Polder pike

One of my office colleagues wanted to see how is it to fish for pike in the Netherlands. He has some childhood experience with fishing, but not much really. I invited him for a session today. I thought to myself - I better pick a "safe bet" place, where we will definitely catch something, maybe not a big fish, but just anything to show him some result. I selected my favourite polder area known for the quantity of fish but not for the big pikes. After 15 minutes we were lucky to land this beautiful 78cm polder pike. This topped my personal best for the polder pike - used to be 71cm. We saw the pike following the lure retrieved at a slow pace and his big mouth opening and sucking the lure. Quite exciting!

It was also an occasion to try out a new lure - SPRO introduced a 9cm version of the Screamin Devil. It also has a new, bigger brother - 15cm, which I'm going to use on the city waters. This little lure swims amazing and to be honest some times ago I thought that I would like to have the original lure, but smaller, better suited for shallow polder water. And here it is!

First pike in 2013

I just got back from a two week visit in Poland. Second day in the Netherlands and I went fishing of course. Today's score is a 75 cm pike from a 3hr session. I decided to further pursue fly fishing and try fishing from a belly boat, but It's going to cost me some money (bboat, fins, safety west, waders, shoes, maybe echo sounder). During the visit in Poland I already bought waders and shoes. I went for the "Vision" brand and bought "Kura" waders with the "Hopper" shoes. If you are looking for a fly fishing shop that has it all in Krakow, I can recommend www.hurch.pl. Now it's time to decide on the belly boat :-)

Not fishing much

I didn't spend too much time fishing lately, only few sessions, once a week maybe. Only three fish worth mentioning below, 70-80 cm. It's getting colder now, time to move on to street fishing again, I will try to fly fish for as much as possible this year.

 

Back in bussines... or not

I finally got some time to go out fishing. 3 hrs fishing along the bank of the canal and on 70+ fish. I'm about to go on my well deserved leave, probably next fishing session will be already in September.

Again, slow start of the season

I have not been fishing to much recently. I missed the first two weeks of the season since I was in Poland. Later on, every time I planned a session, the weather was not encouraging. Yesterday it was raining the whole day, but the sky cleared out in the evening. I managed to go out for three hours and land 3 pikes, biggest one 80cm. Maybe the season will pick up now.

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.

Fishing is slow...

Difficult day today, I visited all my hotspots, no sign of any fish. Looks like they are still glued to the bottom, water is still cold. I managed to take one pike on the fly, 73cm. My casting skills are improving, I'm starting to enjoy fishing rather then focusing on making that good cats. The line with the pike WF taper casts really great. I may buy intermediate one in addition to the floating - I have a feeling I should be fishing closer to the bottom.

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 5+6+7

For the past two days the weather was not really encouraging for fishing, pouring rain and 7 degrees. I went fishing both days only for one hour. One day I blanked (two empty strikes though). The second day I landed 75cm pike and accounted an exciting strike of a huge pike just at my feet, but she missed. I'll definitely visit the same place next weekend.

Today it was a different story. I landed four fish (74, 47, 77 and 78cm) and lost another two.

Tomorrow probably I'll not have time to go out fishing, so this makes it the last fishing session this year.

Happy New Year and lots of bending rods in 2012!  

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 :-)).

Fly fishing for pike

For a couple of months now I'm googling for anything related to fly fishing for pike and thinking about buying the gear to do it. I think I got hooked specifically by the movie below. Fly tying looks like fun too, when you have not much to do in the dark winter evening, tie a fly or two ;-) If I take off with my plan to treat myself with a big birthday present in January, I'm sure I'm going to post any developments in my fly casting education and of course the first catch. In the meantime enjoy the movie - it's a treat!

Street fishing 2

Just a quick session today in the morning and a nice catch of 87cm. The other one was 70 cm. Again Savage Gear 4Play does the job ;-) Tomorrow long anticipated friendly pike fishing competition near Amsterdam :-)

Street fishing

Today I spent a day doing some street style fishing in Leidschenveen/Forepark. Very foggy weather and cold. I have landed 3 pikes, the biggest one 74cm. The water was very murky and of course the pikes adapt their colours to it. Look at the fins on the first picture ;-) All pikes were caught on Savage Gear 4Play in 3D Minnow and Golden Ambulance colours,

Quantity but not quality ...

I haven't written anything in over a month and my fishing time is limited to only one day a week. Despite that I have landed around 30 pikes on 6 trips – I lost count to be honest. I have been fishing mostly in the polders near Gouda. Most of the pikes were average 60-70 cm with few peaks above it. Only one decent fish – 85 cm – on the picture above. I decided to not take pictures to anything below 70 cm and if possible unhook the fish in the water. The most used lures were Savage Gear 4Play Lip Lure, colors 3D minnow or Golden Ambulance. Tomorrow I'm going to do some urban style fishing in a search for a bigger catch... Next week – a friendly competition between the Poolse Sportvissers in Nederland.