Catch fish with Mike Ladle.

Catch Fish with
Mike Ladle

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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).

Channel Island Holiday.

It's always pleasant to have a bit of feedback from someone about fishing. This week I had an email from Mark Dennis who is clearly new to lure fishing. Anyway, he'd had an enjoyable stay in the Channel Islands and I thought that his nice pictures and comments on the fishing might be of interest to lots of people.

Hello Mike,

Having been an avid reader of mikeladle.com, I thought I’d take the time to thank you for your inspirational reports and articles, and let you know that the little Delta Eels work really well for pollack in the Channel Islands.

I recently had a four day stay on Alderney with a good friend of mine. We go way back, and fished together extensively back in the early eighties, and although I’ve been re-hooked since 2005, he rarely dangles a line these days, and had never cast a lure in anger until Alderney. I must also add that I’m no expert, as I’ve only started lure fishing this year, but find it opens windows that that are not afforded to the bait, sit and wait fisherman. It’s certainly made me think more about the fish and their feeding habits, marks, what is under the water, tides, times, and lure presentation.

Right - down to the nitty gritty, and I hope the photos tell the tale really. Over the four days we caught in excess of 60 fish, including 10 bass (schoolies to 3lb), 40 odd pollack to around the 3lb mark, and 15 wrasse, some of which were probably a shade over 3.5 lb, and not to forget, one mackerel. We used the teaser method with the little Delta’s, and although I don’t like to copy other peoples methods (only because it’s more satisfying finding a little trick yourself), I did mix it in with fellow BASS member, Austen Goldsmith’s method of using a 3mm solid fly leader ring to attach braid (in my case nanofil) to the fluoro leader. The ring made it easy to attach the Delta Eel snood. The little Delta Eels accounted for all but 3 of the pollack, and took all of the larger fish. My friend also managed a double hook up, with a mackerel on the Delta Eel and a bass on the Savage Gear Sandeel. He thought he had a big bass on at the time, as the fight was hard and vicious. As it was, it was only another schoolie. The pools in the rocky terrain meant that the pollack and mackerel could be handled and unhooked in the pools, giving them more chance of survival, and saving them from human touch burns/shock.

So, all in all a great fishing stay for us, although no big ones, it was certainly better fishing than is offered around our neck of the woods in Portsmouth, although I do tend to go on the hunt for better marks, particularly since I’ve contracted the lure bug, and have met two of your pals (Bill and Poppy) by pure chance on the way. My friend is again, hooked to the sport. He was borrowing some spare gear that I had and I decided to let him keep when we got back, as I know it will get used.

So again, Thankyou.

Best regards,

Mark

Apparently Mark had picked up the idea of using the little Deltas from my blog but clearly he is a thinking lure angler and will no doubt catch many more and bigger fish in the future. The only thing I can say is that it would have been great to fish with him over there. The potential for catching fish on the fly or on livebaits must be fantastic. Only two comments about the fish - the pollack look a bit lean and a close inspection of the wrasse shows a few lice on it. Anyway, thanks very much Mark!

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

Pollack.

The vast majority of the pollack fell to the little plastic eels..

Wrasse.

Why is it that few anglers caught wrasse on lures in days gone by?  I can only assume that very few anglers fished lures in the snaggy places that the wrasse favour..

Another pollack.

This time on an orange Delta..

Double header.

A small bass and a mackerel.

A bass.

No monster but great sport.