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).

22 October 2007

Wrasse galore.

I've struggled to catch a bass this week. I've no idea why because when I've been out conditions have often seemed pretty good but my poppers and plugs have been ignored. I had one short session off a deepish rock mark in the early morning that produced loads of bites (sometimes several on a single retrieve) on a spoon but I couldn't hook anything. Eventually I decided that they must have been squid. All I managed was a tiny pollack on the fly.

My next trip was with a pal, Richard Gardiner and this time neither of us had a bite. Richard saw a couple of fish close in by some wrack but they were not interested.

On the final session I was alone and fished one of my favourite (and usually consistant) spots. I tried for bass for about half-an-hour using a Maria Chase plug but zilch. Eventually I admitted defeat and decided to shift to a wrassy spot with lots of rocky ledges, cobbles and wrack just under the surface. I stuck to the same lure and first cast I had several plucks on the lure suggesting that I was in the right place. On the next cast I hooked a decent wrasse and for the following twenty minutes, by fanning the casts out over a wide area I landed one after another. None of them were monsters but it was great fun. I was constantly hoping that one of the bites might turn out to be a bass but none did.

On my way back along the shore I stopped for a cast at the spot I'd tried first. A couple of big bass were grovelling in the weed for woodlice but neither they nor any others showed any sign of wanting to take my lure.

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

Richard.

Wrasse.

Cracking fish.