Mike Ladle's Fishing Diary

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Mike Ladle

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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).

28 December 2006

Grenada.

I'm back from my week's holiday in Grenada (West Indies) and Christmas is over so back to the BLOG. We had never been to Grenada before so I didn't expect too much in the way of results from the fishing (I find that the first trip to any new spot is always a bit on the slow side). We had booked, B&B, in a hotel on 'Pink Gin Bay' near the airport and we hired a car so that we could get about and fish a few different spots. In the absence of any hard facts about places to fish it was bound to be a bit of 'suck it and see', particularly as the entire island is devoid of road signs.

It turned out that our hotel was right on the beach. The shoreline looked like perfect 'jack fishing' territory so we were well chuffed. It also turned out to be stiff with sandflies so liberal application of 50% deet to the legs was essential. On the first morning we saw shoals of tiny (2cm) baitfish in the edge of the sea and sure enough it was not long before they were being blasted by shoals of crevalle jacks and palometa. Unfortunately the size of the predators was more or less in proportion to the prey so it was time for the fly rod rather than the spinning tackle. The jacks took tiny redgills with abandon and even the smallest fish put up a decent battle on the fly gear. Despite spinning for hours we were unable to come up with anything bigger than a few mini-groupers and lizard fish. There were plenty of houndfish and they struck at a variety of lures but as usual they proved difficult to hook.

The south of the Island consists of a series of rocky points separated by little bays. Prickly Point was one of the more accessible and consisted of steep rocks dropping off into perhaps ten feet of water. By fishing from the rocks with both lures and bait we landed eight species of fish including, grunts, yellow tail snappers, houndfish, squirrel fish, two species of wrasse, a bizarre blenny and a soapfish (a weird, slimy, bubbling, long-nosed creature that looked and felt not unlike a massive snot). Unfortunately, by this time my camera had decided to pack in and I was unable to get pictures. On later trips Richard dug out his own digital camera and saved the day with some of the shots I have used.

We were keen to do some 'flats' fishing but only found a single place that was readily accessible by wading from the shore. The flat was fairly small in area but we tried on several occasions, hoping for the bonefish and barracuda that normally frequent such places. On the first morning we saw pointed fins breaking the water but they turned out to be mullet and a larger disturbance proved to be a decent sized ray. There were no bonefish present on any of the times we fished and the only barracuda that we managed to raise was a small specimen that had a go at Rich's little plug but failed to hook itself.

The harbour of the largest town, St Georges, held lots of fish and by sprinkling a bit of bread onto the water it was possible, within seconds, to attract a frenzy of sergeant majors, goatfish, damselfish, snappers and the like. On one occasion the remains of a bread roll sprinkled down the quayside by a moored cargo boat attracted a shoal of decent sized bream and snapper but needless to say we had left the rods in the car that afternoon. All in all it was an interesting and enjoyable trip with plenty of fish and certainly a good diversity caught and seen but none of the larger, hard-fighting, species in evidence. Perhaps if we could go back at another time of the year??????

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

All right!!!!.

Pink Gin Bay.

Rich spinning from the beach by the hotel. Houndfish were abundant but the jacks were small.

Bites!

I soon learned that deet was essential when fishing from the beach.

A crevalle.

We caught plenty of jacks and palometa on the fly and they fought hard but we wished that they had been bigger.

Landed.

A red hind.

Prickly Point.

The conditions look more dangerous than they were.

Puddingwife wrasse.

This one took a countdown Rapala - the colours were amazing.

Caesar grunt.

The flats.

Note the buoyancy jacket - always reassuring when wading on unknown territory and good padding for the rods in the suitcase.

Levera beach.

A fantastic beach in the national park. The fisherman in the background had handlined two oildrums f full of good fish from their little leaky rowing boat.

Sunset.

St George's harbour.

Bread upon the waters.