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).

Pheww!!!

I was beginning to think that I might never catch a fish again. I seem to have had one of those spells when everything I did failed. When conditions were good I couldn't go fishing and when I could go it was grim. Anyway, today the 'drought' finally broke. It wasn't fantastic but at least both my efforts to catch fish succeeded. This afternoon Lilian was at work so I had an hour carp fishing (I'll put that on my freshwater page ASAP). Encouraged by my carp sortie I went down to the coast this evening.

In fact Nigel had rung me a day or two before to ask if I fancied a session after the mullet. Now, having missed the entire series of spring tides two weeks ago I was rarin' to go. However, sod's law said I couldn't get away as early as I would have liked so Nige was down well before me. I trudged (as fast as I could) along the shore only to find my pal playing a good fish on his fly rod as I walked towards him. Just as he was about to beach the fish it popped off (they do that!). It turned out that he'd been fishing for about forty five minutes and had already landed three good mullet and lost two others - all on the maggot baited fly. I swiftly baited up my fly and joined him flogging away but the fish were already moving away from the shore a bit. Just enough to make things a little tricky. "Here we go again!" I thought but no, I managed to hook a couple of decent mullet both of which popped off as I tried to slide them ashore. Better than nothing.

I could see the odd bass among the hordes of maggot feeding mullet so I switched to a big, weedless, soft plastic in the hope of tempting one. Fifteen minutes and a couple of nips later I decided that a smaller lure was called for. After rooting about in the bag the only real option seemed to be a fry fly - one which I'd won at the annual raffle of B.A.S.S. I tied it on and began to fish but in my haste I left the dropper and maggot fly on the six pound cast.

After five minutes of cast and retrieve suddenly I had a good pull and was into a fish. What a fish! it set off for the horizon at a rate of knots and before I knew it fifty or sixty metres of line had gone. I hopped from rock to rock in an attempt to follow the fish along the shore and eventually, ten or fifteen minutes later, I was relieved to see the fly line back on the spool. Nigel and I had been joined by another pal, David Harper, who happened to have brought a landing net. After much rock hopping, slithering and sliding we had the seven pound bass in the net. A couple of quick pictures and back it went. I was well pleased.

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

My bass

The fly.

Chuffed.