Slim Pickings

The Dutch Predator season opened yesterday and the previously empty banks of the river were awash with anglers.

Whilst many of the Dutch have top quality boats with all the kit, it seemed that most of the bank anglers were foreigners, fishing for the pot, with multiple rods pointed skywards and coolboxes ready for any unfortunate visitor.

The conditions were about as bad as you can get, clear water, bright sunshine and not a breath of wind. After the wild week we've just had I was complaining though.

We had a half hearted go with the lures.

S hooked and unfortunately lost a zander and I managed to wangle out a cracking perch, which smashed the bait inches out and then beached itself on the rocks.

That's it for a while so it's back to Old Blighty for more mullet fishing and I've no idea what else. And a bit of work I suppose.

After the great winter catching big rudd I'm struggling to get excited about summer Fenland fishing at the moment. 

Things change, so who knows for what and where we'll be fishing.

Anyway, it's 1 June and last night I swallowed my first insect of of the year, so summer is here.

Cock Up

I hadn't realised our time in Holland coincided with a Dutch bank Holiday....on a Thursday.  So, lots of people take the Friday to make it a long weekend. 

We'd stayed at the site on the Waal, or to give it its full title, The Mighty Waal ( apologies to Pete Wylie ), for four days and when I came to pay, the campsite owner asked where we were heading.

"Probably a bit further  north" I said."

 You've nowhere booked ?" She said, in horror.

" Its a big Dutch holiday,  everywhere is booked up ! We're booked up. Everyone booked up ! "

Half hour on the phone to various campsites confirmed she was right. Oh dear.

In the end she said we could stay on an "unofficial" pitch she sorted out for us. 

Good ol' gal.

Bit disappointed as we'd planned to check out a site by a canal that produces grass carp and asp, but the best laid plans, etc.

Actually, poor planning on my part. I always make it up as I go along. And usually get away with it.

Never mind. I'm catching lots of very big ide, bluenose and those smeggy bream.

The ide are absolute suckers for a method feeder loaded up with a tennis ball sized bit of groundbait with seed and corn, fished in the margins. 6" hooklink, no 10 Guru feeder hook, push stop and corn.

That's enough technical stuff. 

Several times the rod was nearly pulled out my hands after casting, without even having  chance to put it in the rest. They definitely home in on the sound and cloud of the feeder going in.

On the downside I can't find those big roach. I've had one well over a pound but thats it.

The fecking wind is doing my head in though, it's been relentless.

Good news is that forecast says its dropping off a bit tomorrow.  We'll see.

The predator season is opening on Saturday,  so we'll gave a day after asp and zander before heading home.

2-0

2-0 to the roach that is.

We're in Holland in the camper. We were greeted with the river Waal being eight or nine feet down on the level at the same time last year. Incredible. 

The first evening I saw a roach roll as I was setting up and ten minutes later I hooked a fish. This was jagging and nodding, without the weight of a bream or big ide. Roach for sure.

Just as this thought entered my head it came off. Disappointing, but I thought this was a sign they'd be a few about.

I was wrong. Plenty of ide, bream and a solitary silver bream, but no more roach.

As usual, the bream followed me about, the bstards. No photos of them.

I tried several different areas, one extremely shallow, maybe three feet and surrounded by weed. After several hours without action, the tip dropped back and again, the nodding of an obviously big roach. It got stuck in a weed bed, but I eased it out. Then it went solid in more weed and this time it came off. I was not amused.

The big ide I was catching worked their way through the weed and the hooks stayed in, but not the roach. Sometimes the luck just isn't with you.

We're moving on tomorrow, so one short early morning session left to see if I can nab one of those roach.

It's been extremely windy and when you're on a massive river and it's blowing in your face it makes things very difficult. Although there was little flow, I needed a 60 gram feeder just to keep it in place, such was the power of the wind.

And it destroyed my Angling Direct umbrella. Not surprising, as its made of pipe cleaners and plasticine. It's OK, just don't use it outside.

I almost forgot. One evening I'd been breamed out on one side of the crib, so I chucked some sweetcorn in on the other side, a very shallow, sandy bit of ground where I caught plenty of ide last year.

I was only fishing a couple of yards out and after ten minutes or so the tip whacked round and somehow I failed to make contact.  The corn was flicked out to the same place and again, a thumping take which this time I hit.

The fish fled to deeper water at great speed. Definitely not an ide, but what was it ? It circled a few rod lengths out....an asp. Quite what it was doing eating sweetcorn I don't know, but a welcome surprise anyway.

I've got a canal to check out tomorrow,  so a bit of variety, which is always welcome. 

The Dutch predator season opens on Saturday, so we'll have a go at more asp and maybe zander then.

The Pursuit Continues

More local stuff, but both vans back on the road at last.

Walking and watching the river for mullet most days, lots being learnt about their habits and movements,  but they're infuriating fish and sometimes disappear for days,  for no apparant reason. I doubt they're absolutely "knowable".

I did have one the other day in very fast water, drifting the flies only a couple of rod lengths out, watching dozens of fish twisting and flashing and willing one of them to take.

In the fast water it was almost impossible to get  in, so I walked it down to a big pool full of slack water, where it eventually succumbed. Best fight this year without  doubt.

I finished off catching two sand smelt, a first for me on this river. On the fly too.

A couple of days later, I had several bass, one not a bad fish which gave a good account of itself, after slamming into the fly with ferocity. 

Another mullet bit the dust too, this one took revenge of me by thrashing about in the mud whilst being unhooked, covering me from head to toe in it. A small price to pay.

To finish off, I saw a great black backed gull seize a gosling the size of a grapefruit                   ( well,they're both yellow and round) and wolf it down in one go, which resulted in it having a bulging neck, much like a python eating a pig.

