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).

Another decent carp off the top.

The other day I went carp fishing again. I still had a bag of crusts in the freezer so bait wasn't a problem and the weather was just beginning to warm up and dry up after an unpleasant few days. As usual I rigged a size six barbless hook with a big cube of crust as I left the car and I began to walk slowly round the lakes looking for customers.

At the third access point that I viewed I was in luck. A decent carp was right in under my own bank and it didn't see me (I was being as careful in my approach as possible). I waited until the fish moved to a spot where I thought I was beyond its range of vision before swinging the bait out so that the line fell over a projecting stem of gorse and hung vertically down to where the crust floated on the surface. Perfect! I lay the rod down on the bank and closed the bale arm before making a couple of turns on the reel handle to pick up slack line. Now I needed patience - but not too much.

It can't have been more than about five minutes before the carp sidled back along towards my bait. Without hesitation it approached the bread and began to nuzzle it. It nuzzled so hard that I watched the crust fall apart and the white crumb floated up to the surface. I thought "That's my first chance gone!" but to my astonishment, as the fish turned away, the rod was dragged round after it. I had to make a quick grab to stop it being pulled off the bank into the water. The fish was well hooked and it was not long before it was under control in the open water. I netted the carp, a good leather and measured it at 67cm. The hook had fallen out in the net so I simply took a picture before slipping the fish back. Good start! I thought that after this quick action I was bound to get a few more but I was wrong and none of the other places I tried produced any bites other than from pestiferous littl rudd.

I fished for my usual hour-and-a-half before packing in but the only bit of extra excitement was a deer which walked round the bank to where I stood and posed for a picture. I wonder whether it was the source of the tick I acquired last week?

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

Not a bad carp, certainly in the upper teens.

xxxx.

The deer decided not to come any closer when it finally saw me.

xxxx.