Monday 17 October 2011

Successfully testing perch flies

Pike fishing isn’t really working well lately, but in this one water I always have lots of perch following my pike streamer. So I figured, why not go fishing for perch, for a change. So last night I came up with these little creatures and this morning I went out to test them.


Actually it was a double test, since I received this 5 weight ‘glass’ line to test from Fario Jan (still my favourite fly-shop).

 
So this was my setup: my favourite 5 weight (Guideline Fario), a ‘glass’ line on the reel and a 2,5 m leader of 20/00 fluorocarbon (maybe a bit heavy for perch, but there's a lot of zander swimming around in this water as well, so I didn’t want to take the risk).





 



And I was in for a big surprise!




This was my first cast of the day. At first I thought I was just lucky, but I missed a fish on my second cast and caught another fish on my third cast.
And it just went on and on…



 




This turned out to be the killer colour combination (olive/green).


I’ve fished for about two hours, and caught more than 40 perch!

 









Most of them in this size (20 to 25 cm), but there were a couple above 30 cm as well.







This next picture was taken by a guy who passed on his bike and stopped to see what I was doing, which was very amusing actually:

 


















“Man”, he said, “I fish here myself with lures and spinners, and from time to time I catch a perch, sometimes even a pike or a zander, but what you’re doing is something I have never witnessed before. How do you do that?”
I didn’t say that I probably hit the right spot at the right time (maybe not very nice of me, but I couldn’t resist), so I just said to him: “that’s fly-fishing man, and this is how you do it”. After which I cast my fly, let the line sink for a few seconds, started stripping and hooked this beauty. You should have seen the look on his face!

Either way, I think my test was a success, flies ok and line ok,

and… A LOT OF FUN!



5 comments:

Jeff said...

Those are nice little flies. I'll have to try them on the local panfish.

e.m.b. said...

Perch are really such a lovely fish...what a great time! And you've probably converted another one to our ranks! :) I've found that green/chartreuse combination to work the best on perch (bluegill and bass too) over here as well.

David Romanillos said...

Hello Stefaan, these flies look good ..., and I see that work well.
I really like the look of that river/canal. (For pikes)
Greetings.

Piketeaser said...

Have to say that the Fario rod is a beauty.
Those hooks looks interesting.
I have never tried to fly fish pearch but it looks effective,at least with right flies :).

-Djuza-

the lonsome piker said...

Jeff, thanks! We don’t have any panfish over here, so I guess you’ll just have to try them out.

Erin, I doubt that I have converted somebody. In this part of our country, fly fishermen are still a rare sight, and by the way he looked at it, I don’t think he will be buying a fly rod very soon.

David, thanks! And you’re right, this canal usually is a good place for pike, but not at the moment.

Hello Djuza! I have fished with that Guideline Fario the entire summer, and I’ve enjoyed every second of it, that truly is a fantastic rod (and yes it looks good as well).
And the hooks I’ve used are Gamakatsu LS-3113R (in this case a size 1).