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).

The simplest tackle!

Since I caught a decent bass on bait the other day I'd been hankering after giving it another go. The idea was to fish the very first of the flood tide but when I woke up at 04:00 hours there didn't seem much point going back to bed so I dressed and set off for the coast. The result was that I arrived far too early - an hour before low water. Of course it was pretty light by this time and I took a picture of two blokes who were already spinning from the ledges in the bay.

I arrived at my chosen spot to find my pal Rob already spinning. Odd, because I hadn't noticed his car in the car park! It seemed that his vehicle had refused to restart after he'd stopped so he'd had to park it back down the road and walk to the shore. Anyway, I attached a side of mackerel, hooked once through the thin end, to the 6/0 circle hook on my spinning rod. I swung the bait about two metres out into about 30cm of water and found a handy boulder for my seat. Rob continued to spin and I laid the rod down with the bale arm open and the line hanging slack. For half and hour the tide did nothing at all but there was no wind and the sea was flat calm and clear so it was easy fishing. I waited and watched for the tide to begin flooding and when Rob came over for a chat I commented that it was just starting to rise.

The water had just risen about one centimetre covering a tiny hump in the rocks when I noticed a couple of coils of braid slipping from the spool of my reel. Now it had never even twitched before this so I guessed it must be a fish. I picked up the rod and waited. The movement had ceased. I twitched the rod tip to dislodge a strand of weed from the line and as I did so the run began again. This time it was a stronger, more purposeful movement with the line streaming out quite quickly. I closed the bale and hung on as the rod bowed over and a decent fish thrashed the water to foam.

I played the bass in and slid it ashore just as three other anglers arrived on the scene. Rob and I took a few pictures and I slipped the fish back. After a minute or so it realised that it was free and swam steadily out to sea. Excellent stuff this bait fishing and clearly a piece of last years mackerel is quite acceptable to the bass. It seems a bit sedentary and slow compared to spinning but it's a lot easier on my sad old shoulder joint.

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

Spinning.

Two bass anglers out on the ledges.

Nice bass.

This one took in unbelievably shallow water.

Well hooked.

The little spinning rod is more than adequate to pull home a sharp 6/0 circle hook.