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).

Richard's year."

My son Richard lives in Brazil and is still trying to come to terms with the shore fishing. He's had some stonking fish and lost a few others but as he says in the following email, it's still not easy.

Hi Dad,

I’m afraid my fishing year was a bit of an anti-clímax after you left. After our clutch of big snook in January the fishing tailed off considerably in the wet season, and has only recently started to pick up again. The snook seem to move in and out of the area so that the fishing can be great on one set of tides (I had a 6lb and 13lb fish on consecutive sessions) and terrible on the next set. Interestingly, I have caught them in really rough conditions where I probably wouldn’t have bothered fishing a couple of years ago. I recently caught a couple of small horse-eye jacks and a monster leather-jacket (about 4lb) at the same beach, suggesting that I could catch a lot more fish if I was prepared to scale down my gear (which I am not!).

I also had a fantastic snook session further up the coast by fishing along the edge of some old boulder groynes just outside of our hotel. In the space of 15 minutes I was smashed as a big snook took me round the last rock and lost another good fish after some spectacular acrobatics.

I have also continued to have the odd session off Paulo’s pier (in mouth of a large estuary). The diversity of species is enormous – we had 16 species one afternoon, including a beautiful blue-winged sea robin and a couple of nice rays (about 10lb apiece). The most dramatic session was when Paulo hooked into a real monster on his live sardine: after 20 minutes of epic give and take the battle was finally cut short by a local fisherman who, ignoring our shouts, sheared through the line with his outboard. On the positive side, I learnt many new Portuguese swear words from my rather disgruntled friend. The renovations to our new beach house are almost complete, so I am hoping to do even more fishing in 2017!

Can't wait 'til we visit next year. Let's hope the snook will feed.

A sea robin (=gurnard)

A small silver catfish - typical of bait caught fish from the shallow beaches.

... and a golden catfish in the dark.

A small jack on a large Black Minnow.

Paulo into his monster fish.

One of Richard's better snook.

A monster leatherjacket - again on a Black Minnow.

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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