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).
At last - something for me!
Since I returned from Brazil in February the fishing (for me) has not been productive. Curiously, the catches of my son Richard, still fishing in Brazil (where he lives), have also more or less dried up. However, I am fortunate that some of my mates have been more successful. Rather than describe my blanks (several) here are one or two of their catches.
At the end of February my friend Steve Pitts, on holiday in the Caribbean, sent me the following email - Arrived at my snooky-looking spot yesterday to find a thick raft of sargassum at the end of the bay. It reminded me of the conditions that you caught that striper from on Cape Cod. Working a cut down Guffer along the weed line resulted in a 60cm snook. I was well pleased with that.
Steve's snooky bay.
A nice snook - almost a bass!
Steve sent a second email- Went again this morning, but apart from a few plucks and one boil on the surface, nothing doing. Last day here tomorrow, so I'll give it one more go at first light, then start breaking down and cleaning off the tackle. So, blank sessions are not impossible wherever you happen to fish.
Since the start of the year, Bill Fagg has been fishing the same shoreline as myself at the rate of more or less one trip per week, but, in contrast to my futile, sardine-soaking efforts, he persisted with his reliable soft-baits and, as usual, despite the time of year, managed to winkle out a few decent fish.
On the third of March, with the sea temperature just above 8 degrees C, he had two decent bass in the space of fifteen minutes . Although the sea was cold he said that - with the sun up I was sweating by the time I got back to the car.
On the 18th of March he tried a different stretch of shoreline (following a long walk), with the sea at 10.1 degrees C and waves 1 metre high, he says that he hooked what I thought was a good bass. It took line and I played it to the shore and was initially disappointed to see a brown fish: but on beaching it I saw it was the biggest wrasse I have ever landed so had to weigh it - 5lb 2oz! So, for the first time ever I was genuinely pleased to catch a wrasse!
Not the most pleasant weather.
...but a cracking wrasse
Bills outing on the 8th of April topped the lot when, during a 5-hour session, he landed a 4.25lb bass, on a big tide, in 4-6ft waves. Not a monster but a nice catch at any time of the year. In February and March, as I've suggested, I could not buy a bite on free-lined, fish-baits.
Even rougher.
...but a very welcome bass
I had not only stuck to my bait fishing for bass but, in desperation, recently had a couple of sessions after carp on one of my local lakes. Apart from having floating crusts rejected on a couple of occasion the results mirrored those that I had managed in the salt water. However, on the latest trip (the 11th of April), the sun was shining and after a morning shopping I gobbled down my lunch and with a little bag of bread crusts in my pocket set off again to try and catch a carp.
I cast the first crust out and it fell off (it was beginning to feel like a curse). For the next half hour not a sign of life anywhere. Then I saw a slight swirl a couple of metres to the right of where I was sitting on the damp, grassy bank. It HAD to be a carp. I reeled in and attached a new bit of crust before flicking the bait about 50cm from the bank and just beyond my rod tip. Ten minutes passed and suddenly there was a slight disturbance as a good carp surged up sucked in the bread with a loud slurp and, just as quickly, spat it out again. I waited for a few minutes before I realised that the bait, which had now sunk, was no longer on the hook. I reeled in and baited up once more before plonking the crust in again. In the next twenty minutes the fish returned and swirled a couple of times but clearly didn’t like the look of where I had positioned my crust.
Yet again, I reeled in, rebaited and this time, dropped it out closer to where I had the first bite. Five minutes passed before the carp sidled up and neatly removed the bait from the hook. I was now feeling paranoid. Try again Mike. I attached a bigger crust and flicked it just beyond the rod tip and only a few centimetres from the bank. The fish reappeared and approached, I realised, at this point, that I had stopped breathing. I waited, and waited. The carp approached the bait sucked hard, the rod bowed, I grabbed the butt and the fish was on. Amazing!
Now the fish had dived into the solid mass of Canadian pondweed. I picked up the rod and tried to heave it back out but something was immovable. I tried pulling from a couple of different angles but it appeared to be a combination of fish and a fallen, submerged, branch. I hung on tight and gave another heave, it moved and suddenly I was in action. It was some little time before I had the carp, a good one, within range of the net. I leaned back, lowered the net into the lake and lifted the rod. The fish slid in and I had it. Just a couple of, not very good, pictures (I was over-excited after having caught something at last), I removed the barbless hook from the lip of the fish, lowered the net back in and let the carp swim out and away.
My large but ugly carp.
At this point I realised that the strain of the tugging and pulling had dislodged the liner from the tip ring and it was now sliding about on the line. Enough was enough, I went home. A happier angler. Perhaps next time it will be a bass? (but probably not as big as the carp.
PLEASE TELL YOUR TWITTER, FACEBOOK, EMAIL FRIENDS ABOUT THESE BOOKS.
THE SECOND WAVE
Written with Steve Pitts this is a SEQUEL TO THE BESTSELLER "Operation Sea Angler" IT'S AVAILABLE ON PAPER FROM -
HOOKED ON BASS
Written with Alan Vaughan. NEW PRINT OF THE ORIGINAL: IN PAPERBACK. Copies available from all good book shops RRP 14:99 -
ANGLING ON THE EDGE
Copies can now be ordered (printed on demand) from Steve Pitts at 34.00, inc. Royal Mail Insured UK Mainland Postage.
To order a book send an E-MAIL to - stevejpitts@gmail.com
FISHING FOR GHOSTS
Written with David Rigden. Copies from
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