The Mighty Rhine

After a weekend around Maastrict on the Grenmaas, catching nothing, but having a couple of crashing surface takes from asp, we headed back in to Germany to fish the Rhine.

We'd tried to get in to what looked like a decent campsite, but unfortunately they had no space. It was on to Plan B, another site five minutes  away

After negotiating an unpaved, potholed road, we came to something that looked like a refugee camp, tents and campers squeezed in right next to each other and a three metre fence encircling the site.

Whether this was to keep people in or out was unclear, but our immediate feeling was that there was no way we were staying there. Plan C it was then.

I turned round the camper and headed to a small park up down a very quiet lane. Plenty good enough for a night.

"Kasper Lad", a great young German angler picked me up at dawn the next morning and we headed to a spot he knew well.  

It's fair to say he took quite a bit of gear !

I've fished over forty European rivers, but though the Rhine was more than four metres down on normal level , the pace and power of the river was incredible. 

Kasper cast his feeder well upstream, let a huge bow of line out and waited to see if it held in the flow. He moved to several spots until he was satisfied and only then did we start casting the baited feeders , which were stuffed with glued maggots and hemp.

The "glued" maggots prevented the maggots leaving the feeder on impact with the water and ensured a steady release when on the river bed. A great idea and very effective. 

It was only about five feet deep forty yards out, but we needed between 150 gram and 220 gram to hold bottom.  Even then , the feeder dislodged every now and then. It was brutal stuff, but if you don't master the conditions, you're not going to catch.

The first fish to show were bluenose, not big , but a sign something was on the bait.

A small barbel followed, then a bream and next cast I was in to a much bigger fish which was holding fast in the flow. Kasper Lad waded in with the net and scooped out an absolutely huge asp-ide hybrid, the biggest he'd ever seen, weighing in at 7lb 5oz. Lots of cheering, whooping and swearing ensured. 

Little did we know what would happen next cast. Kasper's rod hooped over, as he was in to what we thought was a barbel. It was my turn to wade out with the net.

"It's another ide-asp hybrid !" I said. I half joked it was the same fish. After a long fight, I peered in to the net. It looked massive, certainly as big as mine.

On the scales it went....9lb 2oz. Blimey, what a beast.

After that, the fishing tailed off, but it was job done, two cracking fish and two happy anglers.

Throughout the day we pulled in weed, which was crammed with all sorts of invertebrates,  shrimp, caddis, etc

Same thing if you looked under a rock, loads of life. It is obviously a healthy river with multiple species of fish of all sizes. This from a river that passes through Germany's industrial heartland and has half Europe's shipping passing along it.

A positive story but it does make you question what the hell has gone wrong in the UK.

Back at the camper, we had tea and exchanged beers and books and then Kasper went on his way.

Great angler and cracking bloke. I'm very grateful to him to showing me the Rhine.

Four of our five weeks out here have now passed and it's back to the Netherlands for the next few days, before getting the ferry home.

I'll be hoping for a big roach and maybe an asp or two.

We'll see.

Tough Times

Catching next to nothing at the moment.

Having said that we had a lure fishing session on a new venue today ( the Juliana canal in the Netherlands) and managed a perch. Wahoooo !

You've got to keep trying. Sometimes ya lucks in, sometimes it ain't.

Heading back into Germany tomorrow for a session on the Rhine, I have high hopes for a barbel or two and if I'm really lucky, a nase.

Standby for updates.

Heat Stopped Play

There's been precious little fishing going on, the weather has been brutal.

37 degrees C today. Northern Europe. Germany to be precise. Something is seriously wrong.

I've fished a few more canals and rivers with minimal success. We've been out every day, without fail, on the bikes, racking the miles up and eating lots of ice cream

Cold beer has been consumed, along with far too much cheese and the occasional ( cough ) glass of wine.

Staying by a big canal at the moment, with oddly crystal clear water, despite having one or two big ships passing by. Great for swimming.

Got two podcasts to record in next few days, one with a man who's caught more than 10,000 barbel and another with mustard keen young  German angler, who I'm fishing with on the Rhine for barbel next week.

I'm a lucky man. 

 Old man cools off

Pastures New

One country I've never fished, though I've visited a couple of times, is Germany.

The place we were staying on the Ijssel is an old favourite, the cycling there is fantastic, the park up is right on the harbour and the fishing always interesting. We'd been there almost a week and after scanning the map we decided to head roughly ninety miles into Germany.

The site was very quiet, small, backed on to a forest and had access to the river.....BUT when I had a look at the huge, very fishy looking weirpool, there were signs everywhere saying No Fishing.

Oh well. We got on the bikes for a recce and a short way downstream I found a likely looking spot.  I earmarked that for a go later on and we carried on our ride, along several different canals, all looking as fishy as feck.

At this stage I should say that in some parts of Germany,  getting a license is near on impossible.  And in this region, Lower Saxony, you need to visit the local town hall with a copy of your passport and a copy of your home country's fishing license and then, maybe, the clerk will issue to with a ticket. But it's totally at the individual's discretion. 

Once you've got the ticket you then have to buy a day ticket for wherever you decide to fish.

Now, I'd always prefer to buy a ticket, but I'm not traipsing up to the town hall on the off chance that the bloke behind the desk may, possibly, grant me a ticket,  especially if I'm only there for a few days.

