Catch fish with Mike Ladle.

Catch Fish with
Mike Ladle

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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).

Contrasting sessions.

The fishing's not always good or even successful. The other morning I decided to try bassing in the early morning because it's been fairly productive recently. I had the shore to myself (everyone else obviously had more sense). Conditions were fantastic, no wind, flat sea, gin clear, tide beginning to flood. I flogged away with a 'Slandra' for perhaps three-quarters-of-an-hour as first light appeared in the sky - not a sniff. I switched to a J11 Rapala in the hopes of a wrasse as the light improved but still - nothing! By now I'd 'got the message' so I picked up the gear and prepared to walk back to the car. Before I left I couldn't resist a poke around at the water's edge to see if there was anything to be learned. Sure enough what looked like just a carpet of old seaweed proved to be 90% Idotea, for sure the bass and mullet would come in to feed on them at high water I thought. However, we had visitors at home so hanging on for three hours to see what happened was not an option.

A day or two after my blank I met Rob for another early morning session. We were on the shore just after four thirty. It was pretty dark when we started to fish, both of us using fly rods. Rob had a little streamer fly on the end and I was using my favourite tiny white Delta eel. For perhaps fifteen minutes neither of us had a bite. Perhaps it was going to be 'another of those days,' but we persisted and suddenly I was in. A pollack grabbed the Delta and headed for the seabed. These little fish are good sport on 'trout' gear and, when I'd landed my fish, I slithered back across the rocks to pick up the camera and took its picture before dropping it back into the sea.

As it turned out the fishing wasn't hectic but as the light changed both of us had a few fish to keep the interest going. Before we went for breakfast we tried ten minutes spinning with a plug and a soft plastic but clearly the lures were much too big for the fish that were down there. All in all a pleasant session and our first 'fly caught' fish of the year. May there be many more of them!

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

Idotea.

The plug is just to give a bit of scale to the layer of weed and 'woodlice' carpeting the shore.

Clearer.

I picked up a handful just to show more clearly the density of fish food present.

Rob.

Even after a bit of 'brightening' it's still hard to pick out the figure of my pal casting his fly from the rocks.

My first pollack.

Not the biggest one I caught but a feisty fish none the less. Note the tail of the Delta.

Close up.

Pollack are beautiful fish when you look closely at them.