Perch are refreshingly honest fish. They eat things that move and look like prey, they are aggressive rather than cautious, and the bait question has a short answer.
The short answer is worms. Everything else on this list is a variation on when worms are not the best choice.
Lobworms
A big lively lobworm is the best perch bait in Britain and it is not close. Perch respond to movement, and nothing wriggles like a lob.
Hook it once through the saddle so both ends move freely. Resist the instinct to thread it up the hook, which kills the movement and turns your best asset into a dead lump. Half a lob works when the fish are smaller or fussier, and a whole one is a genuine big-perch bait that also filters out some of the tiddlers.
Lobworms can be collected off a damp lawn at night for free, which makes them the best value bait in angling. Our worm fishing guide covers collection and storage.
Redworms and brandlings
Smaller, more active, and better when perch are being picky or when the average size is modest. A bunch of two or three redworms on a size 12 is an excellent match and pleasure bait for perch.
They are also tougher on the hook than a lob and survive casting better.
Maggots
Maggots catch perch constantly, mostly by accident while you are fishing for something else. As a deliberate perch bait they are a numbers approach rather than a size approach: you will catch plenty of small perch and struggle to select for a big one.
Where maggots earn their place is in building a swim. A steady trickle of maggots pulls in small fish, and small fish pull in big perch. Fishing a lobworm over a bed of maggots is a properly effective tactic. See maggots and casters.
Small deadbaits
An overlooked option for big perch specifically. A small roach or gudgeon deadbait, or a section of one, fished hard on the bottom, is a specimen tactic that filters out almost everything small.
Check the rules on the water you are fishing. Moving fish between waters is a biosecurity issue and in some places using fish as bait is restricted outright, which is worth confirming rather than assuming.
Prawns
Plain supermarket prawns catch perch and always have. They are tough, they stay on the hook, and they are large enough to be selective for better fish. On a river or a canal where perch see a lot of worms and maggots, a prawn is a genuine change of approach.
Lures, which are not bait but belong here
Any honest ranking of what catches perch has to include lures, because on many days a small soft plastic on a jig head out-fishes everything above.
Drop shotting in particular has changed perch fishing in this country, and it lets you fish vertically in exactly the sort of structure where perch sit. Our drop shot guide and spinning for perch cover it, and types of fishing lures explains the categories.
What I actually carry
A tub of lobworms, a small box of drop shot plastics, and nothing else. That covers a static approach and a mobile one, and between them they will find perch in almost any water in the country.
The species itself is covered in our perch guide.
Rob Hadley grew up fishing the rivers and drains of the Norfolk Broads, and it was inevitable that pike would become his species of choice. He’s been targeting predators seriously for over 20 years – starting on dead baits, moving through live bait rigs, and eventually landing on lure fishing as his preferred method about eight years ago.
These days he fishes the Broads through winter, travels to Chew Valley Lake each spring for its outsized fish, and spends the warmer months working soft plastics on rivers across the East Midlands for perch and zander. He’s had pike to 31lb and perch to 3lb 9oz, and reckons both records are beatable on the right day with the right set-up.
At The River Bend, Rob writes the predator species guides, lure fishing technique articles, and most of the winter fishing content.
Covers: Pike, perch, zander, lure fishing, winter fishing, predator rigs