Perch Fly

[Traditionalist]

One of my local angling clubs here in Germany has a lake which has lots of Perch in it, and they were extremely difficult to tempt. Quite a few times small aggressive Perch in the three to five inch range grabbed my fly, usually a small fish imitation of some description. The curious thing was that about every third or fourth time this happened a much larger fish rushed from nowhere at the small Perch and grabbed it greedily.

This was quite exciting, the pulls were heart stopping, but resulted in very few large Perch hooked. I tried all sorts of flies over quite a period of time, but the results were almost always the same, I either caught nothing on a particular fly, or only small Perch, which were often grabbed by their larger brethren, but unfortunately not hooked.

I read as much literature as I could find on Perch, their sight and hunting preferences, I even tied quite a few of the recommended flies, but to no avail. Quite a few of the club members thought I was mad anyway fly-fishing for Perch, this is to say the least not common here, and they all advised me to try natural bait, preferably minnows or worms. I was determined however to catch a decent Perch on the fly. I tried dozens of different patterns all with the same results, and then decided to try inventing my own. This Perch fly was the result.



Some general instructions on dressing tube flies are here;  http://www.wildfisher.co.uk/smf/index.php?topic=16636.0

The Perch fly is very simple to make. Cut off a piece of Q -tip tubing about three quarters of an inch long. Hold the ends in front of a gas lighter flame to thicken them slightly, this prevents the thread slipping off, and makes the fly last longer, push this tube onto a needle or similar, and fix this in your vice. If you have a tube fly vice use that of course !

Starting just behind the front of the tube, whip on your thread carrying it down the tube about a quarter of an inch. Then Take a small bunch of white hair ( Arctic Fox is good ) and tie it in on what will be the bottom of the tube, then take a small bunch of Guinea fowl hackle dyed blue ( small Perch have bright blue chins ! ) and tie this in over the white hair.

Then take two bunches of hot orange hair, I use dyed kid goat for this, and tie a bunch in at each side of the tube. Now take a bunch of dyed green goat or similar hair, paint some stripes on it with a black marker pen, and tie this on the top of the tube. A thin coat of varnish or glue between each bunch of hair is a good idea, this makes the fly very secure, perch have impressive teeth !

Do not build a head with the thread, whip finish now and varnish the turns of thread. Place the result on a needle stuck in foam to dry. When it is dry, take two movable dolls eyes as sold in most department stores for handicrafts and superglue ( cyanoacrylate ) them one to each side of the tube, or you can use UHU or similar glue, this is only to mount the eyes, we will fix them later with epoxy. Let this dry, and when you have a few flies finished put a drop of five minute epoxy between the eyes to fix them firmly. When all is dry place a piece of rubber tubing over the back end of the tube, this holds the hook in place for fishing.



The fly is complete ! Be careful using this type of glue, it can stick your fingers together so strongly that you have to use a scalpel to separate them ! There are lots of bait-fish you can imitate using this technique, try a couple of your own ideas. The eyes are definitely a good trigger for fry feeding fish.

I use silvered long shank hooks for this fly, thread your leader through the tube, tie the hook to your leader, and pull the hook into the rubber tube to hold it for casting etc. See the diagram, it is much clearer than a written description. You may of course use treble hooks if you wish, but I get excellent results with the singles, and there is little or no damage to the fish, which may be released unharmed. Perch are quite good to eat as well !

Fish the fly on an intermediate or sink-tip line, in a fast jerky motion with pauses in between, vary the retrieve until you find the right speed for the day. If the Perch are there you will get them.

Here is the proof of the pudding !



TL
MC