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 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).

I'VE BEEN PLUGGING IN THE RIVER THIS WEEK SO IF YOU'RE INTERESTED HAVE A LOOK AT THE FRESHWATER PAGE.

21 June 2006

A few more bass

Ben and I went down to a different spot this week. Although we have been catching fish it's always nice to have a change and since Ben had never seen this spot before he was bound to find it interesting.

We arrived just as it was getting light and I showed Ben a couple of spots that were fishable (there seems to be a forest of Japweed this year). Anyway, I tried a popper and Ben used his favourite Maria Chase plug. For ten minutes there was nothing doing at all then - disaster! For no obvious reason Ben's nylon cast parted and his plug sailed off into the fast flowing tide - someone may be lucky!

Earlier on I'd suggested that he should try a popper because of the weed and rocks just under the surface so, after a considerable amount of fiddling in the gloom (we'd left the torch in the car) he managed to tie a Skitterpop to the end of his line. First chuck with the lure, exactly where I had just been fishing, his popper splashed down and he was into a bass. His first ever on a surface lure! He was chuffed. It was a bit too dark for me to take a worthwhile picture so we unhooked the fish and returned it to the sea.

After a few more casts (I missed a couple of bites, probably from fish that couldn't cope with my lure) we opted to wade out and fish into the main flow. It was hurtling along and not long after we started Ben hit his second popped fish out in the raging current. It was no monster but with the strong race in its favour it put up a good struggle. By now it was light enough for a couple of pictures.

We fished on for a little while and it was now getting pretty bright as the sun came up in a cloudless sky. I missed another bite and decided to switch to one of my leaded redgills. Five more minutes and I had a strong pull which turned out to be a bass similar to Ben's second one. We waded back from the ledge and walked for some distance along the rocky shore but we had no more bites. We were now being pressure cooked inside our waders so we packed in and went for breakfast. Wonderful!

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

Still gloomy.

Ready to unhook.

Better shot.

My bass.