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).

Trotting the stream.

The weather was mild, it hadn't rained much for a couple of days and the river was in fair condition so Nigel and I decided to give it a try for grayling. My first stop was the tackle shop to try and get some maggots but I arrived to find that it was closed. What a downer! I knew that my pal was bringing some bait so I decided to go straight to the meeting spot. Of course I was ten minutes early so rather than stand about waiting I kicked a few worms out of the roadside verge and started to fish a small sidestream. On the first cast I landed a little trout so it was encouraging but then I had no more bites before my pal turned up. He joined me and began to float fish with maggot in hope of catching a couple of pike baits, I continued to trot down my worm on a size 14 and three pound nylon. The dace seemed to be absent but after about five minutes I had a bite and found that I was attached to a heavy fish. The clutch buzzed as the fish bored away and it was some time before we managed to get a good look at it - a salmon of seven or eight pounds. Eventually Nigel netted it just as the hook gave way so we slipped it quickly back and went on to try in the main river.

Now we were both trotting down with Nigel's small supply of maggots. The first spot we tried for grayling appeared to be fishless so we moved on downstream to fish from a small island in mid river. After perhaps ten minutes Nigel had a bite at range and landed a good grayling of perhaps two pounds. Excellent! I left him to it and wandered on downstream. My next bite proved to be a tiny grayling and after I'd returned it I saw that Nigel was into another decent fish. This one turned out to be a good sized trout which he duly landed and returned.

No more bites were forthcoming so we both moved on trying one or two likely swims for a few minutes each. In one spot we saw fish rising and Nigel hooked something sizeable and was briefly attached to it before it came unstuck. Eventually we arrived at a deep spot on a bend and my pal landed a couple more grayling - smaller than his first one before it was time to go for tea. All in all a pretty good afternoon. Next time I'll make sure that I have some maggots.

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

A small grayling for Nigel.

xxxx.

He's in again and this time it's a better fish.

xxxx.

Its ready for the net. Easy when you're in mid-river..

xxxx.

Landed! Nigel's best grayling of the session.

xxxx.

He's in again with another good fish from the 'Island' swim.

xxxx.

This time it's a big trout. Not what he was after but a good battle all the same.

xxxx.