Catch fish with Mike Ladle.

Catch Fish with
Mike Ladle

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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 four 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. 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 so if you are new to fly fishing or spinning these are the ones for you).

10 November 2009.

Mixed fish.

One day last week I was at a loose end for an hour or two so I bought myself a pint of maggots and decided to go coarse fishing. I was tackled up with the gear that I'd used a few days earlier for catching sandsmelts down at the coast. I have to say that the rod, an old spinning rod, is not conventional coarse fishing equipment but it is handy and versatile (anyway I don't have a 'float rod' any more). Firstly I went to a small sidestream of the local river where the short rod is a distinct advantage. Although there had been a fair amount of rain and it was pretty coloured the level was not up much. At once I was into dace and I caught quite a lot including a couple of 8-10oz apiece. among the dace I had two small roach and then I hooked a much livelier fish which turned out to be a little seatrout.

After an hour or so I'd caught enough dace to satisfy my craving so I moved to the main river to see if I could find a grayling or two. At this point the rain started again so I donned my anti-rain apparel. Before long it was absolutely pelting down. Thank heavens for the waterproofs and chest waders. Having started I decided I would continue fishing and again the grayling, although small, were fairly obliging and I caught them at regular intervals. Then I dropped a couple and that seemed to be it - no more bites. I expect that if I refined my gear a bit (quite a lot) I would catch more fish but I don't do much of this sort of fishing so the old spinning rod is adequate for my purpose and as I say it's handy in tight corners.

The only down side of the session was when I tried to extract my hook from a stem of cow parsley. As I reached down, the bank collapsed and my left leg folded sideways with a nasty cracking sound. I'll be hobbling for a week or two I expect. Hopefully it won't interfere too much with the fishing - the rock-hopping season is nearly over.

Time delay.

Nice dace but I still haven't quite got the hang of aiming the camera at myself.

Small trout.

It jumped about a bit and was quite a handful on the float gear.

Grayling.

I love these fish and they always 'pull a bit' even when they are not monsters.  I guess that the big dorsal fin gives them lots of resistance.

Another.

Note the old spinning rod.  It was never much good for spinning but it's fine for a spot of float fishing.

- and another.

Beautiful fish.