Craig Renwick

Each year my fishing always seems to revolve around setting myself specific targets, and this year was no different. My winter pike fishing had stopped in the middle of February due to the birth of my son when I had a couple of months off from fishing. However, after that time away from the water I had developed a furious appetite and needed to get back out and after the predators.

This year then I set myself a very big and clear target - catch a 4lb perch.

A 4lb fish is a seriously special fish. In the words of the late Richard Walker they are ‘the biggest fish of all’. I like to aim high with my targets and even if I don’t achieve them I do usually come pretty close. To be honest I’d have been happy with catching some three pounders, after all, I’d never even seen anything close to 4lb in the flesh before, so for me to actually catch my target fish was a seriously big ask.

Above: Early success with plenty of twos

I gave myself a time scale of five months, try to catch my fish before the pike fishing season started. My time frame then was from May until the end of September, and I couldn’t wait to get going.