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).
The Old Man (Mike) and the bass.
Titled with apologies to Ernest Hemingway.Mike woke up with a start. It was still very dark. Before he went to bed he had set the little alarm clock for 03:00 hr. Stretching out an arm, he picked up the clock and pressed the knurled bar which switched on the pale blue light above the clock face 02:30. Still too early. If he got up now, he would be at the coast long before low water. The light on the clock dimmed and went out, and his head slumped back onto the pillow. Beside him, he could hear his wife breathing regularly.
He lay there for a few minutes, listening to the night sounds. The hum of the refrigerator in the kitchen, the quiet ticking of the clock. He turned onto his side and looked at the clock again. 02:45. Still early, but he knew from experience that he would not get back to sleep, so he switched off the alarm button, slipped from under the duvet and, in the dark, picked up his fishing clothes from the floor, where he had hung them, and crept out of the room using his foot to pull the door closed behind him.
Quietly negotiating the stairs he went into the lavatory for a pee, switching on the light as he entered. His chesties, coat, gloves, hat and headlamp lay on the floor by the front door. His haversack and his rod, ready tackled up, were also there, plus a little poly-bag containing two fillets of mackerel which had thawed out overnight.
It was 149 days now since Mike had caught a bass. His friends, lure fishing along the same stretch of coast, had been fairly successful and others, fishing from boats offshore, had mostly caught plenty. To be honest Mike was not an out and out bass angler and was happy to fish for (almost) anything, salt or freshwater, large or small. So, he had eased the pain of failure with a few trips to the local gravel pits where he caught carp (on his bass gear with a smaller hook), by freelining with bread instead of mackerel fillets. After the end of the close season, he was also able to visit the nearby river and fish (again with his bass gear) for perch, pike and trout - but he yearned for a bass, and they had been non-existent apart from a single missed run on a large freelined bait.
A nice common on bread-crust.
...and a slightly bigger carp
A pike taken on a small circle hook and a bait intended for perch.
...and a modest chub on the plug
It was now well into June - long since Mike's prostate removal operation and covid lock downs - both of which had seriously interfered with his fishing. Bill, his fishing pal had, as always, been lure fishing regularly since Christmas and, despite the usual scattering of blank early season sessions, caught fish in almost every month. The two of them had a walk along the shore on the 15th of June but they decided that it was much too rough. However, the following day the wind was supposed to drop off so Bill went down on his own. He said that, to his surprise, it was much windier than the previous day. He had a few casts but not a sniff, It was very difficult fishing with huge waves but after 15 minutes, he hooked a good fish which went 57cm. Then he put a smaller lure on and caught a very small bass. It added a little to Mike's misery.
Bills larger bass.
The grip conceals the grin.
On the 21st of June, the phone rang it was Bill. Hey Mike! There is lots of maggoty weed if you are game for a walk along the rocks tomorrow evening? No need to ask. Do bass like sandeels?
The following evening at 17:45 Mike was waiting outside his house to be picked up, clad in his chesties, and armed with both spinning and fly gear. When they arrived at the coast the sky was cloudy, the sea was grey and there was a stiff onshore wind. By the time they had trudged along to the weed middens at about 18:15 there were already shoals of mullet skimming maggots from the surface of the sea. Mike picked up his fly rod and began to cast a maggot imitation to the mullet while Bill watched. Within minutes he was into a fish which bent the fly rod and raced out to sea. Bill took a picture and within a few more seconds the mullet had popped off. OH,DEARIE ME! Mike said (or words to that effect). He began to cast again and Bill walked on along the shore to see whether he could locate bass.
Coelopa maggots galore.
Mike into a fish on the fly.
It was soon clear to Mike that the mullet had now departed. So, he attached a large, unweighted, Slandra lure and began to spin. After a spot of fruitless cast and retrieve he decided to follow his pal and see whether there were fish further along. There was certainly more mullet activity near Bill's pitch, but the conditions, wind, waves, and weed, now made fly fishing a non-starter. So, he followed his pals tactics and continued to spin. Before too long Bill had a decent bass of around 50cm on his pearl Slug-Gill, and a few minutes afterwards he landed another one slightly smaller. Mikes lure was still untroubled by fish (although he'd turned down Bills offer of a spare Slug-Gill). After a while he decided to walk back to the place where he had hooked the mullet and see if the fish had returned. They had not so after a couple more pointless lure changes and twenty further minutes of fishless action, he set off back to see how Bill was faring.
Mike began to spin again when he was about 100m short of his pals stance and now, at last, he had the wit to follow suit and change to a mackerel-pattern Slug-Gill with a small cone lead. Instantly, he was into bass and he quickly landed and released one after another. The biggest was only three-and-a-bit pounds and most were between two and three pounds, even so they were quite entertaining. In short order he had landed eleven fish and at this point Bill walked back to compare the action. He said that he had caught seven or eight fish with several over 50cm, so substantially larger than the ones in Mikes catch. Their successful lures were effectively identical, and both of them had suffered a bit of a hammering. Bill had made one replacement, although Mike was still catching on the original one. They decided to fish on for a further twenty minutes by which time Mikes tally was up to thirteen and Bill, who had slightly lost count, also had twelve or thirteen. They were both well satisfied with the result. In fact Mike was ecstatic with his first bass of the year.
One of Bill's bass.
Mike's best one on the Slug-Gill.
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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