Catch Fish with
Mike Ladle

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SEA FISHING

18 May 2005

Early morning sessions!

last week I decided to fly fish for bass/mackerel etc. so it was up early and down to the coast. Early, at the moment, means out of the house by about three-thirty so that I can be fishing by four. To be honest, although I'm a 'good getter up' it is not always easy to rake myself out of a warm bed, dress and go out when it's still dark. On (rare) occasions I have been known to look out of the window at a scene of rain and gales - decide that discretion was the better part of valour and go back to bed. Even worse, I've driven to the coast got out of the car to find it unfishable and returned home without fishing. The latter scenario happened about ten days ago and after a fishless hour I wished that it had happened on last week's fly fishing trip. Conditions looked good, although there was a bit more swell than I would have liked, but anyway I never had a sniff. Not even pluck from a tiny pollack. This sort of thing can put you off early rising believe me.

Bad fishing trips are a bit like falling off a horse (So I'm told - I've never fallen off a horse) in that the best way to get over them is to go fishing. Anyway, being a glutton for punishment, two days after my blank I was up at half-past-three again. This time I was spinning with a plug. The first ten minutes were slow (=dead) but I know that the fish tend to bite just as it gets light so I was not too worried. I'm sure I've mentioned it before but the critical time seems to be just as you can first begin to see the lure plop into the water at the end of a decent cast. Anyway, as the witching hour (minute) approached I was full of anticipation. Sure enough about two casts after I saw the first 'splashdown' of my Rapala there was a pluck on the line then a second later I was into a fish. It was not a big bass but well pleasing in the circumstances. I went to grab the camera. By the time I had taken a couple of pictures, unhooked and returned the fish and walked back to my spot five minutes must have elapsed. First cast I landed another bass, about the same size as the first and that was it! No more bites nothing. I guess that if I had not bothered with the pictures I might have caught one or two more anyway it was sufficiently encouraging to make me consider another early session soon. It won't be this week though as I'm taking my grandson to school every morning

Oh and I did find a big pile of rotting weed full of maggots so perhaps the forthcoming spring tides will produce a few mullet or bass on the fly for an evening session.

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

Dawn bass.

The same fish.