for the size 8, 4mm for the 10 and try to tie the smallest hook with as big head as you dare put on. 14 takes 3.5mm -3.8mm and you will have left the spear free to connect into the fish by my experience. You will want slotted tungsten though. (Joel from tungsten beads.co.uk sells gold and plain slotted disco balls for not much and of good quality)

You really want no more than 3 colours and maybe something silly bright for those odd days. The essential colours are black, medium/golden olive and hare's ear.

I have a got a box dedicated only to tadies. It is a great pattern and if you downsize them you can catch dace and roach as it has been proven to me on good few occasions.

Steps:

1. put few wraps of tying tread on at the eye of the jig hook and use superglue to secure the slotted head on. The bead shall sit as close to the eye as possible. This is why you need slotted bead.
2. make sure the tail of the fly is not too bushy as that will cause the fly to undulate rather then move in that jiggy manner. Or you need to stick on a proper big head. Use marabou or what I have recently used is chickabou feathers. The length of the tail is appr. 1.5 times the bodylength.
3. I tend not to bother with dubbing loops, so just dub the body (Ice dub from hareline is great stuff, actually any hare dubbing from hareline is great) and only split the tying thread once you are at the bead. Get some guard hair and stick them in between the split threads, twist and wind the result on to finish the fly.
4. Varnish the thread and whip finish.

Piece of advise, get yourself some decent high breaking strain thread (dyneema or the moser power silk 10/0). The price may look a bit steep for the first time but for thread splitting and applying pressure when you pull hard to finish the neck will soon prove which one is the easiest to work with.

I trust this helps. I know guys here write all sorts of things but trust me, if you want to catch perch you want jiggy flies and fairly cheap ones considering how often you snag up even with the jig hooks between rocks and roots.

As for the presentation and retrieving the fly, you need to keep the tip of the rod fairly high. Remember, you want the fly to dance up and down along the deck. The high tip will give you the nice vertical action. Also, keep the line tight to feel every bump. Short twitches will give you the right result if there are stripey creatures in your waters.

Good luck!

Pete

I occasionally go to my local coarse lake to have a few casts with a new rod or line. It's the closest water to me. I put a goldhead PTN on and catch Perch easy enough. Put two on one day about 18" apart and got them two at a time twice in 10 mins. Same two , probably .

A little bit of red in the fly seems to get them madder faster. Great fun.

They are no size but I am fishing high in the water because I'm retrieving for the next cast soon as it lands. Bet if I let it sink things would change sizewise.

Chris.

I've had a couple of Perch take my fly whilst fishing for trout and on both occasions the flies were orange fritz lures.

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are leadhead type flies any good for perch ? i have seen some other lures i like the look of but doesn't state if they are weighted ..

is it an accepted method to weigh yourself a little or are all lures already weighted..

The Fritz lures look ok but again i'm not sure if there weighted..

not sure if my thinking is correct but iv done plenty of perch/pike fishing on the spinner rod and usually on the local stretch of canal , perch are often tempted with the brighter flashier lures because of the colour of the water but on the local marina more natural coloured lures with a hint of sparkle tend to do the trick as the watre is a little clearer and shallower so i was thinking along these lines..

billy

Hi,

If you do not tie your own just buy those fritz type flies and put a split shot on the line. That will sort you.


Tight lines!

Pete

hi red bullet deceiver great fly caught perch upto 4 lb on these . river ouse . fish on floating line ,7 ft leader ,i fish river and with floating line you can fish weedy areas just under surface or let it sink will fish 3 to 4 ft down if you do slow retrieve , good luck lex