Catch fish with Mike Ladle.

Catch Fish with
Mike Ladle

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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).

Early bass.

You'll notice that I haven't posted much in the past month. This is partly because I've not done much fishing and mostly because I haven't caught anything worth talking about. However, I've not been alone in struggling to catch. The reports that I've received it seems that there have been bass caught on lures along most of my local coastline. Nearly all the fish landed have been a decent size (3-7lb) apart from the only one I had which was a pound if it was lucky (fortunately I didn't get a picture).

The fish have taken a wide range of lures from surface poppers and shallow diving plugs to soft plastics and weedless 'Redgill' types. In other words the nature of the lure doesn't seem to have made much difference. Also the fish were caught over all sorts of ground from relatively deep rock marks through shallow, weedy, rocky ledges to gravel beaches. The number of fish hooked by the anglers fishing seems to have panned out roughly in proportion to the amount of effort they put in. In other words those who spent the most time fishing caught the most fish.

My pals Bill and Rob each managed to catch sizable bass. Apart from the one I landed I lost a good one that grabbed a Slandra almost at my feet and my pal Nigel lost another good one at a different spot on the same day. The catches I've heard of were spread almost from Weymouth to Poole so they were active along the entire Purbeck coast. Anyway, it's clearly well worth giving it a go. The sea is already pretty warm after the mild Winter and Spring that we've had so the bass should be feeding pretty well by now. With numbers increasing as they move east along the coast I'm hoping for an excellent start to the season. On a recent walk in Worbarrow Bay I saw a number of mullet and one decent bass close to the shore. Pity it's not accessible at first light.

There have also been a few pollack, wrasse and garfish caught on lures to keep the interest up. The pictures are just a selection of those taken by my mates - at least it whets my appetite to catch one.

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

Bass 1.

Not mine .

Bass 2.

Not mine again.

Bass3.

Not mine again.

Wrasse.

Bill caught this one.  He'd have preferred a bass.