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).

River plugging at dawn.

I'm just back from a trip to South Wales; I was with my wife and a group of keen archaeologists so we spent most of our time looking at Roman forts and Norman castles - definitely no fishing, for once I didn't even take any gear. I did see a couple of places where there were fish however. The moat of Caerphilly castle was shallow, very weedy and held quite a few carp. A couple of anglers were sitting in the blazing sun and as far as I could see catching nothing. We also went to Monmouth where the River Monnow flows under an old, ornamental bridge. While the others were having a tour of the bridge towers I spent my time peering into the water and saw a few reasonable chub cruising about. This brought back memories because I'd almost forgotten that many years ago I fished there with my pal Steve Pitts and together with Dave Lewis we caught some twaite shad from the Monnow not far downstream of the bridge.

Having returned and recovered from trogging round Welsh ruins I decided to go over to the Stour for an early morning dabble (there are less people about at that time of the day and I'm an anti-social bugger). I was fishing by about 04:15 so because it was overcast it was still still pretty dark. For ten or fifteen minutes my little jointed Rapala was untouched by fishy mouths then I had a sharp tap which didn't stick. "Jack pike!" I thought. Sure enough a few more casts and I was into a pike of about four pounds. I took a few pictures as I played it in and then I unhooked it without landing it - easy because it was just nicked on the tail treble. Next cast I had a tiny perch, not much bigger than the plug. Another pike slightly larger than the first was the next fish and then a perch of perhaps four ounces. All good fun. By now it was getting light and the fish went off, as they often do, so I went home. Four fish in an hour wasn't bad. Perhaps next time I'll get a decent chub or a trout?

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

The castle moat, note the sunny weather, the angler on the far bank and the carp swirling in the foreground.

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The moat is shallow and weedy with some decent carp and lots of ducks and geese.

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The River Monnow from the bridge - a bit too murky to get a picture of the chub.

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My first pike fighting hard.

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Ready to unhook.

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Tiny perch.

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The second pike.

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The reflected flash makes it look as though it's blind in one eye.

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Another perch but still not a monster, this time hooked on the middle treble.

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Same perch and still not a lot of light.

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