Catch fish with Mike Ladle.

Catch Fish with
Mike Ladle

"HOME."

Information Page

12 January 2005.

Poor fishing.

For anyone unfamiliar with the site always check the FISHING ARCHIVE and TACK-TICS pages. Even if my diary page has been a bit neglected (as recently) I keep adding to them so it's always worth looking at the latest entries.

My first fishing trips in 2005 were to the river. We seem to have had nothing but rain and wind lately so the Frome was up and down like a yoyo. I tried maggot fishing and caught a few dace and a salmon kelt from a tiny side channel, then I went down the main river and landed a couple of pike - nothing special but pleasant enough.

While I was dace fishing I noticed a splash in the shallows just downstream of a small bridge. When I went to investigate I saw a salmon cutting a redd in the gravel. There were tewo or three males in attendance but it was difficult to see them because of the ripple on the water.

A few days later I went out to try for some more dace. The water was still pretty coloured and there had been a frost in the morning but I was still hopeful. I scattered a few loose maggots into the water and began to fish. Having missed the first few bites I struck too hard and a well hooked minnow flew back over my head. The next fish was a small dace and then a grayling just a bit bigger. Then the float snapped. I did not have another float with me so I switched to a somple paternoster (the same weight and hook that I had used on my float). By watching for the line to twitch I could see the bites and I caught dace and grayling just as fast as I could on the float. In fact by striking on every retrieve I had several that I did not know were there. Hopefully I'll do a bit more fishing before my holiday in early February. Anyway, have a look at the latest Tactics piece about circle hooks, I think it is fascinating.

Salmon redds.

The areas of pale gravel are the mound in which the eggs are buried. These two redds were made by the same fish.

A pike.

A nice clear shot of the wine-bottle cork float.

Beaten

The pike is well hooked on my circle hook.

Another pike.

Beautifully marked.

Maggots.

I generally have a few white maggots in the fridge for mullet in the summer and dace in the winter.

A dace.

I really enjoy dace fishing, as a rule it's all action.

A small grayling.

Beautifully marked fish grayling are very fast growing and this one would only be a year old.

A bigger grayling.

This one was about a pound and took the paternostered maggots.