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).

Not all fish are large.

Reading magazine articles, books and web pages tends to give the impression that every trip results in the capture of big fish. Often the fish caught are apparently what the writer was after and resulted from a subtle change of lure or brilliant flash of inspiration after a slow session. Of course no one wants to read about blanks or the capture of undesirable tiddlers even if there may be something important to be learned from the session described. The truth is that everyone has poor trips and at times there seem to be a whole series of sessions with less than desirable catches. Here are a couple that I suffered in the recent past:-

I decided to try an evening trip after seatrout. I stuck to the J7 Rapala and fished the half-hour either side of dusk. On the credit side I had bites, a couple of them from seatrout, but the only things I landed were tiny pike and even tinier perch. The seatrout just seemed to bounce off the lure and of course it was very annoying. However I did land jack pike and small perch but even these were not being hooked every time they bit. As it got dark I switched to one of my home-made lumi-spinners. What did I catch - another jack. So, to sum up I missed all the decent fish and quite a few of the indecent ones as well. I like to catch what I'm after so in my book it was a failure.

An e-pal Ben had rung me earlier in the week to say that he was down on holiday in Lyme Regis with his family. He fancied trying to catch a bass and had a few hours free so I suggested that he might like to join me for an early morning dabble. When I arrived in the car park round about 5 a.m. there was only one other car there and clearly it was Ben - rarin to go. We grabbed the gear and set off walking to a spot which I hoped might produce a bass although the tide and conditions were far from ideal. Ben decided to use a Savage Gear surface lure (a good choice in view of the calm conditions) while I, ever hopeful, hooked a shop-bought pilchrd on an 8/0 circle hook in hopes of something big.

Although we were using different approaches we stayed within calling range - just in case. Before long I heard Ben say that he was in. I put down the rod and walked round to where he stood. By the time I got to him he was unhooking a schoolie so I took a couple of pictures just to show that we'd had something. We resumed fishing and as expected I had nothing but one trembling mullet bite but Ben caught another small bass before I had to leave him to it. I passed on my spare bait for him to try later if he wanted.

Later that day I e-mailed Ben to ask how he'd got on. He'd given it a good go but but there hadn't been any more action. Of course because the day was fixed by circumstances we'd had no choice as to tide, wind or weather so it wasn't surprising that the fishing was a bit slow but I suppose catching anything was a bonus.

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 little 'nuisance' jack on the small Rapala.

An even smaller perch on the same lure.

It was getting dark but another jack took my Lumi-Lure

Ben unhooking his first bass - not put off by the large lure.

Still flogging away when I had to leave for home.