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).

Not my week.

It just wasn't my week! A few days ago my pals Dave and Mike came down fishing. I'd fully intended going with them but, for various reasons I didn't. When I got Dave's email it was soon clear that it had been a serious error on my part. The details are too painful to dwell on but in short, despite tricky conditions, they'd caught over fifty bass up to about six pounds apiece plus quite a few mackerel, all by lure fishing. That's life! Anyway, the weather deteriorated and the fish had moved off but the next time I had a chance to go fishing I was quite optimistic. I was wrong!

I was fishing by about three-thirty in the morning. First I tried a fly - nothing! I spun a wedge - nothing! Time was marching on and the sun was about to come up so I switched to a plug in vain hopes of a last gasp bass. A bite and a violent wriggle told me that I had a mackerel. The freelining rod was all set up so on went the mackerel. I lowered it into the sea and away it swam. For twenty minutes my game little livebait ploughed around covering the water beautifully. It was a bright sunny morning by now and I could see deep into the clear water. It was low tide and the kelp was breaking the surface. I reeled the poor old mackerel back towards me thinking that it was about time I went for breakfast. I could see the bait swimming along a couple of metres from the rocks. I steered it through a gap in the kelp. Was that a grey shape underneath it? It was! I couldn't believe my eyes, a large bass (a good double) had emerged from the weeds and was peering at my bait. As I saw it - it saw me. The fish took fright and rocketed away out to sea - bugger! The mackerel was given another tour of duty and I fished on for a further half-hour but neither the big bass nor any of its relations reappeared. I knew it wasn't my week!

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

My plug.

Livebait.

Simple rig.