Double Trouble

Of course I should've been warned when it happened to Sander. At the end of one of our sessions in the polder his streamer hit a log just under the surface, and as he pulled as hard as he could, suddenly I heard the sound of a whip followed by some unquotable swears. When I ran over to see what happened, I saw Sander standing there with just one meter of broken fly line outside his rod tip. The rest of the line, the leader and the streamer where still attached to the log. Game over, lesson learned: don't pull that hard on a stuck streamer when fishing with 0,80 fluorocarbon and swivels that are too strong. In Sander's case, it turned out that even the snake guides of two rod sections where severely bent, due to the acceleration of the fly line through the guides at the moment the line snapped.

Like I said, this should have been a warning. But no, when I was out there again one my own a few days later, I somehow had to top Sander's clumsyness by casting in the willows on the other bank. Look, there is is:

But that was just the appetizer. Since walking or swimming to the other shore was no option, I decided to give it a good yank, of course pulling in a straight line to avoid snapping the rod. Nothing moved. So I pullled some more. And more. And harder, until it looked like I was in the middle of a rope-pulling contest with the willow. But the tree just seemed to shake its head every now and then, as if it was telling me to give it up. This arrogance made me even madder, so I pulled even harder to show the shrub who's boss, and indeed, suddenly it let go. I thought. However, it turned out that the connection between the running line and the intermediate head had broken, leaving me - like Sander - with just a pityful piece of fly line outside the rod tip.

And when I was checking the snake guides for any damage, I noticed something else was missing besides the fly line, the leader and the streamer. The snapped fly line inside the rod had pulled the rod tip off the rod and launched it into the willow. Or better: that damn, arrogant willow took my rod tip too! Game over, and another lesson learned: when trying to pull loose a stuck streamer, always pull on the line outside the rod tip. Didn't I know that, one might ask. I did, but I was so caught up in the fight with the willow tree that........oh well, never mind.

So did I get my rod tip back? No. There was no way to reach the willow without swimming, and when I returned the next day with waders, everything was gone.

What did you say? Waders while piking in the polder? Well yeah, why not, Sander says. He uses them all the time. Old ones, that is. They're very warm (because you can easily wear ski pants in them), you only need a raincoat when it's raining and you never have to worry that your wellingtons may be too short.

Here's a situation where Sander's waders saved the day:

And then there was the reward:

Private Sessions

When obsessed with fly fishing it sometimes happens the addict cannot get to his needs. As most fly fishermen he needs to provide. But not only the food provision is in hands of the modern day fly fisherman. He also has to think about the rent, the payment of his car. The credit card his beloved wife can use for shopping and of course the huge investments in gear to practice that hobby. Not even considering the trips he has on a secret wish list.

Anyway, as a veterinarian I sometimes just don’t have enough time for fishing. At least no substantial time. And on some of those working days I just notice my hands are trembling. My body feels weird. The mind wanders off and when euthanizing the beloved special chicken of some decadent, wealthy citizen, who grew so far away from nature he cannot turn around a neck himself, I don’t think about what I will be putting on the personal handwritten condolence card he’ll get from me. Hell no, the only thing I wonder is if he will leave the animal here for destruction or take it back home to bury. ‘Cause man, that chicken has some pretty good streamer hackles around the neck and if it will end up in our fridge (awaiting the destruction company to come and pick it up)……could there be an option of harvesting some of those feathers and give them a second life?

It was one of those days. The coffee didn’t relieve the stress anymore and as soon as I closed up the last sutures of the operation program I turned to the next room to see if my colleague (dr. J.) had already finished pulling teeth of that 14yr old bad mouth breath cat. He’s a fly fisherman too.

And finished he was. We just looked at each other’s fatigued faces and we knew it was time. It was half October, and at that time of the year we don’t get that many lunch breaks with fishable time off anymore. So I got out to the car and soon J. threw his rod in the trunk too. Nice fellow as he is, he brought some croissants for lunch and in the car we discussed which spot would be nice for a 30 minute fish and run. It’s a city full of small but good fishing spots and, although it took us quite some time to get to know the right places, now we know exactly where to go.

