Catch fish with Mike Ladle.

Catch Fish with
Mike Ladle

Information Page

SEA FISHING

For anyone unfamiliar with the site always check the FRESHWATER, SALTWATER and TACK-TICS pages. The Saltwater page now extends back as a record of over several years of (mostly) sea fishing and may be a useful guide as to when to fish. The Freshwater stuff is also up to date now. I keep adding to both. These pages are effectively my diary and the latest will usually be about fishing in the previous day or two. As you see I also add the odd piece from my friends and correspondents if I've not been doing much. The Tactics pages which are chiefly 'how I do it' plus a bit of science are also updated regularly and (I think) worth a read (the earlier ones are mostly tackle and 'how to do it' stuff).

26 September 2006

Popping.

On Saturday the weather was a bit rough. Ben and I went down to the Purbeck coast at dawn in search of bass. We caught nothing although my pals Lee, Jon and RIchard who also turned up, had a fish or two (on shads, poppers and spoons) fishing in heavy surf on the rocks. To give you some idea what it was like Lee was knocked over by the waves (slippy rocks) and filled his chesties with water. I cocked up the pictures by setting my new camera wrongly (I should read the manual) so no record of the events.

This morning I went to a spot sheltered from the west (offshore wind) to try the popper for an hour. For the first twenty minutes it was dark and I didn't have a bite, then the fish came on.

As I was retrieving the lure close to the ledge (but some distance from where I stood) the was a splosh and a tug but nothing on the end. Next cast I repeated the procedure exactly. On the third cast I hooked and landed a small bass. It's a good job that bass fight shallow because it was dead low water and the kelp was breaking the surface. I took one or two pictures and cast again. In the next few casts I missed a couple more bites and landed another schoolie and a garfish. As I carried the latter up the rocks for a picture it fell off and wriggled back into the sea.

The tide began to flood quickly so I made my way off the ledge before I had to wade and had a couple of casts on my way back to the car. Second cast there was a boil by the lure so I gave it a twitch and it was taken immediately. This bass was a little bit bigger than the others. All in all a good morning.

If you have any comments or questions about fish, methods, tactics or 'what have you.'get in touch with me by sending an E-MAIL to - docladle@hotmail.com

Sunrise.

Even if there had been no fish this was worth getting up for.

My first bass.

This one took at long range and was only small but I was pleased to catch it.

Landed.

The bass looks good against a cushion of pink  algae.

Close up.

It seems darker because I was using a different camera setting for the close up.

A bit larger.

This was my last and largest bass of the session and fought well in the shallow water.