The Redfin perch is something thats been on my bucket list radar for some time now.
Since i live in Hawkes bay, perch aren't a common species for our part of the country. This is a relatively good thing since the species tends to out compete other fish in the same waterways. They only feed on baitfish when they are older, so this tends to create a weird dynamic between adults and juveniles.
Adult perch make up probably 10% of the population in the hokowhitu lagoon; where i was fishing on this day. They seem to hang around structure where they ambush their prey which is mostly smaller perch (the other 90% of the population)!
I set off in the morning with both fly and spin in hand hoping to tick one off on both methods. I began covering all the best water available, which is the deeper 1- 1.5m water. This is mostly on the far privately owned bank. Getting the lure out as far as i could became a priority. I started off with a chartruese curly tail soft plastic. I retrieved this with a very jerky hopping motion. After 2 hours of casting , i landed the lure near one of the many ropes /buoys in the lagoon (there are 3 canoe polo arenas marked by them).
After a long retrieve my lure got smoked. It was one of the few elusive adult perch living in the lake. It put up a short and stocky fight so it was easy to get into the net. It was quite the fish for my first one, being very fat and weighing over 1 kg.
I continued to cover the water and a couple of young guys joined me who were also after their first perch. We sighted a few who were hunting over the weed beds but it was a struggle to get a bite in the shallow water where we found them.
In the deepest part of the lake i found another nice perch which smacked a paddle tail this time.
The most important part was definitely the hopping action of the soft plastic jumping off the bottom. It was just interesting the lazy perch into biting.
At the far end near the outlet we were astonished to find 4 Rainbow Trout cruising! These do get stocked each year for kids fishing days. But since the lake doesn't have a heap of food or good water quality it was incredible these fish had gone at least a year of life in the lake.
They were rising taking bugs and chasing small fish too. They were particularly interested in our spinners too. But not enough to fully commit to a take. I got the fly rod out and began to pull out a few tricks that work on fussy fish. The woolly bugger was sent in first and had an immediate effect, with two hits straight away. Both went unconnected however.
The fish continued to follow all lures thrown their way. A soft hackle was sunk next and that change fooled the fish which i promptly caught and released.
The next hour was spent watching the fish cruise around without a care in the world. A tiny rabbit was selected as the next winner as a small jack fought to eat the fly over a another hen. These fish were very odd, both times i had a fish on the line other trout raced over to try and take the food from the hooked fish. Truly odd behavior.
This is easily the most urban style of fishing i have ever done. Quite odd sight fishing to trout when there are cars just metres away and million dollar houses looking over the lake from all directions. Brilliant little day and i very much enjoyed myself. Till next time.