I'm not sure what qualifies as a big perch...but this guy was a fairly chunky number - caught this morning on a black and gold toby at Pupuke

 

I've seen plenty of big perch in Pupuke (best area is between Carmel and Milford Primary) whilst spearfishing.

Kereta and Ototoa have a pretty big average size

 

 

Heres a picture, coudn't get any in focus as they were quite active:

 

During the Day live baits and lures are more productive but most Big Perch Anglers just use the day as a bait catching time and concentrate their efforts to coincide with the nocturnal activitys of the big boys who have been swimming New Zealands lakes since the 1800,s reaching 12lb to 13lb.

 

 

That is a frikken horse of a Perch! Dead baits at night you say??

sbeehre wrote: arjay wrote: Cam is playing cricket all weekend - had a good frost today - hope that doesn't put the brakes on. nah Perch are one of the few coarse fish you can still catch in winter... ive been out at Hamilton lake during the middle of winter freezing my ass off and caught heaps.

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Land Behind, Fish Below, Stories Ahead!

3lb 6 oz  (as good as you can hope for out of some lakes due to over population)

 

Good luck with your future Perch hunt guys,

 Some things that have worked for us in the past and maybe worth a try for big Perch as far as baits go, the most consistent would have to be there smaller kin ,but a couple of others that are worth a shot are short sections of "Fresh"Eel about 3 inches long and the all time best one fresh water Crayfish (Koura).

To get an indication of any potential targets if you wear some good poloroids and go for a day of catching small ones between Sep- Dec (spawning time) quite often the big ones will follow the nippers in trying to fornicate with them.

Please take any advice from me with a pinch of salt as I am certainly no Perch Expert and are still trying to figure them out myself 

 

Another approach is floatfishing under small pike floats to get above the Snakes "BUT" Perch are really good at detecting any resistance and will spit a bait quickly making it less effective than a free running ledger rig in my opinion. 

 

A good picture of the running ledger rig. 

Thank you.

 

Welcome to the forum ,when you went up to Lake Ototoa last time,

 What methods were you using (flyfishing or spinning)?

 What type of lures or flys were you using?

 What time of year was it?

Some of the best spots in Ototoa are really only reachable by Boat.

 Perch are are quite an aggressive feeder and I have caught them on most of the patterns you would use for Trout in Ototoa the main food for predators up there would be Inanga,s or small fry from other fish(Perch and Rudd) so a good start would be a lure or streamer fished on a sinking line.

As far as lures go I would be looking at some of these fancy new Rubber inventions that are everywhere now.

  

 I was using Rapalas.  It was recommended by hunting and fishing.

cheers

If I was a retailer I would recomend Rapala lures as well considering their so expensive and its possible to lose a few lures in a few casts if your fishing the right spots near snags or under trees.

 In my opinion for spinning off the bank around the margins and multitudes of snags which Perch seem to love to hang out in so they can ambush their prey you get a lot more action out of rubber(unscented versions) or even your Veltic type lures , remember to take the trebles off and replace them with a single good quality hook then sweeten that hook up a bit by sliding on a few Worm sections. 

You can buy good Quality sinking dull coloured braid now not sure what you are using but if its your Flouresent floating braid that the boys use to fish washes with softbaits that could cause you problems.

A boat will open up so much more water for you in a multitude of lakes around New Zealand and is a great investment and a little electric motor is also handy if your keen to troll lures a lot of lakes have a ban on any other type of outboard .

Thank you

 

Summer time seems to be best probaly because of all the small fry around if you start getting strikes there are always more there as they like to shoal up.

