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).

Other peoples fish.

I went down to the coast a couple of times last week but there was nothing doing. At least there was nothing doing for me. However, my pal Nigel had a seven pound bass from the shingle on a piece of mackerel fished close in (5 yards he says), on a circle hook, in the dark. Two more pals, Rob and Mike, also had a decent session, this time spinning from rocks near a tide race. Rob sent me the following account -

Morning Mike

Sorry to hear the fishing was slow, although its encouraging to hear of a decent fish being caught.

I'd decided we were going to try somewhere a little different so we went to a deep rock mark, we had done a recce a few months ago so we were confident of doing it in the dark. We carefully made our way down the cliff and picked our way over the rocks to the shore.

It was still pretty dark but it was clear there was a bit of a swell running. I perched on a massive rock out of reach from most of the waves, casting straight out into the gloom. The water in front of me was a sheet of foam and there were quite a few rocks being exposed so I had to be careful.

My third cast was out to my right aiming to guide the lure between two submerged rocks, as the lure neared I felt a tap, fish? I lifted and it was just dead weight. Weed I thought! Then a couple of violent pulls confirmed that it was a fish, It tore line off the spool in a decent run, but I managed to bring it back towards the rocks, the fish crashed around in the swell in front of me making spirited runs and pulls' I could see it was a decent bass so I clambered down the rock as low as I dared and finally managed to grab the line and hoist the fish out. My best of the year so far, around the 5 pound mark. I cast again but the swell took my lure (the new Fake Bait) straight into a rock and that was the end of that!

After clambering back to my bag I retied the leader and clipped on a new lure (Max Rap) I returned to my spot and cast again. The rocks were more exposed and the sea had calmed slightly but after 20 mins I'd had no more bites and was clipping the rocks every cast. I moved to my left to a lower ledge without so many obstacles and resumed my fishing. After five minutes without a bite I switched lures to a Kommo II (another new lure) that works almost at the surface. The lure was no more than 3 foot from the rod tip when a fish surged up from underneath and smashed it on the surface (heart stopping) it dived and pulled, pollack I thought, but it soon came to the surface splashing wildly, a bass!! A smaller fish but around the two-and-a-half pound mark.

I tried a few more lures for 20 minutes or so but no joy, I looked up to see dad playing and landing a bass (2lb) so I made my way over to him. It was just coming up to 5a.m. and I managed a small pollack on the Chase.

We stayed until about eight. Dad worked his way to the right and I went left. It was hard to move around so we didn't get too far. I managed another small pollack at max distance on a wedge and dad had missed a couple of bites but he also hooked two wrasse. The race was just starting to really show as we packed up and made the hard climb back to the van! It wasn't hectic fishing but it was nice to explore a new stretch and, of course, catching a few nice fish, we'll certainly be heading down there again!

Hopefully I'll be able to get out one evening on this set of springs but it'll probably be Friday before I do! Your more then welcome to join us on Tuesday and as always let me know if you fancy a morning session somewhere.

Have a good week.

Rob

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

Rock mark.

Rob's amaller bass.

- and the big one.