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).

A pleasant couple of hours on the River.

My son-in-law Mark is a very good angler. Over the years we have fished together occasionally. However, although we both belong to a local club, we live some miles apart and due to work and family commitments we have tended to fish different waters using different methods. Last weekend we finally decided to get together and fish on the same stretch of river. There had been one or two frosty mornings so we waited for a favourable forecast, no frost and a relatively mild day, before fixing up our session. For once the weather-man had got it right and conditions looked reasonable. When we met at mid-day (hoping that the afternoon period would give us the best chance of sport. On arrival at the river it looked OK, high flows and a bit murky but definitely fishable.

It was well over a year since I had fished the stretch and Mark had never been anywhere on the river before so our first job was to walk the stretch and decide where it might be worth fishing. It probably took a good half-hour to view the entire length and Mark, who intended trying for chub with legered cheese paste, had picked a couple of spots that seemed promising. We back-tracked to his first choice and after he had set up his gear I left him to it and went back down to another swim which I hoped might hold a pike (I was wobbling a fresh sardine on a circle hook - no weight or float).

My first ten minutes were fishless - it looked good but nothing was interested in my flashing , twitching bait. Anyway, I dont stay too long in one place when I'm piking so I walked back up to see how Mark was doing. When I found him he had already had some action, he'd had a couple of bites and landed a nice, hard fighting chub of over four pounds. He said it was "The ugliest fish in the river!" but we were both pleased that he had broken his duck and we were not going to be totally fishless.

Mark's ugly, lipless, chub.

I decided to go further upstream to where we had seen a couple of pikey places. The first one I tried was a deep slack on a sharp bend. A huge raft of dead reeds had accumulated on the surface and it looked just the spot for a pike to lie in ambush. I flicked out the bait and twitched it back towards me in a series of short jerks. On only the second cast a green torpedo shot out from under the reed-raft and grabbed the bait. I opened the bale arm and let the fish carry the bait down. I'd had a clear view and knew that the pike was about five or six pounds so I waited a few seconds for it to 'turn the bait' before closing the bale arm. I lifted the rod and felt the weight of the fish which began to swim off as the line slowly drew tight. For a while I gently played the fish while I considered how best to get it in the net without slithering into six feet of water. Then it let go! I wound in the bait and noted the slashes made by the pike's teeth and the damage where the hook was positioned. After re-hooking the pilchard more firmly I had another couple of casts but (unusually) the fish didn't return. I opted to move further upstream to try the slack water of a small ditch that joined the main river.

By now I'd decided that the bait was not very secure so I took it off and kept it in reserve, using my other pilchard as a replacement. At the ditch I lowered the bait at my feet into perhaps three feet of murky water and began to twitch it. 'Bottom', I thought, as everything went solid. I raised the rod to feel what had happened and 'bump, bump!' I realised that it was not a snag but a fish. It was too deep and coloured to see what was down there so I tightened and hung on. The rod bowed and the pike shot away towards the mouth of the ditch, taking line against a tight clutch. It was not long until I had a decent view of the pike - a long, thin, fish but a good deal bigger than the one that I'd lost earlier. I played it towards a secure stance and picked up the net. At the second attempt it slid over the rim and I had it. Certainly twelve pounds and would probably have been a good bit more if it had been fatter.

More than a decent netful of pike.

My grip and grin shot.

I was pleased to have caught a decent fish. The pike was beautifully hooked in the scissors and after a bit of a fiddle I unhooked it and took a couple of pictures. I thought about taking it to show Mark but decided against it and returned the fish to the river. If there was one pike in the ditch I decided it was likely that there would be others. My bait had been lost in the struggle so I put on the damaged one that I'd kept and lowered it in a little further up the ditch. Almost at once the line tightened and this time it turned out to be a submerged fence post with attached barbed wire. I managed to jiggle the hook free of the post but in the process lost my bait. Time for a change of tactics. I removed the hook and switched to a large, unweighted, weedless, soft plastic, Slandra. I flicked the lure out beyond the mouth of the ditch into the murky river and began to wind it back. I could see the sinuous tail of the lure as it wriggled along fairly near the surface. Just as it entered the calm water of the ditch it was grabbed by a pike of perhaps four pounds and immediately dropped again. A couple more casts and no more bites so I decided to walk back down and see how my pal was doing.

I did not have to walk very far. Having caught no more at his first spot he had moved upstream to try another place. First cast he had had another chub, smaller but in much better nick than the other one. By now we were beginning to lose the light so after the obligatory 'last casts' we decided that honour was satisfied and made our way back to the car for the drive home. A good time was had by all and I'm sure it won't be the last joint session we'll have.

Mark's second chub - smaller but much better looking than the first.

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