Catch Fish with
Mike Ladle

Information Page

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).

Smaller pike.

As I said in my latest Saltwater page I'm just back from a long weekend in Nottingham. After catching a bass in the early morning I went pike fishing for an hour in the afternoon. The river was still extremely low so again I decided to use one of my Slandras. The water was clearer than last time I fished so the rippling tail of the lure was clearly visible for most of the retrieve even after a fairly long cast. On about my fourth chuck I was just bringing the soft plastic back towards the surface under my own bank when there was a green flash, the rod bent and I was in. The fish fought surprisingly hard to say that it was only about six pounds and it was a little while before I could slide it out and unhook it. Good start.

I moved on uspstream and saw the bow wave of a decent fish moving in shallow water. I cast the Slandra across the shallows and whatever it was had a couple of swirls at it in the way back before losing interest. A little further downstream in a deeper slack area I had a good bite which was on for a couple of seconds before coming unstuck. It was a pike, probably in double figures, but wouldn't come again. I returned to the shallows and switched lures to a J9 Rapala but the fish wasn't interested in that either. A few casts later on a different pool I had another bite on the Rapala and this time landed a pike of perhaps three pounds. Fortunately, despite the two trebles, it was only lightly hooked and I released it without lifting it from the water.

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 one.

Pike two.