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).

Plugging and popping.

Richard, my son, came down for a couple of days last weekend and we managed to squeeze in a morning's fishing. The weather was a bit wet and windy and the sea was rather rough but we had decided to do a spot of spinning. Richard was using a shallow diving plug and I had tied on a surface popper (in hopes of catching something bigger than he would).

It was still dark when Rich called out that he had a fish. I scrambled back over the rocks to get the camera but the fish proved to be a typical schoolie - fat and feisty, as they are at this time of year, but no test for the tackle. The fish was duly returned and we went back to fishing. Richard had landed three before I had so much as a sniff on the surface lure. It would have been very easy to become discouraged and switch to a floating diver but I didn't (it needs a lot of will power) and eventually, at maximum range, I felt the rod bow over in a familiar fashion as a fish nailed the lure laying 'dead' on the surface.

By the time we were ready to pack in (a couple of hours after starting) I was beginning to catch up with Rich's number of takes and we finished up catching bass - five:three to him. All the fish were of similar size (one-and-a-half to two-and-a-half pounds) and in all Rich had about twice as many bites sub-surface as I had on the popper. Not bad considering the conditions although it would have been nice to catch something that would have dragged a bit of line off against the clutch. Next time perhaps????

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

Richard's first.

Later.

Popped.

- and another.