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).

06 July 2007

Weed and water.

The weather's still awful with thunder, lightening, rain, hail, wind, you name it. However, by choosing a suitably sheltered shore it is sometimes possible to find a spot of reasonably clear water for a session of lure fishing. The other morning I noticed that the wind, although still strong, had gone round to the west so I decided to give it a go from an east facing ledge. When I got down there the tide was ebbing hard and I couldn't get out onto the spot I wanted to fish without risk of being washed away. I plugged away for twenty minutes with only a couple of plucks from (I think) small pollack. By now the flow was easing so I decided to risk life and limb to fish in the race.

My first cast was just a short one to check that everything was in order and I was surprised when there was a sharp tug on the lure - true to my current form it was not hooked but I was encouraged. For the next ten minutes I winged the plug out into the race and swung it round in the strong flow - nothing! Thinking about my first cast I decided that my longer casts may not have been covering the same ground as my first trial chuck. I flicked the plug out about ten metres and almost before I had tightened there was a fish on. It put up a fair battle but I landed it and took a picture. By the time I'd unhooked and returned the bass it was pretty light and I had no more bites. On the way back to the car I walked past quite a long stretch of fishable ground that, last year, produced numerous fish to the plugs and poppers. However, this season it is absolutely thick with japweed. There's so much of the stuff that spinning is virtually impossible. It's interesting how things can change from year to year.

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

The race.

My bass.

Hooked?.

Japweed.