I think it was on the second cast when my streamer landed just underneath the three where I wanted it to land and I stripped it back into the open. An awesome hit and loose again, not even a chance to strike. As the water was a bit murky I was not sure whether the fish was only following (as they do sometimes) or turned away as he realized we tried to fool him/her. So the safest bet was to continue stripping and right in front of me there was the attack from the back. It came from down underneath and struck hard, giving me enough time to strip-strike and set. I got it to shore rather quickly, about 80cm’s of pike. Nice fish! And as I wanted to grab my camera to let J. take some shots for my future offspring and maybe to share with other fanatics, nothing was there.

Shit! Forgot about the damn thing, still in my other vest, eagerly waiting for me to go on another trout trip I guess. Why don’t cameras, licenses, unhooking tools and other handy materials transfer automatically when I take out my other vest? Mobile phone? Nah, that costs too much time and pics are not worth keeping such a nice fish ashore. So I release the fish.

J. goes along, taking the left side of the spots, I take the right. I spot a nice drain hole connecting the canal on the left to the one I am fishing in. Drain pipes are nice places and I cast my streamer right in front of it. At the first move of the streamer there is an awesome swirl, water splashes and a big momma charges the streamer like she hasn’t been eating all summer. I take charge and feel her yanking on the line. A very hard strip-strike is the correct answer and she’s on. I yell to my buddy, thinking about the cell phone….but then I suddenly remember my lovely girlfriend left her SLR camera in my car this morning. “Go get the camera! This could be a meter!” I think it’s more of a command then a question. I throw my car keys to J. and he runs off. Meanwhile I manage to get the fish close to shore. It doesn’t take me much time to lie down next to the water and slip my fingers behind the pike’s gill plate, turning to a save gill-to-jaw-grip and pulling it out. That’s a heavy beauty!

J. is back form the car, we admire the fish and he shoots some pics. As we measure it the estimation of a meter is just a centimeter inaccurate. Yeah baby! The first big one of the season is in!

Then we realize we have to hurry to get back in time for the consultation hour. As I call in the next patient the cat just loves the smell on my hands and can’t stop licking them. Even when I take a blood sample the cat keeps purring. The owners look very pleased their pet likes the veterinarian that much. The sample is drawn with a very stable (as in non shaking) and smelly hand ;-)

Sander

The Big Why, part 4

Fly fishing is a religion without a god, I concluded a couple of posts ago. O.k., that might have been a bit too bold, but there's nevertheless a lot of resemblance between the two. Of course, it's a piece of cake to sum up a sheer endless amount of things that are more or less familiar, but I do find two particular resemblances much more than just a coïncidence:

- People are looking for structure.
- People want to belong to a certain group.

Let's start with structure. Religion is in fact one of the best proofs available that people need structure and prefab answers in life. I mean, while there's no proof of any god of any kind and of any form, it's rather striking how many people actually believe the same thing in exactly the same way. Having (just to name two) the Koran and the Bible in mind, I think it's fair to say many people somehow just want to believe 'by the book' rather than really make up their own mind.

This applies to us fly fishermen too: we also choose to fish 'by the book', in this case a book that tells us to use a fly rod, a fly line and a fly reel (in part 3 I already concluded that the fly itself is of little, if any, significance). Sure, we do experiment and explore, but only from within our comfort zone, our base camp. In the pursuit of our luxurious needs the options are endless. Without some sort of structure we would feel lost from the beginning until the end. So sooner or later we just settle for something: "hey, I kinda like this way of fishing, let's stick to it, sit back and enjoy the ride."

The second interesting resemblance between religion and fly fishing is the group: people somehow want to be a member of a certain group (and with religion sometimes it's not even a choice). Belonging to a group gives you friends and an identity. "I believe in Jesus, Allah, Buddah, Shiva and I'm proud of it." This easily translates to fly fishing. We (at least, I do) feel proud to be a fly fisherman. Whilst among fly fishing mates, I occasionally find myself talking derogatory about carp fishermen or coarse fishermen who just throw in their baits and lay back lazily to see what happens, or lure fishermen trawling on posh boats with 5 rods per person using 3 trebles per lure.

