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).

Canal Perch.

I recently went fishing with my pal Paul Froome. We don't live very close or we'd certainly fish together more often. Anyway, Paul does a fair bit of canal fishing and I thought that our recent exchange of emails might be of interest.

Mike

Just read your most recent post – it has been windy hasn’t it? Glad to read you are catching pike. My personal pike drought appears to have ended with five fish from 3 different waters.

Saturday I spent a couple of hours on the canal for perch using up the last of my lobworms. Normally I float ledger with a very short hook-link which gives excellent indication but with the wind I decided to go over to straight leger. Indication was not so great and some delicate work with forceps was needed on a few of the fish. But it was a frantic two hours, particularly the first hour. I think I spent more time weighing and photographing than I did with my bait in the water. Best fish were two 2lb’ers plus one of 1lb 12oz and only a couple of fish less than a pound.

Have you tried circle hooks with worm for perch? I think I will give it a try next time.

Regards,

Paul

Hi Paul,

It certainly has been windy; I’ve hardly been able to get to the coast. Nice perch! Yes I’ve used circle hooks but only with livebaits. I don't give them much time and simply tighten. It seems pretty effective. Don't know if it works with worms. Did you get any pictures?

Cheers,

Mike

Mike

I hope to get the perch photos over to you in the next few days with a few words. It is that time of year where leisure time seems to just disappear but hopefully on Friday I might get some time on a computer at home.

Regards,

Paul

His next email went as follows -

Mike

The photos are from a session earlier in the autumn on a stretch of my local canal.

In some ways the session was typical and in others not. My tackle set up was based around float legered lobworm. Swim selection was driven by a requirement for both the presence of structure/features and low light levels. The chosen swim was where the towpath was on north side of the canal so the high south bank complete with trees would cast a significant shadow. Whilst these are all things I normally look for on this trip I couldn't fish on into dusk as I would like, so every advantage for low light was taken. I baited up with a scattering of chopped worm and fished a large piece over the top. I normally reckon on 3 chopped worms for each cast/fish. The highlight of the session was the perch at 2lb 12oz and is my largest from the canal so far. I am also catching ruffe more often, 20 years ago there were none.

Regards

Paul

...and then -

Mike

Last week we got chatting about ruffe and Perch. I would be very interested in anything information you have about ruffe and their feeding habits. Am I right in thinking you said they were nocturnal?

Paul

I replied with a spot of information about perch and ruffe then I had Paul's latest email:-

Mike

Thanks for the info, as ever really enjoyed the science bit.

Looks like my tactics of looking for tree lined southern banks casting shadow plus roots and branches in the water are ‘on the money’.

Went out to the canal yesterday to drown some maggots where I’d had my prolific perch session two weeks ago. I wanted to see what other fish were about so single maggot on a tiny hook was the ploy. Numbers wise, small roach and very small gudgeon were the most numerous plus a few small bream. Highlights were a bream of about 2 pounds, what looks like a hybrid (wishful thinking it was a silver bream) and a nice perch. Surprisingly few small perch were caught which could be a good sign.

If you don't hear from me before have a great Christmas.

Regards,

Paul

It's wonderful to get a bit of detail about someone else's fishing, particularly if they really think about what they are doing as Paul does. Anyway, we must make the attempt to get together for a dabble some time next year - either in Paul's canal, my river or possibly even in the sea.

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

One of Paul's better perch.

Another nice stripey.

The worm's bigger than the ruffe.

I lost track of the pictures but I think this is Paul's best perch.

A bream.

Probably a roachxbream.