by The Perchfishers
edited by Peter Rogers & Steve Burke
What a fantastic book.
Written a little over twenty years ago now this book remains the most comprehensive look at perch and perch fishing currently available. Much like Falkus's "Sea Trout Fishing" or Buller's "Pike" this is the definitive work on the species. If you have anything more than a vague passing interest in perch and perch fishing then you really should have a copy of this on your bookshelf.
From an instructional point of view pretty much everything is covered. Whatever type of venue you fish you will find a chapter or two, written by an acknowledged expert, that you can relate to. Small streams, large rivers, drains, canals, lakes, ponds, gravel pits, reservoirs... you name it, it's in here. A few of the more special venures are talked about in more detail with chapters written by anglers who were fishing them at their peak. These are as follows - Arlesey Lake, the upper Great Ouse, the London reservoirs, Oulton Broad and Furnace Pond. These chapters relate stories of the golden days of perch fishing in the UK. An era we are perhaps starting to find ourselves in once again such is the cyclical nature of good perch fishing.
Then of course there are the all important chapters on tackle and techniques. Again, just about every base has been covered - livebaits, deadbaits, other natural baits, lures and flyfishing. Seeing as I am I pretty poor dead/live bait fisherman I was completely engrossed in these chapters, attempting to absorb all the information I could get. All of the technical articles in this book go into quite a lot of detail and even the most experienced angler would struggle to read through and take nothing away.
For the perchspotters amongst us there are several graphs and tables rigorously researched by Peter Rogers showing all perch over 3lbs in weight reported to the angling press between 1900 and 1988. The results are broken down in several useful and interesting ways which gives a great insight into the best baits to use and the best times of year for a big specimen. Following that is an exhaustive list of all those perch caught in the same period weighing over 4lbs. Each entry is given a few extra snippets of information such as date, name of captor, venue, bait used etc. Think Fred Buller's 'Domesday Book of Mammoth Pike' in miniature. Fascinating stuff.
As I touched upon earlier, perch populations are very cyclical in nature. This is mostly down to their susceptibility to disease. A lake's entire head of perch can often simply disappear almost overnight. Andrew Young has contributed an extensive chapter on the various diseases that perch may succumb to. Bruno Broughton and Steve Burke also write chapters on the biology and physiology of the perch. All of these chapters taught me a great deal about a subject of which I knew very little. Well worth a read.
As usual, Coch Y Bonddu normally have copies available. Expect to pay £150 - £180 for a good example. Not cheap, but this book will put far more perch in your net than that new rod and reel you've got your eye on. The perchfisher's bible.
First published by the Oxford Illustrated Press in 1990.
Click here to go back to the list of all reviews.
Written a little over twenty years ago now this book remains the most comprehensive look at perch and perch fishing currently available. Much like Falkus's "Sea Trout Fishing" or Buller's "Pike" this is the definitive work on the species. If you have anything more than a vague passing interest in perch and perch fishing then you really should have a copy of this on your bookshelf.
From an instructional point of view pretty much everything is covered. Whatever type of venue you fish you will find a chapter or two, written by an acknowledged expert, that you can relate to. Small streams, large rivers, drains, canals, lakes, ponds, gravel pits, reservoirs... you name it, it's in here. A few of the more special venures are talked about in more detail with chapters written by anglers who were fishing them at their peak. These are as follows - Arlesey Lake, the upper Great Ouse, the London reservoirs, Oulton Broad and Furnace Pond. These chapters relate stories of the golden days of perch fishing in the UK. An era we are perhaps starting to find ourselves in once again such is the cyclical nature of good perch fishing.
Then of course there are the all important chapters on tackle and techniques. Again, just about every base has been covered - livebaits, deadbaits, other natural baits, lures and flyfishing. Seeing as I am I pretty poor dead/live bait fisherman I was completely engrossed in these chapters, attempting to absorb all the information I could get. All of the technical articles in this book go into quite a lot of detail and even the most experienced angler would struggle to read through and take nothing away.
For the perchspotters amongst us there are several graphs and tables rigorously researched by Peter Rogers showing all perch over 3lbs in weight reported to the angling press between 1900 and 1988. The results are broken down in several useful and interesting ways which gives a great insight into the best baits to use and the best times of year for a big specimen. Following that is an exhaustive list of all those perch caught in the same period weighing over 4lbs. Each entry is given a few extra snippets of information such as date, name of captor, venue, bait used etc. Think Fred Buller's 'Domesday Book of Mammoth Pike' in miniature. Fascinating stuff.
As I touched upon earlier, perch populations are very cyclical in nature. This is mostly down to their susceptibility to disease. A lake's entire head of perch can often simply disappear almost overnight. Andrew Young has contributed an extensive chapter on the various diseases that perch may succumb to. Bruno Broughton and Steve Burke also write chapters on the biology and physiology of the perch. All of these chapters taught me a great deal about a subject of which I knew very little. Well worth a read.
As usual, Coch Y Bonddu normally have copies available. Expect to pay £150 - £180 for a good example. Not cheap, but this book will put far more perch in your net than that new rod and reel you've got your eye on. The perchfisher's bible.
First published by the Oxford Illustrated Press in 1990.
Click here to go back to the list of all reviews.
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