And when I see them catching all those big fish and having tons of fun along the way, I somehow still have to think: "Yeah, but I catch them on the fly." In Holland we've got a saying that flyfishing is the most fun way to catch less. But when I see the coarse- and lurefishermen sometimes watch me struggle with my fly rod and fly line, I can almost hear them thinking: "It's hard work, less efficient and it catches less fish. How could that be fun at all?" And then I can only resort to the typical Calvinistic Dutch saying "Rest Rusts" and think: "O.k., but we catch less the hard way.......

On the Double! - The Coming Out.....

Well, to be honest, we thought we would get some not very flattering reactions regarding the last topic about the double hook-up with the multiple-streamer rig. But what do you know: not a single one, just people who believed us straight away. Which also may not be that flattering, because apparantely we are considered to be that greedy when it comes to catching pike....

Anyway, there was a double hook-up, but it involved two persons and two rods. In the photo of Hajé playing the two pike, the 'pike-suggestion' to the left was photoshopped (it was a pike caught before the double hook-up), and the two-streamer rig was just created to make things a bit more believable. We thought the suggestion of a 20-meter cast with a rig like that and the two pike playing each other would be enough over the top to raise an eyebrow or two, but obviously not.

And indeed, who's to say it isn't possible to throw a rig like that over 20 meters, and maybe it turns out it doesn't tangle all the time? The only thing we really doubt is that a pike would charge the other streamer when confronted with (and probably lured by) the already caught pike. We suppose it would either be just curious and stay at a comfortable distance, or else it would consider the other pike as an unexpected but welcome prey and go for it.

Either way, we wouldn't bother with multiple rigs in the first place. They're no doubt terribly awkward to cast and fish, and since (especially) fly fishing for pike has much more to do with the fun of catching a pike in a specific way than just with the amount of pike caught, we can't see why you should want to use such rigs in the first place. But then again, who's to say this isn't just a sneaky way to confuse our competition with a moral dilemma which might want them to refrain from using multiple rigs, so that in the end we will be the only ones using them at the tournament and take gold?

On the double!

Last saturday Sander and I set out for some piking in one of the few waters that still has a liquid surface. In the car we had a discussion about how deep we would have to fish the streamer. Sander argued that the pike would come and get it from almost anywhere, where I thought it would be necessary to go deep and wake them up. And because we're both not the kind of guys to give in lightly, we came up with an experiment. Why not fish with two streamers, one that goes down and a lightweight on a dropper?

We already had been thinking about this for a while as a way of improving our chances during the tournament. The rules just state that we have to use single, barbless hooks, but not how many. So it's fair to conclude that we can use as many single, barbless hooks on one line as we want.

We decided not to push our luck and start off with two streamers. The rig needed to be both fishable and (somewhat) castable, so we came up with a simple construction. Starting from the tip of the fly line, we first took about one meter (of course depending on water depth) of 0,80 fluorocarbon to keep things stiff and hence facilitate turnover, with at the end a swivel. Then we simply put about one and a half meters of 0,65 stiff mono through the eye of the swivel, measured 20 cm. for the dropper, tied a stopper knot in the mono and after that tied a stopper knot in the mono on the other side of the swivel eye so the mono couldn't move anymore. Then we tied a bucktail-zonker combination at the end of the mono using a heavy wire, and a lightweight EP Fibers streamer using a lighter wire. In the end it looked like this:

Of course we didn't expect this rig to cast very well, but we were pleasantly surprised. Granted, you'll not be able to cast as far as you would with a single streamer, but without too much wind 20 meters turned out to be quite possible. And it didn't take long before the first pike showed interest. It went for the dropper, missed and left us with nothing more than a big swirl to stare at.

