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).

We should have had the fly rods!

Ben and I generally have go at the bass in March and with the weather looking good we decided to give it a try the other morning. It was a bit chilly when we set off along the shore at 05.15 hr but otherwise conditions looked good. Would the fish agree with us?

We picked a couple of spots and began to fish. Ben was using a Maria Chase plug and I started off with a pearly coloured Angels Kiss, both the lures are very shallow divers. After half-an-hour with nothing it was beginning to get light and I saw a swirl close to the rock on which I was standing. Next cast something tried to snatch the plug as I was about to lift it out. In the next few casts I had another swirl and miss followed by a sharp pull which I failed to hook.

By now Ben had moved a bit closer to me so that he could fish nearer the rocks where I stood. Again he had several snatches at the plug but nothing stuck. We decided that the bass must have been pretty small and simply were not coping with the big lures too well. On another day we might have hooked a few of them.

The most interesting event happened just before we packed in. For the last ten minutes I switched lures to a countdown Rapala. On one retrieve I fouled a little strip of old kelp. As I lifted it from the water I noticed that it was covered in Idotea (marine woodlice as I call them). Further investigation showed that the waters edge was like woodlouse soup. No doubt the bass were feeding on these little crustaceans - perhaps we should have had our fly rods with us?

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 spinning.

Kelp.

Idotea.