Catch Fish with
Mike Ladle

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 and seatrout.

After the success catching mackerel, pollack and scad with my 'radio-active' night-light lure last week I was quite keen to try it in different circumstances. I had an hour to spare the other evening so I decided to give a rejigged size 4 version of the spinner a go, in the river for seatrout. To be fair it was really too early and the sun was still well up in the sky when I started so it wasn't really a sensible test for an illuminated lure. As it turned out the perch were pretty active. Now perch are not all that common in the stretch I was fishing but almost every little pool produced another stripey on my new spinner (actually reconstructed from a very old one). Most of the fish were smallish but the odd one was a pound or so. The target seatrout were notable for their absence apart from a couple of followers which didn't take. I was casting the lure up and across and reeling back just fast enough to keep it spinning. Eventually I had to pack in when the light tube was almost ripped off as I unhooked yet another perch (must use more 'Aquasure' next time).

By now the gloom was setting in a bit (It would have been just right for the defunct spinner) so I thought that I'd try the old faithful, black and silver J9 as I walked back downstream. This time I was casting the plug down and across and letting it swing round in the flow before winding slowly back. The first cast was encouraging as a big bow wave tracked the Rapala up from the very tail of a pool. "Big seatrout!" I'm thinking. It was clearly a bit of a fluke as the next ten minutes produced nothing else. I came to a narrower stretch where the water hurried down a shallow riffle. The plug landed on the far side and I held the rod up as it swung into the flow wriggling madly. Suddenly the rod-tip jerked round and a silver fish took to the air. Several times the fish (which wasn't large) jumped and splashed back before I could slide it ashore. A little, fresh run, seatrout of about a-pound-and-a-half. I unhooked the fish, took its picture and slid it back then I had a few more blank casts before packing in and going home. An interesting session but clearly there's still a lot to learn about using my flashing spinners.

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.

Bigger.

Seatrout.