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).

A Tale of four trips.

I have several good pals (some might be surprised at this!) who fish at the coast. A few days ago, partly by chance (we all obviously fancied our chance of a bass) three of us, independently went spinning for bass. The trips were each blessed with quite different results.

My session was an early morning dabble in a tide race with the tide ebbing fast. I was using a white Redgill Evo Stix lure with a tiny cone weight at the head just enough to keep it under the surface. The idea was to cast across the flow and let it swing round in the current before retrieving. I was fishing at five o’clock in the morning, at half ebb, I had four bites of which I missed two and caught two bass of about 1.5lb each. Good fun in the strong flow but nothing to write home about.

On the same day my pal Bill opted for a bit of a hike to another spot fishing from the rocky ledges but mostly from a small shingle beach. Bill’s session lasted longer than mine, from about ten in the morning until after three in the afternoon. He basically fished the tide up to and over high water. He was mostly using the same sort of lure that I did and the fish were clearly biting well because he landed 22 bass on the Evo Stix plus one each on a Redgill and a Gunfish lure. He says that rain was forecast and it didn’t disappoint him. All Bill’s fish were small with the best ones round the 2lb mark. He says that he tried fishing the surface lure and had a dozen misses, hooked 4 fish but only landed 1. He was slightly despondent about the benefits of surface fishing but obviously it was an enjoyable trip. He said that there were some decent deposits of weed which might attract mullet on the springs this week.

As I said another of my pals, Richard, went lure fishing to a different rocky beach along the Purbeck coast on the same day. This time he went in the evening to fish an ebbing tide and used a variety of lures. He caught nothing at all. He did see small fish possibly pollack chasing bait. Nothing was interested in the baited spinner which he used but a quick slash at the Yo Zuri Shallow and he hit a fish on the Redgill that may have been a pound or so but there was no other interest. Richard reported three weed middens all well up the beach and already full of maggots and said it could be worth a look next set of springs - “If the weed has not been turned into a stinking black pile of maggot poo by then”.

Bill sent me a decent picture of ‘Bob’ the seal (we know him well by now) taken when he went back to his hot-spot three days later. This time he blanked in windier rougher conditions with the water much dirtier.

I guess all that it shows is how important it is to be in the right place at the right time. Also, it's worth keeping your eyes peeled for future prospects.

This is my advert for the book I wrote with Steve Pitts - just in case. Even if you don’t buy “The Second Wave” yourself – please tell your facebook, twitter, email, friends about its existence. As I’ve said IT'S AVAILABLE ON PAPER OR FOR YOUR KINDLE FROM - "Veals Mail Order" and from Amazon "Amazon"

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

One of my 'tide race schoolies' nicely hooked on the Evo Stix.

Bill's fish caught on an Evo Redgill.

Another plump little bass from Bill's good catch.

A weed midden - potential mullet food.

Our pal (and no doubt our competitor) Bob.