stories about perch
The angler chases a fish that—despite numerous close calls—has somehow remained out of his grasp for 40 years. Unseasonable weather and downright bad luck play their part as he follows rumours and advice, journeying far and wide but somehow always falling short, then an old friend comes to the rescue. As the light fades on …
Kevin Parr fishes a favourite swim for roach, dace, chub and perch, under the scrutiny of a ravenous pike, and is distracted from his task by the tea-making genius of Chris Yates.
From the Gloaming – Fishing the Test for dace, roach and perch For our latest film, we join Kev Parr on the banks of the River Test on a dank, grey late-autumn day, as he fishes for dace, roach and perch. Created by Nick Fallowfield-Cooper, the film offers a lyrical look at a landscape that …
Fallon’s Angler goes in search of a 2lb perch on the river Kennet with Kev Parr. Kev talks about his return to Aldermaston Mill after a long break and reflects on the river and the fishing while catching some winter chub and perch. A film by Nick Fallowfield-Cooper.
I rather limped to the end of my coarse fishing season. The rains swelled the rivers (I didn’t fish the Dorset Stour once all season) and the late-winter perch bonanza failed to materialise. There were a couple of finned flurries from the lake I had been visiting throughout the winter. Matt managed a …
December bustled in with its usual tinsel-edged blur; a flurry of fairy lights and fake snow, sentimentalism and overindulgence. Festive smiles seem ever more forced though. Money is tight and political uncertainty, no matter where you sit, does little to inspire the notion of fun. It can be a tough period for the self-employed. As …
Parr’s Diary – December 2018 – History Repeating Read More »
I have always been guilty of ignoring what is on my doorstep, convincing myself that I must travel to make the best of my fishing, that the far bank will always hold more fish than the water beneath my feet. This came in part from growing up in mid-Hampshire, where anglers came to cast dry-flies …
Sometimes, change is so gradual that we don’t notice it until we sit back and reflect. So subtle are the shifts, that subconsciously we accept the new as the original. The baseline moves – and unless we get a rude awakening we don’t notice the lack of chaffinches in the garden, or hair on the …
The autumn equinox is one of the loveliest times of the year, with soft days sandwiched between dew-drenched mornings and slow pink sunsets. Yet there is also a curious sense of poignancy, stirred by the end of summer, with a shift from light to dark and the quiet of the air. The fishing though, can …
I dug out the lawnmower at the weekend, lifted the blade as high as it would go, and lurched it around the garden. After an hour of hacking, there was a vague improvement, but the mower wasn’t happy and the cuttings were clinging to the mechanism like limpets on a rock. The problem came not …
For Fallon’s Angler issue 12, Kevin Parr takes the Fallon’s Angler team back to an old haunt, Aldermaston Mill on the river Kennet, in the search for a 2lb perch. To purchase Fallon’s Angler 12, click here:
There is a healthy sprinkle of salt in my father’s bones. He wasn’t born beside the sea, but his family moved to Swanage after the Second World War and he spent his formative years exploring the cliffs and coves of the Purbeck coast. It made for quite a contrast to the shell-shocked suburb of north-west …
It has been a little while coming, but this morning brought the first frost of the autumn—with October almost over. The air had a clean, sweet edge that I could even taste from the warmth of my duvet, and as I look out of the window now (just after midday) there is a quality to …
Parr’s Diary – October 2017. The start of the perch season… Read More »
Growing up among the chalk stream sparkle of central Hampshire left me with a slightly distorted view of river life. The Itchen and her tributaries changed little across the seasons. They would invariably run clear, the weedbeds seemed rarely to thin and the trout could always be found in their usual lies. On rare occasions …
Parr’s Diary – September 2017. Back on the Dorset Stour… Read More »
There is an intoxicating intensity to the final fortnight of the coarse season that is quite unlike any other part of my angling year. Winter is ceding ground to spring, celandines are dotting the banks and verges, and the fishing can be spectacular. There is proper warmth in the sun, though the wind retains a …
