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).

26 May 2008

Give us a clue.

I'm having 'one of those periods in the doldrums'. Even when there are fish about I try the wrong tactics or miss the crucial bite - never mind, it will pass (I hope). Anyway, on the last lot of spring tides a few of us went down for an evening after mullet or bass. The conditions seemed perfect and I'd sussed where the piles of maggoty weed were earlier in the week. Sure enough, as the tide rose, the mullet arrived, big ones, feeding at the surface in decent shoals. However, it was soon obvious that the maggots were drifting in the wrong direction (out to sea) and taking the birds and fish with them. Huge flocks of blackheaded gulls (and a few herring gulls) were squabbling wildly at the surface but well out of fly casting range. We spun plugs and caught a few bass but it was VERY frustrating (nothing changes eh!). Some of the lads from the 'Mullet Club' had fished all afternoon and had had one or two fish on float-fished bread but, in view of the numbers of visible fish, virtually nothing.

I couldn't go on the following evening but my pal Dave Baker tells me that, in contrast to the night before, the maggots (and mullet) were close in all night. Dave was bassing and had a few more small fish on lures but it sounds as though the mullet would have been a sure thing on fly gear. Perhaps in two weeks time we'll have another chance.

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

Where shall I cast to?

It's pretty clear where the maggots and the fish are concentrated.

Zoom.

It would be handy if you could really zoom the fish in close enough to cast to them.

Bass.

There were a few schoolies there but nothing to shout about.

Almost time to go.

As the sun sinks slowly in the west it's often worth a last cast for a bass.