The Idemeister

Thats me, in case you didn't know. 

It's been boiling hot here in the Netherlands, well over thirty degrees for  several days running.

We stopped off at a campsite which initially looked the dooh daahs. When we had a proper look round we saw that it was busier than first appeared,  with power boats and jet skis roaring up and down the river and dogs wandering about barking and growling at people. One laid a turd outside our van. The dog, not a person. Lovely.

We left after a night.

We're back on the Waal now. The levels are down and the fish have moved out of the bay. Before it was a bite almost every chuck. Now, nothing.

However, I've found a few fish a little way upstream and have had some clonking ide.

A young Dutch boy came up to me and said

 " They said you're the English man who caught a 2 kg foren ( roach ) ". Well, sort of, but not quite !

He asked if he could come fishing as he wanted to catch an ide. I'd spotted some milling about a few feet out from the stone croys, so got some bread mash and fed four different spots, just like you would when chubbing.

Two swan shot and a big lump of flake a rod length out. Bit different from the heavy feeders I've been using.

First chuck and the tip pulled round and the boy was in to a good sized ide. A bit of thrashing and crashing and it was in the net. Job done.

It was my turn next and this time a slightly bigger fish of 4lb 12oz. 

Later on I returned with a feeder and although it was slow I managed two cracking fish, a fat pig of an ide of 5lb 3oz and a big roach just over 2lb. A few obligatory bream too.

I did try for a barbel too. I had one cast with a ridiculously heavy 150 gram feeder, immediately got snagged up and decided I didn't need to catch a barbel that much, so packed up.