Catch Fish with
Mike Ladle

Information Page

21 February 2004.

Piking again.

Before I get down to the fishing I have a request. I have accidentally deleted part of my e-mail address book. I would appreciate an e-mail from anyone who has corresponded over the past year so that I can get in touch in the future.

Thanks,

Mike.

My first trip out since I got back from Tobago was last Saturday. I rang Nigel and we elected to have a session piking. It was a cold bright afternoon and we met at one o'clock to fish on a local stretch of the River Frome. We actually started fishing at about one thirty having decided to concentrate on the slacks and ditches where the pike should be starting to gather prior to spawning. In the first ditch a small fish (5-6lb) attacked my bait but I missed it and we decided to leave it and try the next pool. Nothing there so we moved on to a third spot. After a few minutes there was a mighty swirl as Nigel was about to lift his bait from the water. He tightened and the pike was firmly hooked. It put up a fine battle before I was able to net it and it weighed in at nineteen-and-three-quarter-pounds. What a start!

In the next ditch it was only seconds before my float shot away as another decent fish hooked itself. I held it hard to avoid submerged scaffolding and willow trees. This one weighed almost seventeen-pounds, another beauty. At the end of the same ditch Nigel had his second - this time a smaller fish of six- or seven-pounds. We were well chuffed.

We tramped back up the other bank and after finding nothing in the next pool we had a cast into a dead slack behind a fallen tree covered in a mass of honeysuckle. A fish slashed at my bait right in among the submerged twigs and I commented to Nigel that I did not fancy my chance of landing it. A couple of minutes later the fish had another go and to my amazement it swam out of its lair with the bait in its mouth. I tightened and found myself attached to yet another good fish. It pulled hard but I was able to keep it out of the tree and before long Nigel netted it for me. Just over 21 pounds. We finished the day off with a fish of seven or eight pounds landed by Nigel - it was four o'clock - almost worth coming back to the cold for a session like that.

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

INFORMATION SPOT

COARSE FISHING

February 21 2004

On the bank!

Is he pleased?

My first pike of the session.

Nigel plays a smaller pike.

Over twenty-one-pounds.