Redfin Perch report 5/06/08

[Zim man]

Hi All

Thought I would report on some recent redfin perch fishing that I did. My wife and I were in the Barossa valley last week and stayed at a little lodge. In front of the lodge was a small dam, about 100 wide by 150 metres long. The brochure said that it has redfin in it. First evening we went out and tried a few small hard bodies. The dam was jam packed with reddies. Our first 7 casts resulted in double hook ups. We fished for about 40 minutes and caught a total of 57 fish:laugh: . The biggest was about 25cm and the average was about 20cm. The farmer was well pleased with his dinner prospects and so were his cats. We stopped fishing because it was so cold that I may hands were cramping up.:S

The next morning I ventured out and in 30 minutes got another 15 fish. They were all on the same small hard bodies (damiki MU-SPs) with the water being cold, the suspending model allowed a slower presentation. I went back for breakfast and returned at around 11am. I spent another 40 minutes fishing and got another 15 fish. All the fish for the morning were around the 20cm mark. However the fishing was a little bit tougher in this session. I think that they wisened up to the lures being offered. I had yet to walk 5 metres of bank, the fish were so concentrated that there was no need to. I changed to a spinnerbait and caught a few on that, but the spinnerbait was abit to fast for them so I changed to a bitsy minnow and this being a smaller lure was nailed on every cast. The reddies swallow it right down when they hit and the little hooks and little fish make it a royal pain to remove. I stopped fishing to go in the cottage to watch resident evil. The movie soon convinced me to go out fishing again.

After the movie , I decided that I wanted to catch 100 fish for the day and seeing as though I was on 3 fish already the other 70 should be easy. I changed lures to have one rod with the damiki MU-SP and the other to have a soft plastic grub on. The grub was a 4 inch grub on a light jighead just so I could offer a slower presentation. I also tried out a larger lipless hardbody to see if I could get something bigger. First cast and I was one, then nothing after that.

The farmer bought more buckets for me to fill and I was off on my mission. The fishing was a little but harder but I still managed to catch 101 fish for the day. The grub on the slower presentation did most of the damage. I also messed around with my camera and tried to take action shots with the polarised lenses.

By now I think the farmer did not know what to do with the volume of fish, so I thought I had better call it a day:dry: . They were not big fish but on light line and with constant action, it was great fun. I was amazed at how aggressive they were despite the freezing water temps. Weatherwise, there was very little wind. The early morning was warmer than the rest of the day as a front moved over.

For the record lures used were

Damiki MU-SPs

Damiki Vault

Rocket Shad Spinnerbait 3/16oz

Diamond shad lipless hardbody 1/4oz

Strike King 3xGrub 4 inch on a TT lures jighead.

Strike King Bitsy Minnow

[img size=500]http://www.searingtackle.com.au/AFO/perch-grub.jpg

They only swallow everything, made it a tad bit irritating to get the hook out at times

[img size=500]http://www.searingtackle.com.au/AFO/perch-lipless.gif

[img size=500]http://www.searingtackle.com.au/AFO/perchmusp.gif

[img size=500]http://www.searingtackle.com.au/AFO/perchmusp4.gif

[img size=500]http://www.searingtackle.com.au/AFO/robperch.gif

me and an average size perch.

Thank you for reading

[MichaelJ]

that would be a very eventful trip congrats on all the perch

[tacklebox]

Great report Zim Man. Thanks for going into such detail about the lures you used.

p.s. I like your shirt. Master Angler indeed!

[Feral]

I hope you made it up to the missus - all that time fishing instead of pampering her whilst away!

They look just like a grunter, but with red fins!

[brisfisher]

wow,what a session!there such a good looking fish, they'd look awsome in a tank

[mangler]

Way to go mate, sounds like a ripper session there mate, definitely not too much time to be bored by the sound of it.

Cheers,

Matt

[Cowfish13]

I wish we had action like that up here:cheer:

Cheers for the report

[Aaron H]

Great session mate, and they are good eating as well, unfortunately it looks like stunting might have occurred in the dam, they breed like rabbits and that can affect the quality

[Gazza]

And just for the records are classed a vermin fish and are not to be returned to the water in Vic/Nsw and can't be kept alive (introduced spiecies)

I've been told they make great Livies for Cod not that I'd know :whistle:

They are also know as English perch

cheers Gaz

[shortie]

And they are full of bones. Not worth the hassle picking through to eat.

[STU]

Nice numbers mate and very clear pics you must have a good camera

[Gazza]

shortie wrote:

And they are full of bones. Not worth the hassle picking through to eat.

I fillet mine no bones lol

[Dinodadog]

Well done sounds like you were kept busy