Amsterdam – The Masterblanker

Out zander fishing with www.fishingamsterdam.com

As you can see from the post Winter Wonderland it is cold, damn cold at the moment. This has led to me being housebound for 2 months unable to get out as the lakes have been frozen. Due to this I have been going up the walls suffering from fishing related “cabin fever” so much so that my wife ordered me to go fishing at the 1st opportunity. As I had been out with Juul from FishingAmsterdam.com before it seemed the logical choice if I wanted a 1/2 decent chance of catching a zander to book with Juul.

The date was set and I was full of anticipation, at 07:40 sharp I arrived at the pre agreed meeting spot to be presented with a cup of hot coffee and a croissant, not a bad start and it bode well for the day. Juul discussed the options as to the quarry and as zander were on the menu ( figuratively) we decided to start on them and then around lunch time swap over to pike as the day brightened up a little.

We arrived in the Ijselmeere before 08:30 and after a short journey began to fish for zander using the vertical jigging technique ( some of my UK readers my be unfamiliar with this technique so look back here for an article) and rubber stick baits. Alas the day did not start out all that productive with only a few missed takes. Zander at any time of the year are finicky biters but in the winter they practically just nudge the bait. You end up striking at the slightest vibration in case it is a zander just inspecting the bait.

One of the things I really like about Juul is that generally he will also fish as well ( depending on the number of guests) which means that if he is not getting takes then you know that the area is devoid of fish. This is quite a confidence boost as with zander it is easy to start to think that you are doing something wrong… some times there are just no hungry fish in the area. Anyway a brief move to another hot spot saw us again jigging away waiting for a hungry fish, and before long there was the telltale gentle pluck on the lure, and I was in.

People often say that zander don’t put up much of a fight and sometimes they are right, however not today each zander put up quite a scrap and they continually dived and dived for the bottom but each were eventually beaten by the net.
Continue reading “Out zander fishing with www.fishingamsterdam.com”

Winter Wonderland

Some of you might be wondering why a lot of the posts recently have not been about fishing but have been about rigs and reviews, well for the last month most of the waters I would like to fish have been completely frozen. The pic above shows one of the lakes around here and as you can see it is absolutely solid. If it doesn’t start to thaw out soon I will have to start ice fishing. I am getting cabin fever it has been so long since I wet a line. Still there is light at the end of the tunnel I have taken a day off of to go fishing with Fishing Amsterdam next week. Here is hoping that the canal is defrosted enough to get the boat out !

Anyway until then there will be limited numbers of catch reports as there is 3″ of ice between me and the carp and pike.

Amsterdamse Bos

Fished 24 Hrs on the Amsterdamse Bos on the weekend. Not a bad session fish wise considering it was my 1st night session on the water

amsterdamsebos

Had a really bad experience with a bailiff this weekend, here is what happened

was fishing a new water that I had never night fished and it was only the 2nd time I had really fished it. There was one other angler ( that I heard from his bite alarms) about 250-350m further along the bank. The banks were very over grown with forest right up to the water. My swim was very tight to the water with only 1m between the entrance of my bivi and the butts of my rods with the back of my bivi against the tree line.

About 23:00 I saw car lights in the direction of the other angler which was strange as there are no roads on that side and I thought nothing of it. Suddenly I saw a car coming straight along the bank (note not on the path) with it headlights on. I thought that they were on full beam but it turned out that the car was an SUV and so they were just high. The car kept on coming (at speed) and eventually I had to run towards it waving my arms shouting as I was afraid that if he kept on driving he would run over my rods or my bivi, or indeed me.

The car stopped and a bloke got out, by this stage I thought that I was about to be robbed or that there were a load of drunken miscreants in the car intent on trouble. The man has a torch which he shines in my face. By this stage, to say I am a little concerned is an understatement. I am really worried that I am about to be attacked and I don’t do violence, you could say I am allergic to it.

I shouted “who are you” (in english my dutch had failed me) and he shouts back “controle” ie license check. Anyway turned out he was a park ranger checking licenses.

Whilst I am showing him my licenses he sees my shaking hands ( i am not embarrassed I was scared, I was alone a loooong way from help, a car had just driven up at speed and someone had just shone a torch in my face) and he had the audacity to say “you shouldn’t fish here at night if you are afraid of the dark”

What an idiot….. I know that the dutch have a strange sense of humor but he made no friends that night. I am not afraid of the dark. I am afraid of groups of blokes in cars and of being run over.

With that he then left driving his suv along another path 30 years behind me at an estimated 30-40 KPH ( it is a foot path), if he had met a dog walker….

oh well on only the 2nd time I have ever seen a bailiff in 4 years so I suppose I would be greatful that someone is checking licenses.

If you are a bailif and you are reading this, think before you approach people late at night. You might cause them a lot of stress as they have no idea who you are and will think the worse.

Zander – Sweet Zander

Well Finally !

Was trying to catch a Zander for 6 months and was failing each and every time… turns out I was piking with zander lures hence all I caught were pike. Anyway on a walk home from the pub I spotted, a boat liveried up with the logo www.fishingamsterdam.com on the side. Anyway to cut a long story short I mailed them and got a date sorted out. The price was reasonable at about 110 per person for a days fishing where whilst Zander could not be guaranteed ( no fishing place can guarantee fish) that there would be a very strong possibility of fish. Anyway after a lot of anticipation the day came around, Juul called me the night before just to do a final confirmation of location and pickup time.

The next day at the alloted time we were on the pier, and the boat that I had spotted the weeks before was there with out captain and guide Juul.

Juul Juul, is an incredibly experienced fisherman not just for Zander but for ( it seems) most other species of game fish world wide and soon made us feel at home on his boat. Just a few words about his boat, it is exactly like mine… however it beats it in almost every way possible 🙂 The boat is exactly what you would have in mind if you told someone that money was not an issue, just put me together the best boat you could to fish off of the back of. He has dual echo sounder displays, a front mounted, remote controlled trolling motor, proper seats and some funky rear thrusters. Couple this with a massive cool box filled to the brim with goodies and you know you are on for a good day.

After orientating us with where we would be fishing and the target species, we started to tackle up. Normally I do not like to use hire gear as mine is normally far superior ( I am an unashamed tackle tart) however I was blown away by the rods that we were directed to use ( well actually I was blown away when I caught a fish on them). They were 1 piece Spro “Godfather” rods designed for vertical jigging combined with small spro reels. The action on these rods had to be seen to be believed, on Tuesday I will be calling my local tackle shop to make an order as small fish were fun to play, however even with the day’s biggest fish ( 4lb’s 4 oz more on that later) there was loads in reserve and I felt in complete control. Continue reading “Zander – Sweet Zander”

At last !

Back from a quick trip to Bosbaan, 4 carp 10+ bream all on ccmoore meteor + a strawberry dumbell popup fished snowman style. Put out a lot of maggots + stickmix and managed to get them on the feed. Had a lead about and discovered that all this rubbish that the Bosbaan is just flat featureless clay pit is rubbish. Yes the water is of a fairly even depth throughout but there are mussel beds, muddy patches and other underwater features that do hold carp. I think that in stead of fishing a roving approach I will find a mussel bed, put out a marker and bait it heavily and see what happens the next time.

bosbaancarp

Weather this weekend was also strange. Superb Friday, wet and immensely cold Saturday and a lovely warm Sunday. Oh well at least there was a carp or 2 :o)