Ice is out, street fishing is in!

Finally, after 3 weeks of a cold spell it got warmer. All ice melted and I couldn't wait to go out fishing again. I had  a 2hr session on the city waters today and caught a nice 84cm pike. I hope tomorrow I will also have few hours to go out again.

Winter is coming = street fishing

It is getting cold again, which means the best place for pike fishing is the... city. I had a short, but really good session today. Only 2hrs, 3x70+ fish landed and 3 more strikes. Tomorrow I'm going to the same place, but with a fly rod!

End of the dutch season

This day has finally come - end of the predator season in Holland. And it was a very good season for me. I think this was a season with most of fish landed in my life. Unfortunately I wasn't lucky enough to land the magical meter, although I was close couple of times. Anyway, last day I was trying to catch a zander on a jig lure, but got bored and the fly rod was in a trunk of my car... I moved to shallower waters and landed three pikes, not very big, all 70-80 cm. I unhooked them in the water and took a picture of just one.

During the closed season I will try to chase carp on the fly, let's see how that goes. I have to say I'm really hooked on fly fishing right now, it just works very well on my shallow waters and tying flies is something that has consumed my evenings :-)

Dikke dame!

Today I was hesitant to go out fishing, having in mind yesterdays experience. I got up late in the morning, had a coffee and tied a streamer made just with flash material for the extra murky waters. I added a glass rattle to this one. It really paid off! After 1 hours of fishing I came to the small bridge, where I remembered I had a nice take a month ago, but lost the fish. In the third cast, while stripping, the fly became heavier, a lot heavier. The fight was on, after 5-6 minutes I had a beautiful pike with a really broad back in the reach of my hand. I had to sat on a high bank to grab her, while she decided it was not yet her time and swam away again. Another 2-3 minutes and this time I grabbed her by the gill cover. Oh my god, it was no the biggest pike in my life, but certainly the fattest! I didn't have a sling with the weight scale with me, just the measuring tape, but with 94cm she was much, much over 10kg. Quick picture and she swam away. The Dutch call these pikes "dikke dames", fat ladies.

Ice is melting...

Finally a warm period after two weeks of -10 degrees. Ice is melting and I couldn't stay at home with that thought, so went fishing. Today I have caught one 71 cm pike on the fly. Fight was short as the water is still cold and the fish are letargic. Quick picture and jack goes happily back to the water. During the freezing cold period I bought a new line - Airflo Sixth Sense WF 7/8 with a pike taper. I'm a merely a beginner trying to grasp the aspects of fly fishing, but this line has changed my way of thinking about fly casting. It loads the rod  very quickly, which is very important for me when fishing on small canals, very often between the trees. I also picked up a tip from one of the pike fishing blogs and started to make furled leaders - this is really helping turning the fly over. So all together I had a good day: fly casting goes better and caught a fish!

Street fishing again

Oh it was blowing a gale today... I wanted to go fishing in the polders near Gouda but the weather was not encouraging for a longer trip. I went instead to fish in my nearby city waters. I started fishing with one of my favorites - SPRO Triple Devil. At some point I saw a pike swimming slowly along the bank. I threw the lure way away from him and retrieved it just past his nose couple of times, but he didn't react at all. Then he disappeared. I changed the lure to Firetiger color with a loud rattle. I had immediate strike in the first cast and landed 63cm jackie. To be honest I don't get good results with this color, at least in Holland.

Then I switched back to Triple Devil and lost one pike. Later on I switched to Fatso Crank in TT color. I caught 73cm pike with it and that was the end of the day.

Adventure begins with a broken rod tip...

I finally decided to begin my adventure with fly fishing for pike. After months (?) of researching and  three books read I ordered 9' #8 Greys GS2 rod, GX500 reel and GRXI floating and intermediate line. Of course I want to tie my own flies, so I ordered some starting materials, vice and some essential tools. All past week I was tying my first flies and started to learn fly casting on the artificial (fishless) pond next to my house. I felt ready to go out fishing. Today I went to my "hot spots" and I was not disappointed. In 15 min. I had my first pike on the fly! It was only 63cm but it felt really great. What was not great is that I broke the tip of the rod in the next 15 min... Oh my God...

Fortunately the rod has an extended lifetime warranty and I will try to get the tip replacement from Greys, however it will take a while for sure, so I'll have to go back to my old faithful casting rod.

Street fishing continues

Today I had only a limited time widow for fishing, only 3 hours. Despite the short time I landed 3 pikes : 66cm which I unhooked in the water and another two : nice 88 and 80 cm. Again the Triple Devil did the job.

First pike in 2012!

Today a first session this year and a first pike -75 cm. Few minutes after landing this one I lost the yellow/black Triple Devil lure. On a long cast against the wind the braided line just tangled on my reel and simply snapped. I saw my lure fly away :-( I switched to a natural roach color, but without any success later till the end of the day. I had one more missed strike and that was it.

Street fishing 4

I don't have to work between Christmas and New Years, so of course I went fishing today. What a day! I landed 4 pikes, the biggest one on the picture above was 87cm. This is actually a fish I caught already this year, a month ago, on November 27th. I had two another spectacular strikes, just a half a meter away from my feet, in both cases the fish unhooked themselves, I didn't manage to land them. I fished all day with SPRO Screamin' Triple Devil lure in "Aussie Poison Frog" color.

Street fishing 3

I've been ill last week, so didn't do any fishing. This Saturday however I managed to get done few hours of street fishing. I landed three pikes - biggest one 80 cm. The guy few meters away from me landed really nice, fat 105cm.

On another note, in order to get some solid knowledge about pike fly fishing before buying any gear, I treated myself with some books. I'll try to read them between Christmas and New Years (I'm on a leave then :-)).