A nice golden perch taken on Koolabung blade.

The arrival of the heat has kick started a great run of fishing action in most of our local waters. Golden perch are on the chew and anglers are cashing in on the bounty with numerous reports of fish to 4kg and better. Golden perch will often congregate in larger numbers during the spawning run, making them a vulnerable if not easy target in some areas. Most anglers are opting to use lures with smaller models proving most successful. Blades have become a prime lure choice and their silent sleek appearance gives off the same instinctive patterns as many small natural bait fishes. Worked in a lift, drop technique either on the cast or vertically from a boat they are proving very effective.
It seems this season anglers are willingly embracing and exploring new ideas as they strive to increase personal milestones. Few if any artificial presentation has the ability to look as natural as a well presented plastic and anglers astute to this fact are homing in on the next best kept secret in freshwater fishing. With a huge variety on the market, there are heaps to choose from but for my choice some of the new scented hollow bellied models are first rate. The new 3 and 5 inch split tail in the Tsunami pro range are deadly when fished in a dead stick manner on a light jig head. Twitched around the heads of snags or along the edges of weed beds these lures are rarely ignored for long with most predatory fish unable to resist their erratic action.  Other than the real thing, nothing looks more like a wounded minnow than these lures when kicked into gear.