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).
Gars galore!
The other day I arranged to go with a new pal Ben down to fish from the Purbeck ledges at dawn. He picked me up from my house and we were down on the rocks well before first light. Ben intended to spin with a wedge and I started off with a single-hooked Toby in the hope of catching a mackerel for livebait. Nothing much happened for a little while and then I had a sharp bite which produced a reasonable sized pollack. I'm never keen on pollack as livebaits so I took its picture and returned it to the sea. Shortly afterwards I heard a call from Ben and turned to see him lifting a decent sized mackerel onto the ledge.
I baited the circle hook on my bait rod with the mackerel while my pal continued to spin. For well over an hour my mackerel swam over an area the size of half a football pitch without interesting a bass. meanwhile Ben continued to spin and had a series of garfish plus (as you would expect) quite a few missed bites. he switched to a plug but continued catching one garfish after another - it appeared to be gar-city out there. Anyway, I had no bites at all on my mackerel which was still swimming strongly when we packed in. Ben had nine or ten garfish in a sequence only broken by a single smaller mackerel. 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
Early pollack.
Garfish.