O.k., the pike were in for it. So with even more confidence we launched our two missiles over and over again, until Hajé hooked a pike. This one took the bottom streamer. And while Hajé was gently playing the fish, it happened. Suddenly, out of nowhere, another pike came up and took the streamer on the dropper. It went down immediately, hooking itself along the way, and leaving Hajé with the challenge to land two pike in one go. Miraculously, this turned out to be quite easy because the pike took different directions and thus basically played themselves. Sander tried to take some pictures of the action, but when the fish came in close, he deemed it wiser to help Hajé landing the two pike. So this is the only pic we've got of the double hook-up:

It's funny to see how things get totally different when there comes another pike into play. First you have to decide who's going to get which pike, then there's the removal of the hooks, and after that you realize someone has to take a picture so the other one has to hold two pike. Ever performed a gill-to-jaw-grip with the other hand? Probably not. But, eventually, we managed to take a picture of the two pike without them touching the ground:

Thanks to the rugged rig of 0,80 fluorocarbon and 0,65 mono we managed to land the two pike. And although we never want to intentionally hook two pike at once, this technique with two streamers undoubtedly increases your chances and therefore might turn out to be a winner in Finland. So how about three........?

Vosseler Pro-Flyfishing

The moment we decided to participate in the competition, we realised that we would need fishing gear that won't let us down at the moments that count. During the competition there's no time for anything but chasing pike. Failure is not an option as far as equipment is concerned. So we set out to find really reliable rods, reels en lines. In our case reliable means: strong, able to take a beating and above all, saltwaterproof. But still sensitive and lightweight, as we will be fishing for nine hours a day and fatigue may be the nastiest opponent we will be facing (apart from possibly coffeine-deficiency).

The four of us have enough gear between us to start a small business as outfitters. But it's not a lot of gear that we need, it's the right gear. As we started searching for rods and reels we can have faith in, we figured this match may also be a great opportunity for rod- and reelmanufacturers to show the world what they're capable of. We acted upon that thought and found ourselves a couple of sponsors. A sponsorship is a very special kind of relationship. On the one hand we, The Dutch Four, are in need of fishing gear and sponsors we can trust and rely on, while on the other hand it's safe to assume that no manufacturer or dealer will supply anything if the feeling of trust is not mutual. Trust and reliability is what it is all about. There's a Dutch saying that fits very well: "Trust comes on foot but goes on horseback ". Even if you have never heard it before, its meaning will be no mistery.

One of our major sponsors is Vosseler Pro-Flyfishing. This firm, situated in southern Germany not far from the wellknown Black Forest in a small town called Talheim, produces high quality flyreels. We discussed our plans with Ralf Vosseler, the owner. As a result we're proud to announce that we will be using Vosseler S3 flyreels during the tournament. These are the largest reels within the Vosseler S-series, capable of carrying flylines in the range from #10 to #12 and of course a generous amount of backing (http://www.pro-flyfishing.com/fliegenrollen/vosseler-s-rollen.html). We have a great deal of confidence in these reels. That's not just because they look good pretty darn good or because someone tells us they're good, but it's also because Erik recently visited the firm and Ralf Vosseler went to great lenghts to show him every single step of the production process. And that was quite impressive. Needless to say that a cook who shows you his kitchen is more confident than the one who won't.

For starters, and maybe contrary to what readers might expect, the reels are not the main issue here; the firm's philosophy is about the experience of a good day's fishing. Get out there and have fun! If in the process you happen to forget that there's a Vosseler flyreel attached to your rod, that will be taken as a compliment. It only means that the reel did exactly what was expected of it. You just never noticed and that's fine. It's just a piece of equipment after all. It doesn't need attention. It's not your wife.

A fly reel's design in 3D. Modern computer technology makes it possible to change perspective in no time; watch it at any angle you wish.

Reel frames being machined from first grade solid bar stock aluminium. The spools were put in just for clarity's sake. Normally they wouldn't be there of course.

Four reel frames are made in one go. Efficiency counts.

Ralf Vosseler just can't stop talking, Erik just can't stop listening. Passion meets passion.


Vosseler Pro-Flyfishing is an all-German firm; every single component of every single reel is made in the factory in Talheim. Even if it is sometimes cheaper to buy certain components on the international market, they simply refuse to. There is a very good reason for this: the firm can only guarantee the quality of its products when it is in a position where it can monitor the production process and the quality of the raw materials used. It's only by keeping a close eye and making the necessary adjustments in time that one can raise the quality to a high level and keep it there. Put in a nutshell: do it yourself and do it well.

