Catch Fish with
Mike Ladle

Information Page

SEA 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 four 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. 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).

20 October 2005

Success and failure.

The other day I went fishing with a friend Ian Pople. Ian lives not too far away in Hampshire and occasionally has to come down to this area for the day. We decided to meet for an early morning bassing session. I had not been down to the Purbeck coast for the best part of a week so I had no idea what to expect. Having no preconceptions of what was about we opted to fish only a minute or two from the car park.

There was a bit of an offshore breeze but the sea was absolutely flat calm. It was possible to stand at the water's edge without even getting your feet wet. Since it was dark when we started fishing (06.15hr) and the water is shallow Ian started with a popper and I had on a shallow diving plug. For ten or fifteen minutes nothing! Then I had a sharp pull at long range and shortly afterwards a fish struck at Ian's popper. He hooked it and played it almost to the beach before it came off, catapulting the popper back into his face (on such occasions wearing glasses is a real asset) but no harm done. Then I had a reasonable bass on the plug. All in all we had several more bites and landed two more slightly smaller bass before I packed in at about 08.00 hr.

An email from Ian said that he had nothing else after I left but that was not quite the end of the story. The following morning I decided to have another go and was joined by Nigel. We arrived to find the sea flat but a huge (dangerously large) swell crashing on the beach. The spot I'd fished with Ian was still fishable with care but there were masses of weed right in the edge. As it got light I noticed that the margin was a carpet of floating maggots and a small number of fish (bass and mullet) were mopping them up. I had left the fly rod at home (will I never learn) but we managed only a few tentative plucks from fish right at the end of the retrieve on the lures. Nothing caught! There's always something to see and learn.

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

First bass.

A smaller one.

A calm interlude.

'Groundbait'.