Catch fish with Mike Ladle.

Catch Fish with
Mike Ladle

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SEA FISHING

26 June 2003

Visitors.

I have not done much fishing in the past week. The truth is I lost a bit of enthusiasm after a trip to the Stour last week. While I was fishing some idiot kids tried to break into the car (there was nothing in it) and bashed a hole in the door, wrecking the lock in the process. I was only fishing for an hour or so and I had caught five perch and three pike but the vandalism took the gloss off my trip.

Anyway, the incentive to fish again was given me by two visitors. The first was my son Richard, a fanatic like me, who came down for a birthday fishing trip. I decided to take him to fish for carp but as it turned out it was a bad decision. We did not catch any. It was a beautiful day and each of us had several bites but the fish were in one of those wary moods. They often mouthed the mixers and on a couple of occasions we each had a brief contact with decent fish but neither of us caught one. Anyway, it was a really good afternoon out.

My second visitor was Ollie Summerfield. I had never met Ollie but we had exchanged a few e-mails about fishing. Ollie was coming through Dorset on his way to a wedding in the west country. We decided to get together for a spot of spinning. The tide was far from ideal but we opted for an early (03.30) start to try and make the most of high water. As I pulled into the car park beside Ollies car it was already raining and one or two rumbles of thunder made it look as though the writing was already on the wall for our session. It is certainly not a good idea to wander about the sea shore in a thunderstorm carrying a twelve foot carbon lightening conductor.

We exchanged "Hellos" and sat in the car to see what would happen to the weather. As dawn broke the rain began to ease so we tackled up and set off along the beach. A half-mile walk brought us to the spot I had chosen. The sea was flat but there was a stiffish easterly breeze - not ideal for plug casting. We thrashed away for an hour or so to no effect. Although the sea was clear little scraps of weed often fouled the lures. As it brightened up I eventually hooked a wrasse of about two pounds which fought pretty hard. I showed it to Ollie and took a picture or two. Encouraged we fished on and eventually I had another bite which produced a schoolie. By then it was time for me to get back but Ollie stayed on to try one or two other spots. All in all it was very enjoyable and I hope that we will be able to fish together again in the near future. I wonder if he caught anything else?

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

One of my Stour perch.

I could have been taking this picture as they were wrecking my car door.

My wrasse.

The fish snagged me on the way in but was easily released from a clump of wrack.

A schoolie.

Even tiddlers like this take the plug fiercely.

Ollie.

While we were fishing another angler turned up - he is just visible on the ledge in the background.  We had walked about as far again as where he is standing.