When I have, all I've had trotting while is small chub, roach and dace, although laying on with red maggots in a weir pool has produced many good perch around a pound or more.

Other anglers say they've had some decent perch from various river venues so it's nice to see them back.

Many lakes are showing good perch this year although I don't usually fish for them.

But when I heard that a Paxmans AC lake was producing specimens of two pounds, I thought I'd try to get one. My best perch in the past was a two-and-a-half-pounder, which is a decent fish.

I set off with a tub of large lobworms and a box of dead maggots.

When friends said they had dead maggots I thought it was because they hadn't looked after them and the maggots had got old and past their sell-by date.

However, I was tipped off that by putting them in the freezer for a couple of days and using them as feed, when thrown in the maggots lay on the bottom instead of burying themselves into the silt – and perch love them!

I set up with a 6lb line on a centre pin reel, with a size 10 hook and cast my float alongside a partly submerged bush.

I'd not long to wait when my float moved off and I struck into a good fish.

I thought I'd hooked a carp as it felt very heavy and took some holding. After a while it went into the bush and my line went dead just like a big chub does when it sheds your hook and leaves your tackle caught up in a tree root.

I tried an old trick of loosening my line, putting my rod in the rest and pouring out a cup of tea and waiting. After a while to my good luck the fish moved out into clear water and I held on tight eventually getting it into my landing net.

I'd caught my best perch – 3lb 1oz – and what a beauty it looked.

After several other good perch and a bream of five and a half pounds I went home pleased with a day's session.

Much to my carp angling friends' disgust, I love catching bream and boy, have the bream been showing on two lakes that I fish?

One is a CAPS lake near Pebmarsh and another the Paxmans reservoir near Ardleigh.

Fishing a quivertip with a feeder of groundbait and small trout pellets, I catapult out some 10ml boilies and use a small boilie on a hair-rig.

I've had no end of bream, some up to six pounds, and some big roach too, no matter what the weather has thrown at me.

These lakes are fishing superbly and membership permits for CAPS and Paxmans are available from tackle shops.