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).

More chub on the plug.

I really enjoy catching chub on lures and recently I've stuck to the little Rapala for my river fishing. I expect that the fish would take a bigger lure but the 9cm version casts a heck of a long way on my 20lb Nanofil. After the tangles I had at first with this line I seem to have the hang of it now but, like most very thin lines, it needs extra care to keep everything tight and tidy on the spool. Anyway I like it for this sort of fishing. My latest session started slowly and apart from a modest perch which took, jumped out and came off I had nothing at all for the first half hour. After a bit of a hike I reached a nice glide upstream of a cattle drink. I had to wade in to avoid the strands of barbed wire along the edge but in the past paddling about hasn't scared the fish.

I made a few casts to my usual spots with no result and I was beginning to think that the chub were not at home. However, it looked really good so I decided to give the area a second go. My third cast was made straight upstream and the take came when my plug was almost back to the rod tip. A fierce pull suggested that it was a pike but it wasn't long before the big rounded dorsal fin of a nice chub appeared. I was well pleased. I took a couple of pictures before returning the fish. After a few more biteless casts I moved on to a shallow gravel riffle. A long upstream cast produced a good take and the fish immediately took to the air. Seatrout! it was a bit livelier than the chub but I managed to land it and take a picture before slipping it back into the water. A nice way to finish.

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

Stonking chub.

The Rapala seems to pick out big fish.

Well hooked.

They rarely come unstuck.

With me.

I got the light wrong again.

Seatrout.

A nice way to finish the session.