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).

Soft plastics for bass.

After catching a reasonable bass on a Slug-Go the other week I was fairly keen to give it another try. The chance arose when Nigel and I went for an evening's fishing on the high spring tide. Conditions were pretty good with the sea fairly calm and the water clear apart from a few metres of gunge, murk and maggots in a marginal strip. A couple of other anglers had brought fly gear to try a bit further along so the scene was set for a good evening.

Sure enough, right on cue, the fish turned up and soon there were a fair few mullet and bass taking maggots off the surface. We tried maggot flies, streamer flies, plugs and poppers with negligible success and apart from an initial bite or two on the maggot fly we were getting nowhere. Both plugs and poppers were picking up loose weed on the trebles and so they were not really fishing properly. I decided to give the Slug-Go a try just to see what would happen with a 'weedless' lure. Not surprisingly it proved to be weedless and after about five minutes I had a bite and landed a reasonable bass - good stuff! I bashed on but ten more minutes produced no further bites. Was it just a fluke? I returned to the bag and foraged about for something else to try (not like me). I had a couple of large, white Sandra lures that I sometimes use for pike. These are really huge, curly-tail grubs with a big single hook and have a good action. I tied one on and lobbed it out. Sure enough, like the Slug-Go it seemed more or less weedless. The lure was unweighted and wiggled beautifully on a slow, steady retrieve. Second cast I hooked a fish - magic! In the space of the next half-hour I had five more bass on the giant grub. The really interesting thing is that, apart from one small bass on the fly and another hooked and lost by Nigel on a Slug-Go the other three anglers were fishless all evening. All in all the Sandra had, under these conditions, outfished other flies and lures by about twenty to one in terms of the length of time it was in the water. Well worth having one in the bag!

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

Slug-Go.

Well hooked.

Sandra.

Same fish.