Land of the Giants

One thing was clear. I'd hit the river at exactly the right time. It was time to make hay, so next morning,  as usual, I was out at dawn.

I'd decided to try a different spot, just to see if the roach were spread about, or just shoaled up in one place.

After just over an hour, all I'd had was three bluenose. No sign of roach.

Hmm. Shall I move ? Yes, I decided to move to where I'd been catching the previous day.

I was traveling light, so it only took a minute to pack up.

I was just about to wind in when the tip flickered. A bite ? Yes, the line when slack and I wound into a slabby, breamy weight. I cranked it in quickly and was going to hand land it, to save getting gallons of snot on the net, when I caught a glimpse of silver and red. A huge roach !

I immediately went to pieces. It felt like all the oomph went out of me. Don't come off. Don't come off. Don't come off, I kept saying.

It eventually went in to the net. I'd never seen anything like it. I thought it would go over three pounds and it did, 3lb 4.5oz to be precise.

What a creature. Scale and fin perfect after a life of evading predators, huge floods and all manner of threats.

After reluctantly slipping it back, I just sat there, stunned. Three pounds ? Three pounds ? Three fecking pounds !

During the time we were there I had ten roach over two pounds and that three pounder.

They were big "twos" too, with only two under 2lb 6oz.

The biggest four went 11lb 10oz. 

Unbelievable. 

To demonstrate just how important timing is on this river on the last day the river rose and went clear ( surprisingly). I had a morning and evening session and didn't have a bite.

You need a bit of luck to succeed.

The Most Infuriating Fish in the World

No, its not, as everyone will tell you, mullet.

It's asp.

A few years ago when I was feeder fishing on the Ijssel, I kept seeing fish being attacked in exactly the same spot all evening. I eventually packed up and took the spinning rod down to where the commotion had been taking place and hooked two in ten minutes. Easy.

A mate who lives in France then told me asp in his river were near on uncatchable. Really, I said, I thought they were easy. Oh dear, talk about tempting fate.

I caught several last year, but they were by no means easy. This trip, on many ocassions I've had fish all round me, crashing in to bait fish with fury, again and again. Some are very big fish indeed, but I must have cast thousands of times without even a sniff. On the Ijssel I never saw anyone else catch one either. 

The most intense activity is often either side of dawn. When you see it you think you can't fail. Or at least you do at the beginning.

I was speaking to a bloke from Belgium who is sponsored by Westin, obviously a decent angler. We got talking. Asp ? Oh, he said, totally unpredictable. He said he rarely goes out specifically to catch them because if they not interested you have no chance.

He takes along asp lures and if they're "on", then he'll make the most of it.

I'd spent ages this trip trying to catch one, but within an hour of arriving at our place on the Waal I got one. A small one of a couple of pounds, but a start.

A few days later I noticed prey fish being hit in the ultra shallow, weedy bay and returned later in the evening with the spinning rod, loaded with a small surface lure.

It was calm, sunny evening, although they'd been no surface activity.

Out of the blue a huge eruption of water fifteen yards out. The cast was accurate and the lure was hit almost immediately. All hell was let loose in the shallow water as the fish crashed through the weedbeds. 

As usual, it was a brief but furious fight.

A real clonker of an asp around the 8lb mark. Wow.

I moved a bit further along and on the first cast a fish gave chase to the lure, chomping and crashing and eventually hammered the lure as it launched itself out the water. God, I wish we had these fish in the UK.

Really pleased to catch  a couple after struggling to catch anything on the lures for a while.

A lovely evening. 

The Mighty Waal ( again )

The Ijssel was a bit of a disappointment. The river had dropped four or five feet since we'd last seen it a couple of weeks ago.

Plenty of fish but nothing really exciting.  I failed on the barbel and the asp. The asp deserve a separate post, they are the most infuriating fish in the world.

So, on to the Waal to meet up with some Dutch friends. The lady at the campsite told me that all the locals were saying it was fishing crap.

Luckily she was referring to the old boys fishing for zander and eels for the pot.

We parked the van up, right by the river, put the kettle on and then I grabbed my gear for a couple of hours on the feeder.

An hour in the bay, where I'd caught those big roach before, proved fruitless.

I moved on to the main river. First chuck an ide of 4lb 13oz, second cast Roach 1lb 15oz,  third cast Roach 2lb 7oz.  Now, that's a good start in my book.

I retired to the camper, poured a beer and sat outside in the gloaming, listening to the crickets and the huge cargo ships rumbling on down the river.

I'm a thirteen year year old boy in a sixty one year old man's body, so I couldn't sleep that night, thinking of all the huge roach that were one cast away.

Sunrise was still half hour away as I baited up and filled the feeder. First chuck I waited less than a minute before the tip straightened and I was in to to something unseen in the murkey depths. In the half light,  as the fish surfaced I wasn't sure what it was, but as I lead it over the net there was no doubt. 

A huge roach of 2lb 14oz. 

After that it got silly. More massive roach of 2lb 3oz, 2lb 6oz  and 2lb 13oz, ide of 5lb 2oz and 5lb 1 oz, plus two big fours and lots of bluenose and bream.

The following day was similar. Three big roach of 2lb 8oz,  2lb 6oz and 2lb 2oz, lots of bluenose topped by a corker of 2lb 13oz and a couple of big ide.

