Jeffas Jefferys started The Outback UK Youtube channel by making videos for his younger brother and sister. Using only a GoPro and a phone for filming & editing he created one of the most engaging UK YouTube channels for lure fishing (just check out the comments section on his videos!). Westin have now snapped him up as a new brand ambassador: Check out Links and photos of GIANT urban perch below the video...
Jeffas' Big Perch Gallery
You can check out Jeffas' channel by clicking here.
One of the videos to really blow up in the first year of The Outback UK channel being launched was about a trip in search of pike. Fishing with a heavy rod (rated for casting up to 180-g lures) and a selection of BIG hard-baits, Jeffas couldn't believe it when a pod of GIANT urban perch followed his lure in...
I got my words tangled in the interview above when I asked about "80-mm baits", when I meant "80-gram" baits - and Jeffas confirmed they measure 160mm long. That's about 6.5 inches in length - and a really big bait for targeting UK perch. All photos in this gallery are from Jeffas' personal collection and come from just a small handful of trips in the winter of 2019/2020.
Another big perch on Westin Gear: A range of impressive fish feature on the Westin Homepage (photo: J Jefferys)
Primal Predator: Impressive example of the UK's equivalent to specimen bass (photo: J Jefferys)
Another FAT perch on a big hard-bait (photo: J Jefferys)
This is the 16-cm bait Jeffas holds up against his hand in the interview (photo: J Jefferys)
A slightly smaller jerkbait (Berkley Juke) to account for a wider size-range of perch (photo: J Jefferys)
The Outback UK: International Lure Fishing Tactics
On the Fishing Discoveries site you'll keep coming across the idea of "joining the dots" between all different kinds of fishing in order to become a better angler. It's one of our central philosophies - understand different techniques and "cross-train" to improve.
In our chat, Jeffas mentions the adoption of the bass-fishing rigs and techniques that are decades ahead of where a lot of our lure fishing thinking in the UK has been until recently. He also mentions another important factor - taking those "foreign" ideas and experimenting on your own fish and fisheries with them. The folks who are quick to say "that's wrong" or who try to make out that it's all been done before (and therefore worthless) might just end up eating their words.
I know there are some very keen pockets of anglers in the USA experimenting with BFS. However, Jeffas is right to say that there seems to be a bit more of a ground-swell of interest in the UK for that particular Japanese import. That being said, If you're on Facebook and are interested - as well as the more obvious search terms - you might want to check out the Headwaters group.
This is an American group with multiple Japanese (and international) contributors based around fishing the kinds of headwater streams where BFS was developed. Several fishing styles are covered, but lots of attention is also placed on the attitude towards/appreciation of the streams - which is an important part of understanding BFS.
Future Quests (and possible joint-expeditions)
As I mention in our chat, I'm absolutely desperate to catch a variety of fish on the antique baitcasting rod (Pflueger Acehi) and reel (Pflueger Summit). My dad saved that Amercan baitcasting outfit in the early 1980s when my grandfather died.
The Plueger Summit reel that my dad saved for my and the anglers in my family
The catalogues owned by my granddad suggest that the combo is probably around 80 years old. I'm always amazed that a bass-fishing, baitcasting rig from the USA ended up in the industrial North West of England in the years around World War II. There can't have been too many of those in George Orwell country at that time!
My dad saved it for me, my brother and my nephews who all fish - so he, has never actually used it himself.
The first time I ran into Jeffas I had just finished repairing and refurbishing the reel (I wasn't at all sure that it would cast again when I first got hold of it). However, that short session right on the last day of the coarse fishing season wasn't a lucky one for me - and then the COVID-19 lockdown happened...
One ambition is to have my dad hook up on a fish using that kit - given that he saved it for around 40 years without using it. As I write this, my dad is in his 80s and I think that I might need to help with the casting a bit. There's no braking system - as the anti-backlash pressure-dial no longer works. In short, it is NOT easy to cast - but is sure has "soul".
As far as this article goes though, I'd like to imagine that there could be a fun challenge that The Outback UK could set me to try to complete with this rig. We might both get an episode each out of that for our YouTube channels!
Your Comments and Questions for The Outback UK
Let me know what you would have wanted to ask Jeffas and, if it's a great question perhaps I can get an answer over future messaging and conversation.
One thing that I won't ask him to reveal is the specific locations of his various videos and fish captures. It's one of those things that, if you know, you know. Please respect the legwork and research Jeffas and other predator anglers do in order to discover potential spots by not actively shouting about individual "hot-spotted" locations.
Also, your thoughts on one of the (still pretty rare) branches of fishing that seems to have a ground-swell of younger anglers joining the ranks.
Paul
Hi Paul.
You were wondering how that American bait caster ended up in the north of England. Jock Scott’s spinning up to date has a lot of material about using them for salmon, it was published in the 30’s or 40’s I think. He seemed to love them.
I find all that kind of thing fascinating and I do wish I had more time to follow up on all the different stories and history of classic gear…
Paul