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).

29 October 2007

October bass.

As I said the bassing's been a bit slow for me lately. However, undaunted, Ben and I set out on our usual early morning session at the weekend. The wind was about force 5 from the south west and we'd no useful information on what it might be best to do so we opted for a trip to Kimmeridge.

When we arrived the sea was fairly rough and had a little bit of colour but, to our surprise, there was virtually no suspended weed in the water so it was easy to spin. Ben was using his favourite Maria Chase lure and I had tied on a J11 floating Rapala. It was still dark when I had my first bite which turned out to be a small pollack. Five minutes later I had another one. Shortly afterwards we saw lights coming along the beach and were joined by our pal Richard Gardiner and his friend Eddie.

After a little while no one had had any more bites so I suggested that we might walk out to fish a from ledge which had produced bass for me in similar conditions over many years. Richard and Eddie decided to stay put for a while so Ben and I trudged off along the rocks. It was easy to cast with the wind behind us. Ben fished with the same lure but I switched to a large Yo Zuri Mag Popper. I mentioned to Ben that the fish were likely to be in the 'white water' caused by the surf breaking over the ledge and sure enough, within a few minutes, I hooked a fish on the edge of the foam. It was no monster but very encouraging and as I was unhooking the bass I looked round to see that Ben was also into a fish which proved to be a fair bit bigger than mine.

We returned to our casting and at this point Richard and Eddie turned up. After trying to cast into the teeth of the wind they joined us on the lee side. To cut a long story short we landed several fish of a range of sizes (including one or two nice ones) over the next half-hour and lost a few more. All in all it was an excellent morning. The bass took poppers plugs and rubber lures indicriminately and we all agreed that it had been an excellent session. On the following day the wind increased to gale force making fishing conditions and access near impossible so we'd certainly made a good choice.

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

Ben's in!

Got it!

Nice one!

Our first two fish.

Better!

Sorry Richard!

That's better!