Good luck let us know how you get on Lake Pupuke is also a good Perch spot and a bit closer to home.

cheers

Live baits produce the most big fish including big eels, spinning and plug baits are sucessful in clearer water, fly fishing with large sparkle nymphs works well as do mini marabou jigs. By far the most successful is paternostering with large worms in the holes in the weed jungle or under the old man willows. Look for water with steady flow, a clean bottom and with a depth of 5 to 6 ft. Drop the rig in and wait no more than 5 minutes before moving on. Sometimes a couple of feet is enough to find a fish. Don't forget the big boys are usually loners having out lived their shoal members or eaten them. The best paternoster rig I find is a long link running ledger, aim to get the bait an inch or two above the bottom and on feeling the bite slacken off by dropping the rod tip, when the fish is felt lift into it. Big perch take their time on a sure meal like a static worm so do not hurry the strike!

Good luck, specimen perch are well worth while and big baits help to target the big boys.

What a nice Perch you caught there mate from your kayak was it on a lure or bait?

 

 

Trotting for Perch with a lobworm on frosty morning great fun on the pin.

Big Stripey 4 lb,1oz ,  they are out there.

When you take into account that the fish is probably about four times the width of the guy's wrist long, it'd be, what, ~32cm long? That is a good photo, makes it look like a pretty big fish.

 

Hope you've got some kind of permit for that.

 

Herbys right not quite legal what you did there mate transfering any Freshwater fish even Sports fish is a big No ,No.

 

i do it all over the place collecting all the tadpoles etc i can from ditches streams etc and those small guppy things( Gambusia?).Didnt think there was any real harm in it..

 

( Last time i had the kids helping and they collected about 20-30 2 inch long catfish but had no idea in the mucked up water what they had caught for me until i had already arrived home.First time i had ever caught or seen them..cat ate them all except for 2 i have kept for novelty purposes)

We met a gentleman one day by the name of Mr Smith who asked us to help him catch some perch so he could take to his place to breed and stock other lakes. We thought this was a great idea and good fun. Many years later it turns out this man was a real pain in the neck for fish and game due his habit of introducing either noxious or unwanted fish into waterway all over the

Northern North Island. He was even prosecuted for it a couple of times I think.

There are plenty of good reason why fresh water fish should not be transferred from place to place such as predation on existing native fish, competion for (limited) food/ prey resources, degradation of water ways etc.  There are also some pretty heavy fines for doing so.

Am not sure on the regulations regarding non native tadpoles and frogs though needless to say these critters are really suffering in urban areas due to decline in water quality and pollutants etc.

 These days I dont fish for coarse fish as there are so many other fish to catch in so many places that the often suburban environs that coarse fish are found in just dont appeal. I did however try to catch tench on a fly a couple of years ago but after many refusals dug up a worm and caught it with that.

 Coarse fishing is a great way of getting young people in to the game of fishing though.

 Has any one caught a koi on a fly?this is on my to do list.

 We used to catch a lot of carp (more likly goldfish) as kids. They used to congregate and spawn under the road bridge where the outlet to the lake is or was by Innes Common. Largest was maybe 500gm, 99% olive green colour with only the odd orange/ black one. We only ever caught a couple on worms and that was in the stream that followed from the lake outlet.

Tench were not introducwed into the lake before I moved away.

My father caught one that was 6lbs - huge it was.

This was in Canterbury.

Seen one that was about 4lbs in Lake Dunstan  - it followed my spinner in -saw me and took off.

I was so surprised as I didn't know that they were in there.

Funnest thing I ever saw was Dad trying to scale a perch - we finally worked out how

to skin them - very nice and tasty !

There are perch in the old Warkworth Limeworks pond. You have to pay for entry and lots of kids swim in it . There used to be some big perch in there, but not sure of its status these days. You might want to talk to Dave Cooper at MTI in Warkworth. They have done some work with the aquaculture of perch and may know of populations in that area.

Most of Northland is devoid of perch and the populations that do exist are generally full of stunted individuals. The species seems to do best in the deep south where there are hard winters.

Hope this helps.

 

@ Atiamuri we catch them within yell of the boat ramp off moana ave.

Wow! A big one perch. Perch is my favorite fish.

What is your choice?

Did you bring a 30cm ruler? And where did you catch it?

As a matter of fact, I caught a 32cm perch at Sylvan park on a paddle tail softbait.

Now that's what I call big!