Ralf Vosseler checking things. As you can see this can be done from without. For safety reasons as you may have guessed already.


It's not a huge factory by any standard. But it is completely stuffed with high-tech machines. As times demand these machines get their commands from a central computer, which holds detailed information about every flyreel's design. And detailed it should be, as the permitted margin of error for some components is as small as 2 thousandth of a millimeter. That's small, very small. To keep up the good work, one out of every 10 or 15 parts is measured independently and all measurements are registered for statistical purposes. This is necessary because the drills and cutting edges of all machines are subject to wear and tear. After so and so much cutting and drilling they do no longer meet the quality standards and have to be replaced. Statistical information will help determine when replacements are due. As interruptions of production are unwelcome, Vosseler Pro-Flyfishing uses drills with synthetic diamond heads. Expensive, but very tough, which guarantees a relatively long lifespan.

Drawers full of small parts. Production should not be jeopardized by replacements being out of stock. Not a single detail is overlooked.

"Even if your margin of error looks totally insignificant right here, you might still end up with an intolerable tolerance for the reel as a whole. Which of course cannot be tolerated."


As you can see, nothing is left to chance. It's only quality that matters. This is why we think that we should be glad to have Ralf Vosseler as a sponsor. It's an honour.

Assembly and storage room.

Just another of the ongoing checks.

The company logo. Vosseler Pro-Flyfishing does its own engravings. No surprise there.

Erik standing there as an idiot to please the photographer, who needed to adjust the camera settings.

And of course the most important pic: Vosseler Pro-Flyfishing and The Dutch Four joining hands.

Back to seasons's start, part 2

After that first session with Hajé in october I was totally hooked again. How could it be that I did not fish for pike for so long? It is always amazing how quickly one can (temporarily) forget about the passion and obsessions in a type of fishing by successfully practicing another type of fly fishing.

Trout and grayling both are forgotten. Well, not that heavily, but at least for the moment it is the new found pike drug that we will be after all winter. Maybe when the season closes and the tournament is over… Maybe then the dry fly and nymph will get back to the brain (I am quite sure they will), probably after the bonefish and tarpon has feasted on the soul.

As we did not go to Denmark anymore we went out for another day. Let me remind you these are reflections to October, at the moment we are having one of the best snowy seasons in decades!

But the fact was there, the first day of our intended trip to Denmark we were piking in Holland and both Hajé and me got hooked so much we had to go out one more day. That became a Tuesday (the supposed to be last day of the trip to Denmark), girlfriends were told there was no “but”. We already sacrificed by staying in the Netherlands, so 2 of the 4 days quality time sounded like a good compromise.

As on Tuesdays a good friend of ours, Brian, also has his fishing day, we decided to go out with the three of us. Knowing it could be harder, because most fishermen go out in the weekend and as the country is small most waters get heavily fished upon in the weekend. My theory would be to recommend Friday as the best day and Monday as worst. So let’s hope for a bit of luck.

The first canal was a nice one next to a road, somewhere in the so called Green Heart of the Netherlands. Traffic can be a bit frustrating when they pass by behind you, but as most farms are situated on the other side of the canal there is a small bridge from the road to the farm every 50 yards or so. And bridges just make lovely obstacles for pike to hide underneath. Or well, “hide” is not a good definition… It’s underneath those bridges hungry pike could lay down in perfect ambush, awaiting an unsuspecting streamer that carelessly passes by.

I think somewhere between the 4th and 5th bridge we finally managed to make my streamer look innocent enough. As it fluttered through the water after a nice cast that went deep under the bridge it looked so pretty. Lovely pink in total harmony and just unsuspectingly gliding through the water. All of a sudden there was a flash. The flank of a greenish thing was there instead of the streamer. It was a fast attack and way not so gentle and innocent as the movement of the streamer that still was at that spot about 1/100 of a second ago. A nice strip-strike got me in contact with the predator who now turned into prey. Yeah, such things happen in a blink of an eye. Heavily headshaking it did not take too long before I got the fish to hand. Brian came running along and shot some pictures before I put this nice fish back into her element. “go get your granny!” is my favorite message to them and one day I hope they’ll do so.

