Recently I popped up to the tidal Thames at Teddington for a session with Richard Crimp and one of his friends. I has been encouraged to fish the Thames when I looked into the Thames Anglers Conservancy website and forum. The chosen section was at Teddington Lock and when I arrived I could see that it was popular with anglers with many already setup on the island in the choicest swims. Even through the best angling is to be had at high tide when the river flow slows to a crawl, anglers were there in numbers several hours before this.
Author: quentyn
Thorney Weir Pike
As some of you know I have been lurking at Thorney Weir quite a but this year for very little results (which will change next year… I will get a 30 out of there), so as it is winter and the pike season is in full swing I thought I would give it a crack for pike. I had been fishing the river Colne that runs between Thorney Weir and the Mets lake for a few weeks but with the ice levels receding on the main Thorney Weir lake I thought I would also give that a go as there are several likely looking areas.
Anyway arriving at Thorney a little later than planned I was surprised to see the road bank completely full. Not sure why people were fishing this side as I would have been at the other end ( which is what the bailiff did) as that would have given the best chance of a fish (IMHO) but I suspect many of them just wanted to get out and go fishing with the minimum amount of hassle.
Fishing live bait in the Netherlands ?
As I have a lot of readers from the Netherlands ( and I have written a section on the expats guide in the rules in NL) I thought I would make you all aware of a tweet by Hsfvissen ( re tweeted by Pikemasterlures ) where they stated,
“Boete vissen met levendaas verdubbeld!” ie the fine for fishing with live bait ( which is illegal in the Netherlands) has now doubled. Going to the referenced page ( Google translate, Original ) I can now see that the fine for fishing with live bait in NL is now 180 Eur ( up from 90) per offence. Considering that I have seen *a lot* of anglers live baiting in NL if the police really wanted to they could crack down and crack down hard… In fact some shops over there have large tanks outside selling…. live bait.
The moral of this story, follow the local rules else your holiday might be a very expensive one. Remember that the fine for fishing 3 rods in a 2 rod water is larger at 230 Eur
Piking on the river colne – in the snow
Just a quick session report and this time it actually contains fish !
Continue reading “Piking on the river colne – in the snow”
Amsterdamse Bos
Note this blog is a stub for the main blog post here
Due to a massive fish kill in Amsterdamse bos in the winter of 2010 this post is short as I really doubt there will be much in there worth fishing for for several years.
BosBaan and the Banana
Please note that this is part of a larger post on Fishing in Holland an Expats Guide,and covers the water called Bosbaan in Amsterdam the Netherlands. Note that when I use conventions like right and left I am referring to the north ( right) and south ( left) banks ( see google map below)
Fishing in Holland, an expats guide ( Part 2)
- Fully scaled mirror from Bosbaan
Welcome back, to this multi part series on fishing in Holland primarily aimed at expats or visitor s to Holland. As you can see in part 1, Holland offers a rich variety of species to fish for though as stated earlier this series will focus primarily on Carp with a nod to predators such as pike and zander. In this articles I will give a brief overview of the waters I fished, this is important to note, these are only the ones I fished or looked at… there are literally thousands of others. This brief tour will be a quick look at the places that I fished just to get you on your feet should you arrive and think “where the hell do I fish…?”
Please note that over time things change, you should always check the legal status of a lake before you fish. If I have listed a water here that is now prohibited from fishing or there has been a rule change please let me know and I will correct the article. If there is a lake that you would have expected to see but haven’t drop me a mail and I will see if I can add it.
Continue reading “Fishing in Holland, an expats guide ( Part 2)”
Merry Xmas to all of my readers
Well it is that time of year again and Christmas is here, sadly this year it also brought the snow and all the lakes around me are frozen solid.But don’t let that stop you from getting out and enjoying the unique fishing that this season offers.
I am having fun on the rivers, the above pic shows me on the Thames near Weighbridge lure fishing. No fish this time but it was just good to get out and wet a line. By the way this section of river has been fishing very poorly recently it seems ( from speaking to the people on the bank) and probably is not enjoying the extra pressure from the lake anglers who now have no where to go 🙂
Anyway I hope that you all have a superb Xmas, dont eat too much and get out on boxing day for the traditional session !
A couple of tips if you do venture out :
Continue reading “Merry Xmas to all of my readers”
Scar caught again from Les Graviers
In what is not really the shock of the century “scar” from Les Graviers has come back out, matching the previous record from Rainbow lake by Martin Locke, the Solar head honcho. Strangely it is the Daily Mail who has reported on it again rather than the forums or the angling media.
Paul Roberts from Dorset caught scar at 94lbs down from the previous capture of the same fish by Ambrose Smith at 99lbs ( Martin Lockes Rainbow fish was 94lb’s ) from Les Graviers in Dijon in France a few weeks ago. The night before his friend Richard Middleton also caught the famous “Brown fish ” from the same lake at 83lbs a feat in its self, then eclipsed the next night when Paul Roberts caught scar at 6lb’s below its current record weight.
My congratulations go to Paul for the capture of this fish but I cant help but think that if it comes to the bank too regularly it will be like Benson, then again I haven’t had a carp in the 90lb bracket so it could just be the green eyed monster speaking 🙂
By the way if you have caught something notable and want to publicise it, drop me a mail and I will see if I can do a catch report here. I am just waiting for confirmation from a friend but I may have a picture of a 5lb perch to be able to put up soon and that is a real achievement.
Fishing in Holland, an expats guide ( Part 1)
Some of you who know me personally know that this year I moved back from Holland to the UK. It was a bit of a mixed affair really. Whilst I really wanted to be in the UK ( and am glad I moved), I miss the carp and predator fishing that Holland had to offer and am struggling to find my groove in the UK fishing wise. I thought I would put up a quick post to summarise the do’s and don’ts for a visiting angler to Holland for either an expat who might be living there or a visitor. Note that as I was based up in the Amsterdam area this post will focus on that area of Holland but the advice should follow through for most places.
In this 1st article I will cover what to fish for as well as list the legal regulations that you need to adhere to in order to fish legally in Holland. In the second article I will cover tackle shops and venues to try. If you want to see more please comment or drop me a mail and I will endeavour to cover your questions as well.
Notable Fish Species in North Holland
If you are a carp angler you are in luck, virtually every piece of water contains carp from the canals to the lakes the whole country is riddled with carp lakes and ( as you will read later) it is almost all public. Yes that is right you can fish virtually everywhere. The carp range from singles to 50’s with doubles and twenties being the most common in my experience. I found that a lot of the small drainage canals contained a mix of high doubles and twenties and it was bizarre fishing some of the waters next to peoples gardens or next to a busy road.
Continue reading “Fishing in Holland, an expats guide ( Part 1)”
The Masterblanker 
