Last chance to get a pike this year so I fished a stream on the border. Pretty strong flow but good visibility. The shortcut through the preserve meant dealing with the highlanders but luckily they did not seem that bothered by my presence.
Managed to hook two pike but on both the hook did not stick so I am afraid I was skunked again. Then again it was a huge improvement over the session before when I did not see any action at all. That pike will come next year. Fishing for this year is done so all left to do is wishing everybody all the best for the upcoming year.
With the end of the year in sight it was time for our traditional venue to close of the flyfishing year, the so called “oliebol snoeken”. Where “oliebol” stood for the deep fried raisin bun, a traditional end of the year treat in the Netherlands. With “snoeken” pike fishing was meant.
The location for this year was a polder, a piece of low lying reclaimed land littered with small canals and ditches used to drain the land by means of pumping stations. It was cold in the morning, temperature below freezing and a bleak sun in the sky. As it was freezing the guides would ice up so from time to time you had to dislodge the buildup ice. The visibility was very poor, it had a coffee color which dimmed my hopes for catching anything.
After a few hours fishing the results were pretty meager. Tom had a strike of a pike but missed the fish, he did notice some baitfish around. I had seen not any activity of fish, the rest of the guys also with no hits. The lack of visibility in the water bothered us so we went looking for cleaner water. In the end we found a nice wide canal that had a dark tannic color but with some visibility in it. It did not take long before Tom hooked the first pike of the day.
Hopes where raised and we did our best to imitate Tom but alas to no avail. After walking a mile or so along the canal making various casts into the middle of the canal and along the shore line I had nothing to show for. In the mean time the rest of the guys had doubled back to the first location of the morning but soon came back as it still was no good.
When the guys came back Tom asked me if I had seen anything moving and well I had. In the same spot where Tom landed his first fish I had seen some fish moving but tossing in a streamer did not yield a strike for me. Tom started to fish the same stretch and behold within a short while he hooked another pike. It got worse .. at least for us … soon Tom caught pike number three.
With the sun going under and the temperature back to freezing we called it a day. Off course the phrase “Dumb farmers grow the biggest potatoes” came up but in the end it was clear that we where useless and Tom could fish … simple as that. We end the day at the pancake house nearby for a proper ending of the fishing year, kudos to Tom … surely our pike whisperer.
At our local flyfishingclub plans where made for an outing to Rotterdam to pursue shad. At one of the club meetings the neccesary flies where tied and dates where picked for the venue. The location was the ” Nieuwe Waterweg” which was in facto the artificial mouth of the Rhine with the North Sea. The best time to fish for shad was towards the low tide when the shad would gather in the lower part of the waterway as they entered from the sea. The signs to watch out where jumpin fish and diving gulls as the shad would hunt for small baitfish. My equipment consisted out of a #6 sinking tip line with a short leader and a small chartreuse weighted fly.
So far the plans, we arrived at the outgoing tide and carefully positioned ourselves near the breakwater. The waterway was a major shipping channel for oceangoing vessels we took care to watch for bowwaves. We did not wanted to be flushed out to England. In the beginning of the tide a few shad showed themselves but not in the numbers we had hoped for. I was into fish at the first few casts when I caught my first be it little european sea bass. Unfortunately that was it for the rest of the day as the shad where just not there. From locals we gathered that fishing for shad had been really bad so I guess they had not arrived in numbers yet. In the end I had caught one fish of a new species. Watching all that shipping entertained me through the rest of the day.
A day ago I walked past an innercity canal and spotted a bunch of large perch lying on the canal floor hiding under some floating plants. I was there “unarmed” so I vowed to check the place out the next day.
Off course I went back to the canal and checked the location of yesterday … no one was at home. I then went looking for the perch at the other bank and noticed one fish on the move. Once cast along the bank and the fly was intercepted by a hefty perch.
I came across a school of big perch further on at the canal but those fish where quite lethargic, they followed the fly within an inch but would not hit. Pretty happy though with that one fish, a real decent pretty perch
