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 April 2008

The luck of the draw?

Its all a matter of timing! Ben and I were due to go on our usual weekend early-morning session. However, on the Saturday evening he rang to say that he'd just been down with another pal Phil and they had been frozen and fishless. In view of their blank we thought that it might be best to put off our trip 'til next week. Anyway, after the call my other mate Nigel rang and asked if I fancied going somewhere. I told him about Ben's comments but it was an age since Nige had been fishing and he sounded pretty keen so we decided to go in the morning anyway.

When I got to the beach it was still dark and Nigel was already plugging away. He'd had nothing so it seemed that perhaps we should have heeded the advice. However, I'd only been fishing for ten minutes when I hit a bass and landed it. It had been worthwhile! A couple of casts later I had another and then another and yet another. After that I lost one on the way in. By now Nigel was feeling a bit peeved as he hadn't had a bite, even though we were fishing quite close together. Shortly after losing the bass I landed another fish and then a few casts later I had a fierce bite and immediately the line fell slack. I commented to Nigel that the line had parted but after a few turns of the reel I could feel the plug wiggling on the end. It appears that the fish had grabbed the lure and let go, twanging the plug back towards me and leaving a lot of slack - very unusual.

A few minutes later and Nigel hooked his first (and only) fish of the session. A bit later I had my sixth and then things went quiet so we went home for breakfast. There were a couple of lessons in the above events. Firstly one tide is not always as good as the next (particularly if one's in the evening and one in the morning???). Secondly, I'm sure that the difference in bites/catch between Nigel and myself was just chance - we were doing more or less exactly the same thing on the same little stretch of shoreline - that's fishing!

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

The start.

My first.

- and another.

- and another.

My last one.

The finish.

Nigel's fish.