Catch fish with Mike Ladle.

Catch Fish with
Mike Ladle

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Freshwater 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).

Perch by all means.

Last week, having caught the odd perch when I was after seatrout, I decided to see whether there were any decent perch in the more likely spots. I had a couple of sessions using everything from plugs to livebaits but the results were all the same. Plenty of perch but nothing of any size. I tried with J9f Rapalas, No 3 black Mepps, Home made No5 silver spinners, and live minnows but it made no difference - they were taken by little perch. They must be some of the greediest fish in existence and even though I was using a wire trace to avoid bite offs by pike (I didn't hook any pike!) the little stripeys gobbled them down. I did try a minor experiment by trying to make a snagless weight. I simply sleeved the bomb in a piece of black rubber tubing - it seemed to work but only time will tell.

The only diversions from the little perch were a few bites from modest trout/seatrout on the spinners - all missed and a couple of takes from decent chub on the plug - also missed. Ah well, better luck next time.

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

Plug.

A little perch on the J9.

Mepps.

Another one on the black Mepps.

Plug.

- and another tiddler on my home-made spinner.

Circle hook.

This one took a paternostered minnow.

Rig.

My little circle hook and weedless weight on top of the bait tub.

Another.

Yet another little one on a live minnow.