Local perch fanatics John Deprieelle and Martin Cox enjoyed a days perch fishing from the boat at Upper Tamar last week. John sent in this report to South West Lakes Trust:

‘It was a pretty windy day with high gusts and I almost called off but as it was the first warm day after a sharp frost it had to be worth a go. The water temp was really low which can make things difficult (can you hear the excuses building up?) but after an hour or so the first fish of the day was in the net. The choice of lures was a lot smaller than I would normally use and we had to switch to drop shotting on a very slow retrieve to get bites as the fish were hugging the bottom and in really deep water. After searching out most of the lake we got a slow but steady rhythm and ended the day with a bag full of small fish, lots of nips and plucks and 2 really good fish up to 3lb 6oz. A lot of effort from dawn to dusk but well worth the reward for these stunning hard fighting perch’.