One of Britain’s biggest-ever river perch, weighing 5lb 11oz, has been landed from the Thames in Berkshire by 15-year-old George Lovell.
He tempted the beast on a three-inch Keitech Easy Shiner Lure, presented on a Texas rig.
It’s just 8oz off the current record, shared by Neill Stephen and Ken Brown, but even more impressive is that it’s a summer fish, way below its peak weight. Come the end of the season, it could well be pushing the 6lb 3oz joint best.
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George, who’s had perch to over 4lb in the past, was fishing with his dad, Ben, at the time of the capture. The pair had been casting alongside moored boats and structure, catching plenty of small fish, before moving upstream to a spot where they’d had some earlier success.
George slowly bumped his lure along the bottom in the flow, letting it swing round to the nearside ledge. As it settled, he felt a small pluck before everything went solid, and initially he reckoned he was snagged. But when the ‘snag’ swam out to the middle of the river and a huge flank flashed beneath the surface, George instantly knew he’d hooked something truly memorable.
It fought hard, but eventually his dad safely netted the fish, which was in a different league to any perch the pair had ever seen before.
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