Southampton’s Matthew Fernandez has been on the trail of big perch from a local stillwater.

I’ve been fishing this venue on and off since I was a young lad with my grandfather, but recently I went back to have a proper go for perch, as I knew there may be a few specimen sized fish in there.

Session after session I was catching perch around the 1lb mark, up to 1lb 14oz, I was beginning to wonder if there was anything bigger in the venue. I changed my tactics and that’s when I started getting through to some of the better fish.

On this particular session, I couldn’t keep my rigs in the water between the classic witching hour just before dark. I landed four perch and gave my partner a call to come and do the photos for me. I ended up having another four perch to 2lb before the bites completely dried up.

I fished a running rig method with two SSG shots with a size 4 Wide Gape Specialist barbed hook cast out into a dead patch of lily pads and also fished a perch Bobber float with the same hook. I used live-baited minnows on each rod; a Drennan 13ft Acolyte Plus for the float setup and my Series 7 Avon Quiver for the leger rig.