Overview
RF4 staff members dive into the game and share their knowledge with the players. This guide was written by moderator M3dic with the intent to show players how to catch Perch at Old Burg.
Introduction
This guide was written with the intent to show players how to catch Perch in Old Burg and to share some spin fishing techniques used in the game. Please remember that in our game fish might change spots and lures over time. The spots that I will show you might not work in the future and the same goes for the lures I used. From my own experience as a player, I knew that Perch likes to bite on various lures and baits but i focused on testing various spinning techniques to catch them.
Species Overview
The Perch is one of the most widespread freshwater fish species in Europe and Russia. They’re living in rivers as well as in still water, you even can find them in brackish water and in mountain waters up to around 1000 m over sea.
Its maximum length is 50 cm, its average weight is about 1.5 kg. Large specimens weight up to 4 kg. The perch is beautifully and vividly colored: the back is dark green, flanks are greenish yellow and crossed with dark stripes. Caudal, anal and pelvic fins are scarlet, pectoral fins are yellow. There are sharp spikes on the opercula. Be careful to avoid injury. Even specimen over 60 cm are documented, but very rare. Furthermore, perch grow very slowly, with 8-10 years they are only 25 cm in size.
Activity, Habitat and Diet
Perch are not specialized regarding their habitat and are very adaptable. Perch avoid very muddy places, shallow water and prefers still water or slow flowing rivers with deep and stony substrates. In rivers, they prefer staying close to the shore. Younger specimen live in groups near the shore in shallow and feed on plankton and small soil animals. Adult specimen prefer deeper areas and usually live alone. Perch is a nimble and voracious predator. Usually its prey includes not only smaller fish (even of its own species), but also various invertebrates, e.g. crayfish, and fish roe. This makes Perch one of the best species to target with artificial lures.
Setups
I used the following two setups for catching Perch.
Location and Spots
Spot 1
Spot 2
Spot 3
Spot 4
Spot 5
Lures
I used several types of lures while fishing Perch. Here are each sort per rig used.
Jigging/Texas/Carolina
Drop Shot
Wacky
Lure/Topwater
When using Texas/Carolina rig, Drop-Shot rig, Jigging rig or Wacky rig i use a slow to medium fast Jig Step, reel speed between 15-25.
When using Spinners,Spoons or Wobblers i use them fairly fast with straight retrieves between 20-35, or twitch crankbaits on mediums speed around 20-25.
Results
Nearly all of my spots have some coverage in form of weeds, logs or other similar things, because perch like to hide around that. The other ones are some deeper areas because they go deeper as soon it gets colder.
Most of my bites, especially the big ones, bit on partly cloudy/sunny days between 18-22°C and in the evening and morning hours between 4am-8am and 5pm-10pm.
I personally would recommend using fluorocarbon leaders between 5kg-9kg since perch can be very finicky, depending on the weather.
Conclusion
Perch are fun fish to catch. You can target them with nearly every lure and bait, though weather, temperature and usage of leaders can definitely affect the outcome of your keepnet.
My focus has been mainly on spin fishing, but you can float and bottom fish as well on these spots. I will show some baits here that worked for me in the past:
I hope this guide will help you in landing that trophy perch. Tight lines!
M3dic