Perch a plenty, but it's "no Trent Park"

 

"You're hoping to find a new Trent Park, aren't you?" said the voice on the other end of the phone. Sometimes my brother is uncannily perceptive, but then we've known each other for over 40 years and fished together for over 30. For 3 years I lived in North London, and my brother at the time was in Essex and we used to lure fish a Country Park near Southgate called Trent Park. A small, pretty lake it was home to hoards of voracious jack pike who liked nothing better than to chase a lure. It was "fun fishing" at its most fun-like, a place where it was harder to blank than to catch, and so when I informed my brother that I'd heard there were some pike in a small (probably about 2 acre) pond studded with lilly pads in a Country Park near my Leicester home it was a natural inference for him to draw. John Gierach once wrote an essay about a small stream near his home entitled "I'd fish anyone's St Vrain" - I'd fish anyone's Trent Park.

 

I arrived at the lake at about 9:30am, and for an hour flung a range of plugs (soft plastics, shallow divers, deep divers and jointed efforts) into the pond, but without any follows, splashes or signs of any esox related interest. To be fair, my research had only produced tentative answers; the (non-fishing) Country park staff had informed me that there were pike in the Lilly Pond, but they didn't know how many, or how big. Fortunately, I had a "plan B".

 

Behind the Country Park is a stretch of canal that I've perch fished on several occasions, and so an hour in to the session, and with the autumnal day turning distinctly "summery", I decided to "cut my losses" and spend a couple of hours spinning on the canal. Fortunately, I'd brought along a few small spinners as a contingency.

 

After an inauspicious start (which involved losing my favourite Rublex Ondex), and a fishless half hour, I decided to concentrate on bridges (my favourite spots for perch fishing on canals), and on my first cast at the first bridge I caught my first perch, a lively fellow that took a liking to a fluo coloured Mepps Aglia.

 Things, were looking up. Two more perch followed from the same swim before my Mepps Aglia went the same way as the Ondex, snagged on some unseen debris.

 I moved to another bridge about a quarter of a mile away, and rapidly caught another three perch, this time on a Mepps Black Fury.

 

 

 

 

 The canal here is not the typical town centre cliché (graffiti daubed concrete, shopping trollies and random bank walking drug users), but is an attractive rural setting, and if golf is a "good walk ruined", spinning for perch on this stretch of canal is a "good walk enhanced". I fished on, watched by a herd of cows on the far bank, before returning to the first bridge.
With 6 perch on the bank, I decided to walk back to the original bridge for a few last casts before heading for home. The Black Fury continued to find favour with the perch, and another 4 were added to bring the day's total to a pleasing 10 fish. Although none of the perch were big, and despite the fact that I could probably have caught 3 or 4 times as many in the timeframe if I'd used maggots and a pole or waggler, the fact is spinning for perch is beyond doubt the most enjoyable way to fish for this plucky and prettiest of British fish.

 

A pleasant day's fishing, but the search for the "new Trent Park" continues ...

 

 

A pike from "back in the day" from Trent Park.