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).

Bits and pieces!

Sorry about the lapse in web pages! We'd no sooner returned from Tobago than I was dragged off on a week's archaeology trip to Wales. I wasn't exactly taken 'kicking and screaming' but I have to say that old stones are not really my thing. I don't mind the long walks and I quite enjoy looking at the birds, animals and plants (I saw choughs, kites and orchids among other things) but, as you can imagine, I'd rather be fishing. Anyway, between trips I managed an evening session at the coast and I also took my rod and a few lures to Pembrokeshire but the chances for fishing were, to say the least limited.

My Dorset fishing trip was not as good as hoped. It was a decent tide and there was a fair bit of weed on the shore but it was mostly fresh and maggot free. The fish did not really turn up and for the most part it was just a matter of blind flogging with fingers crossed. I managed one schoolie and missed a few bites (small fish!!!) but that was all. My pal Rob says he also had a schoolie after I left. Then it was off to Welsh Wales.

We stayed in St Davids, not far from the sea, and as I anticipated there were lots of inaccessible cliffbound stretches of coast. In between there were often flat, sandy, storm beaches. On the first morning I was up before daybreak and drove down to Caerfai beach, a nice little cove with lots of sand. The tide was more or less out and there was a fair old surf pounding in. I waded into the shallow water and chucked a plug out into the breakers. Within seconds it was loaded with weed - useless! I walked back onto dry land and switched to a weedless soft plastic - it was nearly impossible to cast against the strong onshore wind - think again Mike! I compromised by tying on an Evo Redgill and tried again. I found that by moving about along the beach I could manage about one weedless retrieve in three.

After about an hour it was pretty light and I was beginnning to lose heart when suddenly the lure was seized just before I lifted it out. Eureka! It was a bass, not a monster but a bass. I was really pleased. A couple of mornings later I visited Whitesands Bay, beloved of surfers it seemed, and tried the same technique of spinning a Redgill as I waded in the surf. It looked good but not a sniff! Before packing in I scrambled out onto the rocky headland and had a few chucks. this produced a single missed bite on the Redgill which I decided was probably a pollack.

I managed two more short sessions. One was in the afternoon fishing from the rocks into the little cove to the right of Whitesands and the other was an evening dabble at Caerfai. Both were biteless. I'm sure that, given more time, all the places I tried would have produced bass to lures but I had to settle for walking through bogs and over heathland to look at standing stones, castles and churches (jeez there's a lot of stone in Wales!). Anyway, now it's back to Dorset for a while and I must try to catch a few better fish.

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

Dorset.

Dorset schoolie.

Caerfai.

Welsh schoolie.

Well hooked.

Gone fishing!

Rocks.

Viper's Bugloss.