Tackle and Tactics
Mike Ladle

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Information Page.

Bass on the move.

There is no doubt, whatever the authorities might say to the contrary, that the bass fishing around many of our shores has deteriorated. Of course there are plenty of fish to be caught in the traditional bass territories but the proportion of decent sized bass has declined dramatically over the past twenty years. However, on the credit side, in recent times there has been a definite northerly shift in bass populations on both the east and the west coasts of Britain. What is more, the fish being caught by anglers in the northwest and the northeast include a fair number of bigger specimens. A recent exchange of emails (slightly edited) with Dave Adamson, who fishes the Whitby-Bridlington area says it all -

Dear Mike

I live in north Yorkshire. I don't know whether you will believe this (I do! ML) but after being away from anglingfor almost 30 years I bought a sit on Kayak in August and started fishing for cod. Anyway after a few trips my friend, Ian Sellers, suggested we might do some lure fishing for bass which are increasingly plentiful in this area. I bought a 6ft 6in spinning rod & some plugs. I caught a few schoolies on my first trip and instantly wanted to do more. I read all the magazine articles I could lay my hands on and continued to do quite well, but my best fish was 2.5lb. My friend & I started to fish rougher ground, not known for bass in this area and we had a few bigger fish. The best to my buddy of 6.5lb (a cracker! ML). Unfortunately we both had work commitments overseas and fishing was put on hold for a few weeks but whilst away I bought your book and read it cover to cover. It made me think about habitat and look at our area based on the criteria in the book. Result 8lb 12oz bass on first trip out.

Regards

Dave Adamson

I was suitably impressed by Dave's fish (all of them) and asked him one or two questions about how he'd caught it, what it had eaten etc. He replied -

Hi Mike

Thanks for the reply. As to your question's the fish was a female with roe, but had not had a recognisable meal just some well digested stuff. I caught it with Maria BW fished on 12lb Braid. I was sitting in my Kayak casting towards the shore, into small bay formed by low scars running out to sea. The tide had just started to ebb and the fish took as soon as the lure hit the water (very shallow < 2ft). The sea was a bit more coloured than I would normally like for plugging but ???? As to other fish, we have had a super year with cod up to 7lb using hokies & shads, regular catches of 50lb or more in a session. I tried trolling for pollack using deeper diving plugs (Sliver etc.) and had a fish of about 5lb, but I'm sure that there is a lot more action to be had in that department as it was not particularly a good location.

Dave said it was OK to use his stuff on the web page, offered to show me round if I'm ever up in Yorkshire and and sent me some pictures and a link to a local website which is a mine of information -

"Whitby Sea Anglers"

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

Ian in action!

He looks as though he's enjoying it.'

There we go.

What a smashing fish.  When I lived in the northeast (forty-odd years ago) this would have been headline news.'

More relaxed now.

I expect that there's more where that came from.'

Dave's fish.

I changed the background (a bit of Dorset sea) - hope Dave doesn't mind.'