Catch fish with Mike Ladle.

Catch Fish with
Mike Ladle

"HOME."

Information Page

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).

Perch etc..

With things still slow on the sea fishing front (but see next Saltwater page) I've been to the river again. I started off fishing with a size 4 Mepps and after half-an-hour of nothing I hooked a decent perch. However, this was too slow for me (I become less patient as I get older) so I went back to the car and picked up my maggots, a bucket and a little float rod to try and catch some livebaits. The minnows were very obliging and it wasn't long before I had a dozen or more swimming in the bucket.

I clipped a paternoster with a small weight and a size 6 circle hook on a wire trace, lip hooked a fat minnow and lobbed it out. Within seconds I felt 'bump, bump, bump' and tightened into a perch. Almost every cast I had another perch with only the odd lull in the action. There's a limit to how much of this I can tolerate unless there seems to be a chance of a big fish so after catching dozens of perch I switched back to spinning, this time with a J9 Rapala.

Needless to say my first catch on the plug was yet another small perch but I walked on downstream trying all the likely spots. The sport was much slower than when I was using live minnows but I lost a decent fish, probably a trout, which shook the hooks out before I could get a look at it. Eventually, near the bottom of the stretch I came to one of my favourite chub swims. It's a deep glide which I can only fish by wading into mid-stream, casting up and retrieving with the flow. First chuck there was a heavy tug and a big swirl which I missed. On the next cast a bow wave followed downstream but I didn't have a bite. Usually two missed chances would be my lot but since I couldn't go any further I fanned out the casts to cover as much of the river's width as possible. To my surprise on about the fifth cast there was a swirl and I was into a fish. It pulled hard and I thought at first that I must have hooked a pike but it turned out to be a medium sized chub of between three and four pounds. I was pleased with the chub and set off on the long walk back to the car.

Of course I couldn't resist having a few more casts as I trudged along the bank but it was only when I was almost back to my livebaiting spot that I hit another fish. This one fought much harder than the chub and turned out to be a fair sized pike of around eight pounds - quite a good one for the stretch I was fishing. All in all a very pleasant couple of hours.

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

Meppsed.

My first attempt at spinning produced this perch from a deep, gloomy pool.

Minnowed.

A switch to paternostered livebaits resulted in one perch after another.

Plugged.

Back to spinning, this time with a plug, and it's another perch..

Chub.

The plug was just as attractive to this chub.

Pike.

I don't like using plugs for pike as they tend to swallow them.  This one didn't

Wire trace.

It's essential to use a length of wire because there are so many pike and bite-offs would be frequent.