The Traditional Fisherman's Forum

I always crush them down for perch and chub, there's nothing worse than trying to remove a small barbed treble from a greedy perch. Might I advise not using any old fixed spool reel! The place Martin mentioned also sometimes sell ultra- lite fixed spool reels. Balanced tackle is especially key for this approach and really does help catch! MD when it comes to ultra-lite plugs like Rapalas and Salmos they may cost more but the run true and so will easily out fish cheaper versions. But I do agree that lures catch more anglers than fish!

Martin - Just the one point then

I agree with BigFish in that cheap lures are nearly always inferior in performance to those made by reputable firms. But you don't always need to break the bank on a Rapala, simple spinners even the humble mackerel spinner can be effective and a Big S type lure in small and large sizes are excellent for perch of all sizes. Also, the rubber worms and shads are relatively cheap but will get you plenty of takes.

I agree Dave, can't beat small plastic shads and worms for a cheap yet very affective lure!

I have been using Manns shads from Sovereign Super Baits but do like the Kopytu ones.

Buried a 1/0 treble into my shin past the barb with the aid of a power drill once, straight through my trousers. Turns out your skin is pretty tough when your forced to pop the hook point through with pliers so you can cut the hook on the bend and feed it through.

On my dedicated perch outfit. 5-3.5g I use spiderwire ultracast invisibraid in 6lb on my ultralight 2-12g outfit I use spiderwire red in 15lb I've used the cheaper stuff that's flooded eBay the pp dyneema stuff from China that costs about £6 and it's perfectly fine I had no issues with it and had a couple of seasons use before replacing it.

Power Pro is a long established highly recommended lure braid though. Alan at AGM often has pp in stock

I bought about 100+ small shads for £5 about 20 years ago before they became popular. Do'nt know what make they are but they always catch! Best colour I have are sparkly orange! Best used this time of year on a small jig head. Best retrieved really slowly; if you cannot feel the bottom tapping you're retrieving too fast.

about 5 years ago I bought "A Bucket o' Bait" from Harris angling.... it contained over a hundred jelly lures of various sizes... a lot of them were small jellies with jigheads, I have caught Pike on the larger lures, but I never used the smaller ones.... Till now... I have sorted out the smaller jellies and the jigheads and I've got some of the Berkley powerbait perch baits, so I'll give that lot a go first before I start buying shedloads more...

As it happens, on the advice of a friend, I bought some bits and pieces for perch from AGM last week. Outstanding service, and great prices. - ordered Thursday morning, got an e-mail on Thursday evening to say the order had been dispatched, and that Allan had managed to save a bit on the postage! It arrived Friday morning. It was my first time using them, and I'll certainly be back. Just need some time to actually get out fishing...

He always refunds a few pence on the postage a genuine honest chap, you couldn't ask for a better service

Got a Shimano Alivio 4000 this morning (balances the rod perfectly) and a pair of Mustad long nosed pliers for any unhooking situations (he said hopefully... )
unable to source a suitable braid or Drennan Soft Strand, then found out one of the better local Tackle Shops (Trent Tackle) has gone to the wall