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).

Another near thing!

Every so often I get the urge to go to the river and do a spot of spinning. I mentioned last time that my 'grand slam' catch for one of these sessions is a trout, a chub, a perch and a pike. Anyway, after my recent narrow failure (no chub) I had another go this week. The heavy rain of a couple of days earlier had no impact on the river at all and when I got there I found it very low, gin clear and much of it covered in duckweed or carpeted with filamentous algae. As I walked down to the river bank I met another angler who bemoaned the conditions and said he'd seen nothing at all - not the most encouraging start.

I began by using a small Angel Kiss plug which fishes very shallow. Two or three exploratory casts into a deep wide pool produced nothing but then I pitched the lure right down into the shallower run off at the tail. Almost at once I felt a take and a heavy weight which I hoped was a chub but turned out to be a reasonable pike. I beached it onto a carpet of slimy, green algae and took its picture before letting it go. good start!

The lure was going a bit deeper than I wanted (the river really is low) so I switched to a tiny Rapala. My next cast was into a fast run where the channel was constricted by some brickwork. First drop there was a heavy pull but after a couple of yanks on the line the fish came free. Trout! I thought. Never mind eh! I paddled on upstream casting ahead of me as I went and for ten minutes there was no sign of anything. I flicked the lure up into a very shallow riffle at the head of a small pool and it was taken almost before I could turn the reel. The fish felt quite heavy but it didn't put up much of a struggle so I knew that it was a chub. I took a couple of pictures and then returned it to the river. Excellent. There was another twenty minutes with no further action before I reached a deep, perchy, pool aerated by a waterfall. First cast and the plug was seized by a good perch (one pound plus). Kick, kick, kick and I wound it back to near my feet. I left it in the water under the rod tip until I removed the camera from it's bag but the fish gave a last kick and unhooked itself before I could take a picture. The next few casts produced several more perch and another chub but they were all small. Time to pack in and go home - pity about the trout. Perhaps next time I'll get all four species.

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

Pike.

Fortunately it hadn't swallowed the lure.  Look at that algae!

Chub.

A lovely, fat fish.  Perhaps I should do a bit more fly fishing for them.  Look at that duckweed!

Time delay.

It only took two goes to get me, more or less, in the middle of the picture.

Perch.

Only a tiny one but the first one (that came off while I was fiddling) was a beauty.