July 30, 2011

Polder fishing - I like it!

I got up really early today - just after 4AM I was already sitting in a car driving to my fishing destination - polders near Gouda (again). After arriving I ate a quick breakfast prepared in the evening the day before, decided on the rod and the lures, packed the bag (I drive my car with most of the fishing gear in the trunk) and went in the polder. Today I was fishing with 2.45m 10-35 gram cw rod and small lures. I have to admit that my little SPRO BBZ-1 looks and moves just like a little roach. In no time I had two pikes on the bank - decent 70cm and 40cm jackie.



Later on I landed two more 60+ pikes. I think I'm going there tomorrow as well ;-)


July 27, 2011

Fishing on the Vliet

Another evening fishing on the Vliet canal. This time I tried out my new swimbait - SPRO BBZ-1 6".
Second cast and I've landed 50cm jack:-) I stayed just one more hour, but nothing came out of it.
I'm starting preparations for the Saturday - I'm planning to go again near Gouda to fish in the polder.

July 23, 2011

Pike fishing in the polder

Fishing in the polder is very specific. The water is very shallow and quite clear at this time of the year, so if you are wearing your polaroids you can see just everything. It is great to see pike following your lure and hitting it hard. Today I've landed 3 pikes: 66,50,50cm, and lost another three. The lure of the day was SPRO BBZ-1, very lifelike action, it could be just a bit bigger with two trebles instead of one.

One of the pikes had a very interesting body color, kind of copper with thick black stripes.




I also tried my mini headcam, here is the result with a little bit of video editing:

July 17, 2011

Not a good start...


Over 1,5 month of the new season has past and the best way to describe pike fishing is “bad”. Constantly changing weather and temperatures around 14-16 degrees makes is difficult to hunt down my favorite prey. Imagine that – only 3 pikes landed in 1,5 month... I lost another 3. I'm fishing with my new rod designed for jigging (with flexible sensitive tip) and have some problems with setting the hooks hard enough. It's not the same feel as very stiff jerkbait rod. Most of the time I'm trying to fish near the bottom, there are almost no signs of pike food - whitefish or perch - on the shallow water, my usual hots spots for this time of the year are just empty. I have 3 more weeks until I go on my annual vacation in August. I have a feeling it's not going to get any better and I have to wait for the September, when the predators will prepare for the coming winter and start to bite hard again.


Note that a perch on the picture above is not faul hooked :-)