Catch fish with Mike Ladle.

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).

08 August 2006

Mackerel time - time is all important.

It's really useful having several pals who go fishing. Quite often we will email or ring each other up and chat about where, when and how we've been fishing. This can be a real help when it comes to deciding where you should go for your next session. A classic example cropped up this week. I was wondering where I should go the following evening - ebbing neap tide, hot sunny humid conditions, etc., etc. Anyway, I was speaking to my friend Rudi and he mentioned that he had done very well with mackerel plus a couple of reasonable bass the previous evening. Rudi had been fishing with a wedge from one of the local shingle beaches at Worbarrow - so next evening - Worbarrow it was.>

I decided that I did not particularly want to catch mackerel and would try to select for any bass that were about. To do this I tied on a big surface popping lure. I started at the near end of the beach and trudged slowly along casting every few paces. For fifteen minutes - nothing! Then I came to a short stretch where the water was slightly milky with suspended chalk. At the very end of my retrieve, literally just as I was lifting the lure from the water and no more than half-a-metre from the edge, a fish grabbed it. It was only a small bass but since that's what I was after I was well pleased.

I continued on and fifty metres further along the beach the water was clear again. I reached the far end of the bay and no more bites were forthcoming so I decided to change the lure and work my way back. I tied on a white rubbe lure with a leadhead that I'd never used before. Nothing happened 'til I reached the chalky stretch then I hooked a mackerel. This was followed by a pollack then three more bass and another three pollack. I fished back as far as the path but there were no more bites. Still I had caught a fair proportion of bass and managed to avoid most of the mackerel.

A couple of days later I arranged for an early morning session from the rocks with my pal Ben. We arrived bright (well actually pretty gloomy at 04.00h) and early with both fly rods and spinning rods. I was continuing last year's experiments with a cast of two tiny rubber eels - one black and one white. Ben was using a Clouser minnow type fly. It was probably fifteen minutes before either of us had a bite on the fly gear then we began to catch pollack and mackerel fairly regularly. In fact I was standing a few metres to Ben's left and was getting rather more bites than my mate. I suggested that we swapped stances for a while and holding my rod high, began to walk past him. We had no sooner crossed over than my flies, which were still trailing in the water, were taken and the reel began to scream. The fish went berserk rushing off lots of line against the clutch on my fly reel.

When I eventually had the fish under control it turned out that I'd hooked not one but two modest bass, one on the black 'fly' and one on the white. No wonder it pulled hard. Later in the week I went down again with Steve Pitts and we had lots more mackerel and pollack (no sign of bass this time) including four pollack double headers on my two flies. Again there was nothing doing for the first ten or fifteen minutes then, as the light improved, the fish fed for perhaps three-quarters-of-an-hour before they went off again. Timing can be everything when it comes to catching fish.

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

Sunset at Worbarrow.

The army lock the gate at 10pm so dont fish for too long unless you want to be locked in.

Marginal bass.

This bass took the lure as I lifted it out

Mackerel on a rubber lure.

I switched to a rubber leadhead and the first fish was this mackerel.

.... and a pollack.

Pollack are always keen on rubber baits .

.....and a bass

I had several small bass on the same lure. This one meant business.

Pollack on the fly.

Even in a stiff onshore wind I was able to cast far enough to catch pollack.

Ben fly fishing from the rocks

The fish were reluctant to bite until the light improved a bit.

Double header.

Not big bass but two at once put up a real fight.