Hunting for redfin VICTORIA
Angus James
The beautiful redfin, also known as English perch, are an absolutely stunning looking fish. Redfin are marked with up to six dark bands along their dark to pale green body. As the
in at 10kg. In Australia finding perch over the 40cm mark is considered a great fish and landing one at 50cm is a trophy catch. Due to their superb angling and eating qualities English perch where introduced into Australia around the 1860s. Reddies thrive in the Australian conditions and inhabit many of
predatory nature and almost flawless spawning cycles. This begins to take place when water temperatures reach around 12ºC. These perch produce thousands of eggs on freshwater plants, with larvae hatching in two weeks to form extremely large schools. Redfin are a super aggressive carnivorous species, and for this reason they are great fun to target on a wide range of lures and will take everything from spinners, soft plastics and hardbodied lures. Basically, anything they can fit in their mouth! This makes them perfect for kids getting into lure fishing and, like myself growing up in the southern part of the country, often the very first freshwater species ever caught on a lure. These fish can ignite that first spark that develops into a
Kayak fishing allows you to sneak into hard to reach habitats.
Golden hour – the last hour before darkness is the perfect time to catch redfin. name suggests redfin have beautiful vibrant red fins and tail. Like most perch species they have a deep body and can grow to impressive sizes. They have even been known to grow up to a whopping 60cm in length and weighing
the cooler parts of our country including Tasmania, Victoria, NSW, South Australia and even southern parts of Western Australia. These fish can live for over 20 years and often put pressure on native species because of their aggressive
The author hooked into a big perch while working the shallows.
The author’s favourite big redfin combination. ZMan Baby GOAT rigged on a TT jighead attached to a Jig Spinner. 8 MAY 2023
A fat winter redfin.
passion for fishing, and fond memories of time spent in the great outdoors. Redfin are also up there with some of the best tasting fish you can eat. It’s not hard to see why many anglers down this way are extremely happy to have this impressive looking species in our waters, especially our artificial impoundments. I feel extremely privileged to be living in Victoria because it gives me the opportunity to explore and fish many of the great waterways in close proximity, and a lot of the water down this way is the best big redfin water in the country, holding some incredible XL redfin. I absolutely love targeting them. It requires a lot of time on the water and a certain skill to find the big ones, but it’s worth it. Places like Lake Fyans, Lake Wendouree, and Lake Wallace, just to name a few, are some examples of the locations to hunt those bigger models that lurk beneath. Catching redfin can be an easy exercise on artificial