The alternative of course, is to have a little poach. Which is what I did.

The river had forest on both sides, it was dead quiet. Goosanders, herons, common sandpiper, dippers, the birdlife was fantastic. 

After maybe twenty minutes the tip whacked over and I was in to my first German fish, a nice chub of maybe 3lb. That'll do. 

I didn't hang around long and with the light fading I walked back through the absolutely silent forest feeling satisfied at the modest success. 

I'll probably have a go on one of the canals tomorrow if I can find a discreet spot.

Mixed Bag

After a few days on the djkes and canals, it was back on the ( different) river.

Fishing was tough. The stretch by our park up was very deep, very snaggy and very fast.

I didn't like it and unsurprisingly blanked on the first evening.

The next day out cycling with S, I had a good recce about a mile downstream. It was much more to my liking. Shallower,snag free and a nice flow. And most importantly,  I could fish off the beach and paddle at the same time.

I started fishing too early really, it was boiling hot and bites were nonexistent. After maybe an hour, the tip dropped back as something unseen took the sweetcorn. It turned out to be a clonking roach just over 2lb. That'll do nicely. 

Next cast I lost an even bigger one, but that was it. I cycled back to the van along the floodbank, the air still warm and close, then crashed out on the chair and watched the last of the sun go down, as the big ships passed by, rumbling on into the night.

We got up early the following day and headed north, in a futile attempt to beat the heat.

The first day on yet another river and it was roasting hot.

Out on the bikes for a long ride, ferries across two rivers, ice creams and then a welcome beer.

Time to prep the barbel gear. The flow here normally means very heavy feeders, but at the moment you can hold easily with 3 or 4 oz . 15lb Big Game main line, same for the hook links and a size 8 Guru MWG hook. There's your technical bit.

I started early. Nothing for at least an hour, then the bites started. First fish a clonking silver bream of around 2lb, followed by a small barbel.

Then it was ide all the way. One particularly chunky, immaculately conditioned specimen stood out, a veritable pig of a fish, which took a liking to cheese.

After breakfast, it was anther big bike ride, then lazing in the shade in an attempt to keep cool. It was so bloody hot I didn't fish in the evening.

At the moment it's just gone 06.00 and I'm sitting outside drinking tea in the drizzly rain, having been out asp hunting at dawn.

As usual, the action was all over in half hour, but I managed a cracker of around 6lb, which hit the lure with fury in the half light of a murky dawn.

Crappy photo-on-the-mat-with-flash, but a record of some kind anyway.

Today will, yet again, involve cycling, ice cream, coffee, a big dirty omelette and a few drinks.

Oh, I might have a fish too.

Waterland

We headed north about twenty miles to the "Groene Hart" , a land full of djkes, drains and canals.

Most of these places contain carp of varying sizes. The place we stayed was surrounded by perfect looking, lily fringed water.

But you shouldn't jump to conclusions.  We walked and cycled miles, me on the lookout for tell tell signs of carp. Nothing. Not one sighting.

Back at the camp we had a tiny djke backing on to us.

A few casts produced small roach and rudd, there were hoardes of them. A couple of handfuls of hemp/corn mix were chucked in to see if anything bigger was present.

An hour later while having our tea outside the van, I saw a big patch of bubbles. Tea was put on hold and a big bit of flake put on the hook, under a piece of peacock quill.

A couple of minutes later the float slid away and an obviously much larger fish was on. Small carp I thought, but no, a lovely tench around 3lb. That'll do.

After tea I didn't, as you might expect, carry on fishing. I got on the bike and had a recce at another,slightly larger canal, just outside the campsite.

A few hanfuls of the old faithful hemp and corn mix was deposited in a couple of swims, ready for an exploritory session early next morning. 

Arriving at dawn, the swim was full of bubbles,it was like a cauldron ! But.....not a bite!

Not to be beaten, I returned the following morning and had a great result. Decent roach and rudd to 1.25lb, chunky silver bream, two nice tench and a huge great bream. All on a simple float set up and the old classic Mk1 Drennen Tench rod.

"On the bike" , a rod, net, bait bucket and bits and pieces in your pockets. The crazy thing is that in all the miles we've cycled over the last few days, we've only seen two anglers. There's so much to go at, but you just have to "suck it and see" and find out yourself.

More cycling and fishing planned.

Off Again

We got the ferry over to Holland, with rough plans to visit western Germany and the Ardennes in Belgium/northern France.

First stop however, was the mighty Waal, in the Netherlands. The river was at near record low levels, but let's be clear, it's still six hundred yards wide !

There was far less flow and compared to normal standards, far greater clarity, which unsurprisingly made the fishing tough.

There were still some excellent fish to be had though and over five short sessions I had roach to 2lb 14oz,  some very nice bluenose to 2lb 8oz, big bream and a monster ide of 6lb 2oz, a new PB.

An additional bonus was that we secured a riverside pitch and when we were sat outside the camper one evening, a beaver swam by and ended up on the beach not twenty yards away.

We've moved on to somewhere very different now, a little place in the "Grone Hart", with djkes and polders criss crossing the land for miles. The possibilities are endless.

Let's see what fish they hold.