Lee McManus 4lb 12oz Perch

When you look into almost any angling textbook, you’ll read all about using ultra low resistance rigs for perch. But when fishing at range on a 160-acre stillwater, Leicester angler Lee McManus had to take a leaf out the carp angler’s book to tempt this 4lb 12oz stunner.

After feeding chopped worm and caster in balls of groundbait, to ensure the bait hit the deck in 17ft of water and heavy flow, Lee fished one-inch sections of worm on size 7 hooks, short 8lb fluorocarbon hooklinks, and 3oz leads to create a bolt-rig to ensure the fish hooked themselves. He admits he’d rather use a full worm hookbait, but the small segment is a necessity to create the self-hooking effect. The result of this rig is carp-like runs, with this fish tearing off at a rate of knots. As soon as Lee lifted the rod, he knew he’d hooked something heavy as it shook its head in the deep water.

Well done Lee!