John Bailey – The Kingfisher Diaries
May 23rd 2013
Perch on the Wane
I'd like some feedback on this. I'm very well aware there are still good perch indeed on the Kingfisher complex. I'm still seeing fish around two and three pounds in weight but I'm just beginning to wonder if the really big, big fish of a year or two ago have succumbed. What's more, some of the threes have looked distinctly tired.
The good news is that there are plenty of new, mint-fresh small perch coming through. The Lobster Pot if full of them at the moment, for example. This is often the way with perch populations. They boom and then they bust. You get these periods of massive fish followed by a lull while the small ones grow on.
Or I could be wrong. I've got a feeling that one of my guys lost a very, very big perch just a few days back. We only saw it very briefly, deep down in murky water but it was a perch and a large one. There are still mysteries without doubt.