Festive television is invariably underwhelming. Full of re-makes, repeats and Christmas ‘specials’ that make you smile, but only because the excess of port and stilton has left you mildly stupefied. I did watch Charlie Brooker’s 2016 Wipe last evening though, and it certainly didn’t disappoint. Mind you, the past twelve months have delivered plenty of …
I went for a walk yesterday afternoon on my local patch. It was only a few degrees above freezing, but I had in mind that the sunshine might have tempted an adder out. I may have been proved right, but left it half an hour too late. The south facing bank where I had hoped …
I have long entertained a penchant for old fishing tackle. Collecting it was a hobby of my late father’s, though as a determined wordsmith, he was mainly interested in rare fishing books. Nevertheless, his office was stuffed with all manner of angling ephemera, mostly gathered from house auctions that proliferated the Irish midlands in those …
Of a certain vintage: drop shotting with split cane Read More »
I have always had a peculiar relationship with the Dorset Stour. A couple of visits as a child and teenager offered me a river full of mystery and intrigue, but after a long period of barbel obsession (that had a distinct chalk stream edge) I struggled to understand the Stour when I returned to her …
Richard Walker once described the perch (Perca fluviatili) as the biggest fish of all. Not in the literal sense, of course – that would be silly – but anyone fortunate enough to see a fish of 3lb or more in the flesh will understand his sentiment. In Africa, however, there swims a perch that would …
“Come on son. We’re gowan to ketch a perch,” sez he. I was too young to shave and still at an age when I thought girls were pointless and as annoying as acne. But I followed him like a puppy, yapping at his heels in joy. We approached the old stone bridge that crossed a …
Having grown up in East London, Matthew Minter escaped the fug of the city and today enjoys the bracing air of the Kent Coast where he lives with wife Alison and son Jacob. Though he makes an occasional local cast into the North Sea, Matthew’s fishing interest spreads across a variety of disciplines and methods, …
There comes a time each year, when the air thins and leaves flutter from the branches without any breeze to prompt them, that we anglers begin to see stripes. If the salmon is a fish of spring and the tench of early summer, then now, at autumn’s end, is the time for perch. The …
Why is it that we spend so much of our lives running, when really all we’d like to do is walk? We have a propensity to complicate our days, rush through them, fill them with activity, purpose, goals and achievements. But does it actually get us anywhere? Do we actually know where it is …
“It has long been an axiom of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important.” Arthur Conan Doyle, The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes Actress and bishop jokes aside, it is healthy to occasionally ignore the brutish force of the colossal for the intimate pleasure of the small. As as with the best …
Regarded by his peers as one of the finest wildlife filmmakers ever, Hugh Miles has had an extraordinary career that has taken him from filming condors in the Andes to polar bears in the arctic and snow leopards in the Himalayas. He has come within inches of tigers and jaguars in the search for the …
Many modern angling guides offer the chance to catch big fish with little fuss. Using modern techniques and baits and fishing venues with a proven pedigree. At River Days, things are a little different. Under the guidance of Steve Roberts (see People we Like) we can still expect a fish or two for our money, …
The River Test perks the ear of any angler. My late father would often talk about it in exalted tones, referring to its glorious brown trout. In later years, I learned of its grayling, and as my circle of angling interests widened, its big roach and dace. To have the chance to fish it was …
For as long as I’ve fished, I’ve wanted to catch a big perch. I caught a lot of stripeys when I was young, from the rivers and canals around my home in Ireland, but they were all small fish, with nothing much over a pound. The closest I came to snaffling a monster was finding …
The Royal Canal in Ireland was a white elephant. It had been built by an over-zealous entrepreneur who intended it to compete against the nearby Grand Canal, but it went disastrously over-budget and he was nearly broke by the time it was completed. Then the railway came to Ireland and didn’t so much eat into …
