Catch fish with Mike Ladle.

Catch Fish with
Mike Ladle

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Freshwater 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).

Chub and seatrout.

I really enjoy fishing my local rivers. Over the years I've float fished, legered, freelined, surface fished and spun. I've used every type of bait and lure imaginable but what I really like to do is take my little spinning rod to the river armed with a short wire trace and a plug and see what turns up. Of course by now I have a fair idea of what sort of fish are likely to take the lure but it is often a surprise because even the most unlikely spot may produce a pike, a perch, a trout, a seatrout, a salmon or a chub.

This week I've had a couple of tries with the nine centimetre black and silver Rapala that's produced me a lot of fish over the years. Of course there are plenty of other lures that will 'work' but with my 18lb Nanofil I can easily cast to any spot that I want in the river and the plug is easy to fish with. My first trip produced a couple of small pike and a good chub around the five pound mark so I was well pleased. Next time I went specifically for seatrout but, apart from a series of smallish brownies I struggled on the 'downstream leg'. Then I turned and began to work my way back upstream casting up and across and spinning back at speed to compensate for the current. A couple of trout shook off before I hooked something better which, after a short struggle proved to be a fat, four pound seatrout - magic!

Shortly after catching the four pounder I waded up a shallow stretch and cast up to a small overhanging bush. Almost at once the lure was taken by a bigger trout (a browny from the look of it) which went berserk cartwheeling and thrashing until it managed to shed the hooks. I was gutted. Anyway I fished on with no more bites until I turned round to come back down. I was above the 'trout bush' now so I drifted the little plug back down past it before retrieving slowly. The plug was right under the bush when it was taken by a heavy fish which from the way it fought could only have been a chub. I led it down to a shallow spot where I unhooked it and took a couple of pictures. All in all a satisfactory start to my coarse fishing season.

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

Jack.

Little pike are a nuisance.  In their absence I could dispense with wire.

First chub.

I have a soft spot for these fat silver fish.

-another jack.

Even tiddlers like this would sheer through the nylon.

More like it.

What a fine seatrout - just what I wanted!

- another chub.

If anything better than the first.  At least the selfie wasn''t too over exposed or blurred this time.