They main issue was finding where the fish were. Most of the time they were in the main flow, where a 60 gram feeder with legs would just about hold. The occasional fish came in the slack water in the bay, but not many.

Simple self hooking feeder ring, short 10-12 inch trace, size 10 Guru Feeder hook ( brilliant ) usually with push stop. Everything on sweetcorn, seed and corn in the feeder.

I thought it couldn't get any better...

but it did.

The Baltic

Change of scenery, we moved southwards on to the island of Lolland in southern Denmark.

Couple of lovely park ups, some interesting fishing and some bloody lovely seafood.

We're not ones for the "must see sights" really.

Fishing, cycling, eating and drinking. That'll do nicely.

Having said that, we did have a day out in Copenhagen, sightseeing on an open topped bus. A good day, but after an hour or two I'm ready for the countryside and peace and quiet. Meldrew lives on.

We stumbled upon an absolutely cracking park up in a harbour that had been severely damaged by a massive storm three years ago.

The weather was stunning and the fishing pretty good, with perch to over 2lb and some smallish sea trout. Big shoals of garfish were  being smashed by the predators. 

The good old ABU Droppen proved its worth yet again, being the best lure by some way.

Those perch didn't half go on the UL lure outfit, bloody great sport.

Considering its August, it was amazingly quiet, with just a few locals and foreign campers and sailing boats enjoying the fantastic weather. 

On the ferry to Germany tomorrow,  a travelling day.

Toodle pip.

Moving Northwards

Having navigated the worse city in Europe for roadworks, congestion and general chaos ( Hamburg, and I don't care if the facts say different...copyright D.J.Trump ), we made the short ferry crossing from Putgarden to Denmark.

Parked up in a little harbour, tackle assembled and a quick evening session which resulted in a blank. Not a touch on the feeder rod. There were however,  signs of fish feeding near the surface in fifteen foot of water.

Next morning, lots of surface activity, so change of tactics.  Bits of bread were drip fed and soon there were swirls along the near bank

Second run through and the crust disappeared and the float buried. A lovely bronze flanked ide of 4lb 11oz hit the net. 

I did have a go on the feeder four hundred yards upstream and was rewarded with some cracking roach to 1lb 8oz and some decent perch.

The strange thing with the ide is that they didn't seem to be interested in any bait more than a few inches from the surface,  so you had to target them specifically. Which I was happy to do, obviously.  It was one rod, net and bucket of bait and that's it. Just how I like it.

I'd put a few crusts in an area, walk a hundred yards and do the same and repeat. Then look up the river until you see fish attacking the crusts.

They were catchable but wary. If you fished well, you caught. Too many cock ups and they'd spook and drift off.

Last night I fished a different section, mostly fast flowing and narrow, but with a few slacker areas.  Apparantly, there were big bream and carp, but it was not a typical habitat for both of those species. 

I fished like a plonker to be honest. No bites until I walked back to the camper and came to the last swim. I flicked in some crusts.

A single fish was mopping them up. I'd a float rig on, but the fish wouldn't move out of a tight area, so I quickly removed the float, retained the two split shot, lengthened the tail so the crust floated , but was anchored in position.

First cast and the crust disappeared. All hell was let loose as the fish thrashed crazily on the surface.  It looked massive and to be honest I thought I might have been a grass carp, but no, a huge ide slid over the net and was enveloped in the mesh.

I thought it was six pound plus but the scales said 5lb 13oz.  That'll do nicely.

I walked the ten yards back to the van, opened the fridge and took out a cold beer, where I sat outside in the gathering dusk, savouring the moment with a silly grin on my face.

Being a greedy fecker, I was up early next morning, where I fished a mile downstream and snared two more big ide, the best going 5lb 3oz. 

We've moved on to Copenhagen for a few days, so fishing will take a back seat for a while.

Maybe.

A Bump In The Road

We'd been in Holland, ooooh.... about an hour and I felt the steering wheel slightly vibrating.  A few miles on it was worse. I slowed down and crept along the motorway and staggered into the harbour, which mercifully had a free space for the night.

Next day I cycled to a local garage and the bloke said they could have a look, but not for a few days. No problem,  we'd a place to stay and it was right by the river Ijssel.

Never mind, "worse things happen at sea".

The river was rising quickly. A week previous, heavy rain had hit the alps and Germany and now it was affecting the levels here and quickly.

The usual brown crumb, seed and corn mix was prepped and ready to go. First couple of short sessions produced some big two pound plus silver bream and some absolutely clonking ide, the biggest of which weighed 5lb 6oz. 

That's a decent start in my book.

The fishing was quite tough, but with enough activity to keep me interested. 

A few nice roach showed one afternoon, the best went 1lb 9oz.

The lure fishing has so far been dire. I had one micro asp and a small perch but that's it. And I've not seen anyone else catch anything either.

S wanted a go and asked what lure to try. I said I hadn't a clue. And I hadn't.

First cast she had a small zander. This happens. Often. 

She also had lots if litluns on the pole in front of the van, mostly roach and the dreaded round gobies, a rapidly spreading invasive species. The zander love 'em though.

The van is fixed and we're moving north tomorrow, I'm hoping the weather will improve it's been pretty poor so far.

I'm hoping to fish one of the big canals near Groningen, I've no idea what it's like or what's in there but I'll try and find out.