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.
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