Absolutely savage.

Oh Lucky Man

Or, as Uncle Rod used to say " Don't forget to small the flowers along the way ".

Last week I was a miserable old git. The old Hymer was still in bits at the garage and the feedback I was getting was not reassuring. My work van had developed a problem that had already cost me several hundred quid and was still not resolved and a couple of other things had all conspired to put me on a downer.

However, on Monday morning I hopped on the push bike and cycled the ten or eleven miles to the garage, ready to have it out with them. What the hell was going on?

To my surprise,  they'd almost finished it and my mood lifted. Cycling back along those tiny lanes, skylarks and corn buntings singing, hawthorn blossom out, I was reminded that it doesn't get better than a sunny day in May.

Coffee and toast in the garden and then did a bit of work, no van required.

Pushing the mower, with the strimmer and blower balanced precariously on top, I managed to do three gardens before it was time to jump back on the bike, this time with fishing gear and head to the river.

My favourite spot is only a five minute ride away and I take the absolute minimal amount of gear.

I wouldn't say I've sussed the mullet out by any means, but most sessions, which last no more than ninety minutes, result in a fish hooked, often landed, sometimes not.

The evening was mulletless, but no matter, lots of mini bass kept me occupied, hitting the flies with reckless abandon, sometimes two at a time.

Cycling back the few hundred yards to the house, along the gravel path by the river, the estuary full of waders calling and the sun setting below the horizon, I reflected, not for the first time, on what a lucky bloke I am.

Anger and Joy

Anger ? On a fishing blog ?

Well, yes. At the moment the river is stuffed with thin lipped mullet of all sizes and is looking pretty healthy, so on my walk yesterday I was just a bit pissed off to find that two blokes had staked out a gill net across the entire river, which at this point is extremely narrow..

Mullet, like bass are extremely slow growing , so if they're hammered, as the thick lips were last year by one one particular commercial         ( "just earning a living" ), you can forget about seeing numbers of them for a very long time.

I rang IFCA and spoke to a woman who took down all the details and said it was useful info and they'd keep an eye out for them on their patrols.

Now, I walk the river almost every day and have never, ever seen IFCA "patrol" here. I told her that the netting was going on right now and if they could, they really should investigate immediately.  To be fair, she made the necessary calls and they were on the scene within an hour. Excellent .

I don't know what was said, but I watched as they chatted for five minutes before leaving without even taking a look at the nets.

But....within an hour the two blokes were gone , as were the nets, so a real result.

To celebrate, I grabbed the fly rod and stuffed a few flies, line and scissors in my pocket, donned the wellies and made my way to where the fish often congregate  just before the tide pushes up.

They were there, just below the shallows, tails and dorsals out in a few inches of water. I'm no expert, but I know when you see this you've a real chance of catching. 

I'd only been fishing a short while when the indicator slid away and a decent mullet bolted off, scattering it's shoal mates in all directions.  I beached it after maybe four or five minutes , a real scrapper this one.

The fish had moved twenty or thirty yards downstream, re grouped and were still feeding.

The flies were cast a yard or two out and fished static. No twitches or movement at all. The indicator moved off again, a strip strike and a very large thin lip thrashed helplessly in a few inches of water. The pressure of the rod combined with the fish trying to swim off resulted in it beaching itself.

An unceremonious way to catch a very big mullet, but what can you do ? As I attempted to pick it up I got absolutely covered in creek mud as the crashing and thrashing continued. Did I care ? Not a bit.

How big was it ? I'll never know, because I didn't have my scales, but it may well have gone around the 5lb mark. Incredibly broad across the back.

After the commotion, the fish disappeared and I never saw another one. A great session,maybe forty five minutes fishing and two fish in the bag. Both took a flexi worm, with the legs cut down. My first mullet on this fly.

I usually catch on shrimp patterns, but good to see another type work.

One of the best things about this style of fishing is that you can and really need to do it with minimal gear. You're constantly moving, so the less you carry the better. The mud gets everywhere, you can't really retain the fish for a photo ( unless you're with someone ), so you just have to make do the best you can.

I'll be down there fishing again very soon.

Success

I was determined to catch a mullet or two on the fly this season. It's been several years since I had a proper go, they're difficult but by no means impossible. 

It's a big advantage to live close to the river

Most days I have a walk with the binoculars, the birdlife is amazing and obviously I'm always on the lookout for fish. You get to know the places they'll be at different states of the tide and what conditions they prefer.

They hate strong winds and cool weather. Hot days with a very light breeze is perfect.

Every now and then they disappear for no apparant reason, even in good conditions, so you can never be sure.

The number one thing you need to do is find numbers of feeding fish. It's easy to find big groups of fish, but they feed for short periods and most of the time they're just mooching about and your chances are much diminished.

The other day I spotted a group of tightly packed fish with their tails and dorsals out in a few inches of water.  Maybe ten or fifteen in an area two or three yards square.

First cast landed in exactly the right spot and I left it dead still. Ten or twenty seconds later I strip struck into a mullet which had taken the tiny shrimp like fly, static in the mud.

Me and the mullet were covered in mud, but no matter, the first fly caught mullet of the year was chalked up on the board.

A day later a repeat performance. A very short feeding spell, a tiny fly fished static amongst feeding fish and another thin lip in the bag.

In the afternoon I went down river to look for thick lips, through a beautiful chestnut wood with bluebells in full bloom and down a steep slope to the shore.

I scanned the water for a couple of hours but only saw a couple of fish, despite the good conditions. Having said that, I did nod off for half hour, so I may have missed a few.

Me and Clarko are planning a trip for the thins on Monday. The weather forecast is poor, so we'll see what happens.