As I have mentioned before, I do quite a lot of work with schools in Slough and most of this is with total beginners, one such lad, Bilal, made the Anglers Mail with a perch he caught on his first lesson with me. He was fishing with a five metre whip without elastic, two and three quarter pound hook length and a size sixteen hook with two red maggots. The venue was one of my new favourites, Royal Berkshire Fisheries at Windsor that I have been visiting a lot over the last eighteen months. It has plenty of small fish and is very close to Slough.

It was the first time he had ever held a rod yet on his first cast he hooked this fish and bullied it to the surface and screamed for me as he dragged it across the top. I saw the size of it, grabbed the nearby landing net and scooped it up before it realised it was hooked. It weighed three pounds three ounces.

Three pound three ounce perch

He looks justifiably pleased but I think it may be sometime before he realises just how lucky he was.

Keith Arthur was also kind enough to give this catch a mention on his Sky Sports programme Tight Lines.

If you'd like to leave a comment on this post, here's how.