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).

13 June 2007

A mackerel - no bass!

I've been itching to try a livebait since my successes last season but they've been absent from the places I fish. When Ben and I went at the weekend the conditions looked a bit more promising. For the first time recently the sea was pretty flat, the air was warm (even at three-o'clock in the morning and we were fully equipped). I began fly fishing and Ben started off with a Maria plug. It wasn't too long before I heard a call and looked up to see that my pal was into a fish. It turned out to be a garfish which he swung ashore before it unhooked itself and wriggled back down the rocks and into the sea.

We fished on and after a while I heard another call. Clearly this time Ben's fish was much stronger and with the rod well bent he took a little time to land a decent mackerel. Like the good mate he is he offered it to me as bait (my livebait rod was already set up and ben's wasn't). On went the mackerel and for the next hour or so it swam round the sea covering the area of half a football pitch before we eventually packed in. In the meanwhile ben landed a smallish pollack and I never had a sniff on the live mackerel - presumably there were no decent bass in the vicinity that morning. Next time I can get a bait I shall be trying again.

In fact I tried again a couple of mornings later, on my own. Stupidly I left the camera in the car by mistake so no pictures. I dropped a mackerel first chuck with a spoon and then had a decent pollack followed by another mackerel which I used for bait for a good half hour before packing in. Same result - no bites. More patience Mike!

Have a look at 'Fishing in the Caribbean' on YouTube if you want to see a spot of tropical, (mostly) shore fishing action. My pal Steve Pitts has also put on a piece of video about using 'braided lines'

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

Bait catcher at work.

It's still pretty gloomy as Ben swings his mackerel ashore.

My bait.

The lip hooked mackerel was back in the water only seconds after being landed.

Bait at work.

Mackerel have great stamina and even after a long session my bait was still swimming hard.  It wasn't easy to focus on the fish as it swam.  The cork is just a useful indication of where the bait is - I could simply have freelined.