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).

Early morning mixed bag.

Considering the time of the year Ben and I have been catching a reasonable number of bass from the shore. However, we were both getting the feeling that it might be worth trying one or two other marks in search of a wider variety of fish. My pal was away on business last week so the first chance we had to fish together was this morning. We arranged to meet at 04.00 hr for an exploratory spinning/fly fishing session.

Unusually for him Ben was a couple of minutes late picking me up and when we set off for the coast there were already signs of light in the eastern sky. By the time we arrived at our chosen spot it was already lightening a bit so we both grabbed our fly rods and began to fish. After ten minutes - nothing! We never had a sniff on the flies so Ben picked up his spinning gear armed with a plug and I followed suit but using a small single-hooked wedge.

Each of us had a finnicky knock on our lure in the first few minutes - encouraging! There was a fair old swell breaking over the ledge but Ben opted to risk a soaking and fish a bit further out. He was spot on and within a few minutes I could see that he was into a fish. It was obviously something bigger than the small pollack (or what have you) that had plucked at the lures earlier and within a couple of minutes he was hoisting a modest but welcome bass onto the shore - fantastic!

We fished on for a little while but after a getting rather wet Ben retreated to where I was standing and I ventured out onto 'his' ledge, commenting as I did so that I'd heard of garfish being caught locally in the past week. Sure enough after a few casts I had a firm take on the wedge and played a smallish gar to the shore. We took it's picture and returned to our fishing again. A few more casts and I had another bite. This was much more lively and clearly wasn't a garfish. It turned out to be our first mackerel of the year - I was well pleased. We repeated the photography and fished on. Yet again I had a bite and this one fought harder than either of the others. It was, unmistakably, a bass which I duly landed and returned to the sea with it's pals.

No more bites were forthcoming on either the spinning or the fly gear so we packed in to walk back to the car. A look at the watch showed that we had been fishing for an hour and a quarter, excellent results considering that, in addition to our catches, we had each had a few mini-bites from small pollack or garfish. We'll be trying again before long.

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

Ben's bass.

My first fish.

My mackerel.

My bass.