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 August 2007

Back to Dorset.

While we were on holiday Richard (one of my sons) and Ana looked after our house and Rich took the chance for a spot of fishing. They live in Oxford so sea fishing is not usually on the agenda. In all he had seven short, early-morning sessions with a spinning rod and the same shallow diving plug each time. I expect that in all he had ten or twelve hours fishing (like me he tends to fish for short periods) and he commented that by 05.30 the fish had usually gone off anyway. He kept a diary of the catches on each session and I think they're interesting so I'll list them here.

1. Sea fairly rough but fishable. Six mackerel one bass.

2. Pretty rough but safe. Two mackerel (one very large) and two bass.

3. Still very choppy. Four mackerel, three bass (best 3.5lb), one small pollack. Lost big fish (?bass) took 20m of line before coming unstuck.

4. Different spot, still quite rough. One bass (3lb).

5. Back to other venue still rather rough, low water. Six bass, four mackerel. Fished live mackerel for an hour and was taken by big bass during a mackerel blitz. Bass dropped bait before I could attempt to hook it.

6. Fairly calm, extreme low water. Two bass, eleven mackerel. No bites on livebait (1hr).

7. Calmer still. One bass, twenty mackerel. No bites on livebait (0.5hr).

Pretty good fishing and very consistent. Richard commented that the proportion of mackerel seemed to increase with the calmness of the water although the state of the tide and other factors may be involved as well. If we say twelve hours spinning produced 47 mackerel, 16 bass and one pollack (about five fish an hour) I reckon that was excellent sport. On one occasion he landed two mackerel together on the same plug.

Following Richard's success, Ben and I went to try a spot of spinning/fly fishing/livebaiting. The sea was again fairly choppy and we began fishing in the dark. I started with the fly rod and a little rubber eel. My first fish was the biggest pollack I've caught, on the fly, in Dorset so far (not quite up to Irish quality but nice to catch) followed by a small one then another big one (second biggest). Ben also had a couple of pollack on the fly later on. A total of five pollack on the fly while Rich had only one on the plug during his two week stint - interesting! Ben produced a mackerel for me to use as bait but I had no bites. I had another mackerel on a spoon and Ben had several more plus five bass. Another good session and fitting in with the high proportion of bass roughness index that Rich suggested.

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

Pollack.

Bass.

Come hup!

Nice one!