Catch Fish with
Mike Ladle

Information Page

I AM IN THE THROES OF PROOF READING MY NEW BOOK 'TACTICAL PIKE FISHING' SO NO MORE BLOG FOR A LITTLE WHILE - I'LL DO SOME NEW PAGES ASAP - MIKE

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 four 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. 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 so if you are new to fly fishing or spinning these are the ones for you).

18 June 2009.

Back to the river.

The fishing's been a bit slow lately so it was quite a relief (and a change) to go over to the river for an hour on the first day of the coarse fishing season. It was a hot afternoon and although I was wearing a tee shirt, sun protection and a big hat my chest waders (just in case) made me sweat buckets. Plodding about in a rubber suit in hot sunny weather must be the ultimate way to lose weight.

Anyway, the first thing I did was to make a serious faux pas. I saw a large shoal of big chub just under the surface and flicked my little plug out towards them. As it hit the water I heard a voice say 'Hey!' and looked round to see that I'd cast into the middle of another angler's swim (he was well camouflaged). I withdrew with a grovelling apology and shortly afterwards he landed a six pounder so no harm done.

I trudged on downstream and managed to catch a chub and a trout then I remembered that I had the camera with me. I wandered back up and discretely took a picture of the chub shoal before deciding to try and catch my first perch of the season. After a few chucks it was apparent that my little floating plug wasn't going to go deep enough in the big pool I was fishing. I rummaged through the bag and found a small bomb weight which I looped onto the line about a metre above the plug. First cast there was a tug, tug and after a little tussle I reeled in a nice perch. Next cast there was another and then another - excellent stuff.

I took off the weight and walked on a bit further to the next pool - not so deep. First cast I felt a hard pull and found myself playing a modest pike. At that moment a dog walker appeared on the bank behind me and was obviously fascinated to see someone playing a fish. She and her dog watched as I struggled to control the pike. By now I'd managed to extract the camera from the bag and was snapping away. By chance, as I clicked for the second shot, the lively fish hurled itself from the water and the leap was immortalised on my memory card. Wonderful stuff!

Chub.

Perch.

Pike.

Action shot.