A short morning session on a local commercial water produced a trio of perch for Southampton based all-rounder Matthew Fernandez.

After arriving at the lake and having a quick walk around the lake, Matthew decided to drop in a swim on the end of a warm wind in a small swim which had two snags either side of it.

He then baited each area with chopped lobworm, prawn and red maggot. Using a single king prawn on one rod and a lobworm on the other. Topping up each swim with a dozen or so maggots every few minutes to keep plenty of small bait fish in the area.

“It wasn’t long before the bobbin was slowly rising up to the blank of the right hand rod and I lifted into a hard fighting perch. After a spirited fight on my Drennan Series 7 Specialist 1.25 Avon/Quiver rod she slid over the net. The scales read 2lb 8oz, a lovely fish and a great start to the morning session. I went on to catch two more perch, one at 1lb 15oz and the other at 2lb.”

Matthew used a simple running leger rig comprising of 6lb Feeder & Method Mono with a 12″ hooklink of 6lb Supplex and a size 6 Super Specilaist Barbel hook with the barb crushed down to aid unhooking.