Catch fish with Mike Ladle.

Catch Fish with
Mike Ladle

Information Page

SEA FISHING

11 November 2004

Calm weather!

Since the last 'Catch Fish' page I have spent three days in Ireland - round about Cork. My companions on the trip were Steve Pitts, Alan Vaughan and Geoff Hancock. The weather was amazing. There was no wind, no rain and NO FISH!. Well there were a few bass but although we fished some amazing spots and put in lots of time they were hard to come by. Over kelp forests and rock where we expected loads of pollack we had barely a sniff. In estuaries and over sandy storm beaches we struggled (even with sea trout leaping everywhere) to get bites. Apparently, according to local information, the previous week's terrific storms had spoiled the bass, pollack and mackerel fishing.

Even with the deficiency of bass the fishing was very interesting. We used flies, plugs, poppers, shads, and vibrating lures AND CAUGHT FISH ON MOST OF THEM. Our main objective was to film some bass for the forthcoming video/DVD "Still Hooked on Bass". We already had most of the sequences 'in the can' but needed just a few more shots of fish being caught. It would have been nice to have hit a bonanza but it was not to be. We tried very hard to find a feeding frenzy but there was none, at least along the many miles of shoreline that we were fishing.

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 first bass of the trip.

This fish took a vibrating lure with no lip.  I popped it in a rockpool until I had taken its picture (not knowing whether I would catch another one).

---on a shad.

These self-weighted lures are long casters and good bass attractors.

---on a fly.

Geoff tempted this one on a 'sandeel' fly that he had tied himself.

---on a vibrating lure.

This fish took the lure (one I had not tried before) with a real wallop.

What a fish!

Alan Vaughan caught this fish (a male cuckoo wrasse) last summer but it is so colourful I could not resist putting its picture on the web.