Catch fish with Mike Ladle.

Catch Fish with
Mike Ladle

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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).

Mixed fortunes.

Nigel fancied a trip to the river to try using minnows for perch and chub so, the other day, he picked me up from home (I happened to be carless at the time) and by about mid-day we were fishing. The minnows proved easy to catch on small maggot baited hooks so we soon had a dozen or so in the bucket. It wasn't long before my pal had his first perch so things looked quite promising but sadly the big fish seemed to have hidden away. We were both using light paternosters with small circle hooks and we landed a number of perch. My best bite proved to be a small pike which (because of the circle hook, didn't bite through the nylon. Nigel also had a small chub so, all in all, we'd caught three species - not too bad I suppose.

When we tired of catching small perch we decided to try another spot and again the minnows were obliging. Nigel tried fishing in a deep pool downstream of a bridge but neither perch nor chub seemed to be present. He did hook a pike but after a short time this one came off. I opted to try in the shallower water upstream of the bridge by free-lining a minnow. First cast to the little slack behind a bush and I had a good pull but the fish came unstuck. Put on another minnow and try again. Straight away a decent bite and I found myself attached to a pike, which after a bit of a tussle I landed and released. A few minutes later I cast to the same spot again, thinking that I'd now caught the pike so the next bite might be a chub. No such luck - it was another pike a bit bigger than the first one. When I landed it it was clear that it had VERY recently been in the jaws of a much bigger pike. There was a fresh gash several centimetres long in one flank and corresponding damage further along the body. I tried for the bigger pike but it did not materialise.

The following afternoon, for a change, I decided to try carp fishing. I chopped up a quarter of a small loaf and freelined big lumps of crust in a local lake. Within the first hour I'd landed two nice fish and when I moved to my third spot I found a couple of fish 'tenting' in the lily pads. I lowered a crust into a little gap and before long I was into a decent fish. This one fought like stink and eventually, after partly opening out the hook, it escaped. Bit of a downer! I enjoyed that, must have another go soon. I'll try a stronger hook next time.

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

Perch.

one of the larger specimens that we had on the afternoon - anyway, the weather was nice.

Pike.

This was the first one that took my paternostered minnow.  good fun but not what we were after.

Carp.

My first crust caught carp.

Carp.

My second crust caught carp - both were nice commons.