As our journey continued we agreed it was I nice “new canal” we discovered, but the traffic was getting a bit more as schools had their lunch break and as we felt disturbed by all the young cyclists (they give nice sport on a fly rod, but every time we get beat up just before the release) we decided to move to another canal. Not before Hajé also got his hands smelly on a pike that thought he could have a streamer for lunch. We had a beer to celebrate it and decided to go back to the old well known spots we’ve been fishing in other years.

At the other canal sweet memories came back to all three of us. This water is known by hand by the three of us and that gives for good conversation and bragging about the nice fish we caught here in the past. Not far from the car the first pike made her announcement and hit my streamer. I missed it completely and tried to remain calm about it. It is always difficult to keep stripping instead of going ballistic, but I managed to do so. And luck was on my side, right in front of me the pike struck the streamer again, this time without discussion. I think it was an aspiring pikey-top-model that really wanted to get her picture on the internet. Once again it proved to be the best thing, stay calm and continue stripping when a fish misses completely. As I got her on the line we discussed about the size. I thought it would be about 65 centimeters, but Hajé told me that was a bit underestimated. When I landed her I measured her along the rod, to measure with a tape after the release. It turned out to be at least 75 centimeters, not a bad one for the polders.

Next in the row was Brian, he too managed to catch a fish and that made our day even better then before. Time for another beer, as there was no hurry. We still had a couple of nice bridges and crossings to fish ahead of us.

We continued after the beer and saw some more fish. It was good to be out there with the mates.

There’s just that one last fish I want to close this update with. I was casting my streamer to a tree that hung over the water. The streamer came in the water right in front of it. Stripped it back in, nothing. I tried it once more. Again a failure of my casting abilities, the streamer did not go as deep underneath the tree as I wanted (it could go in for about half a meter, the branch was about 25 centimeters above the waterline). Again I stripped the streamer back in. next cast was even worse, The streamer hit the branch and I twitched it out and stripped it back in. By that time both Hajé and Brian were standing next to me. “It must be possible to get it all the way in that hole” I told them. And once more I tried. But the branch was not willing to just move away for a second and once more the streamer landed just in the bush. I pulled it out, made another cast. And one more and one more. Brian commented that if there would have been any fish at all it should have taken the streamer on one of the earlier casts. And if it did not, it definitely would have been spooked by now. But stubborn as I am I tried it once more. Finally! The streamer skipped on top of the water and bounced right into that hole underneath the branch.

I think one strip was about it. Immediately the water came to life and a pike squashed my streamer in a furious attack. I walked back three steps to get tension and then made a good strip-strike to set the hook. Not much later the pike was landed. Not a big one, but yet so satisfying! I think the streamer only landed about 30 or 40cm’s further then al those casts before, but it was close enough to annoy the fish. A good lesson to all three of us: sometimes just a couple of centimeters deeper underneath that bridge, or just closer to the cane can make the difference between nothing and a fish.

Walking back to the car Brian tried for a bigger mama he missed two times on the outward journey. Hajé and me watched. His cast was accurate and again this monster showed no mercy for the streamer. Or did she? At least she managed to let the streamer escape for the third time this day.

Sander

The Big Why, part 3

So far I concluded that pike fly fishermen call the things they fish with a fly not so much because it looks like one or because of the way it's made, but simply because it's tossed around with a fly rod and fly line. I think there's a fair amount of consensus about the fact that, purists aside, using a fly rod and a fly line makes you a fly fisher, period. What you do with your rod and line, and even the things the fish are supposed to bite in, seems to be of much less (if any) significance.

So we have shootingheads, 600 grains sinkers, San Juan Worms, Czech Nymphing, carp on imitation dog biscuits, and even saltwater big game fishing on the fly. But there you have it. Right there: the magic words are "On The Fly." That's what it's all about. In some fishing situations, using a fly rod and fly line can be relatively inefficient (if not pretty awkward), but what really matters is that you caught the fish on the fly.

This can take rather extreme forms. I once read an article about sailfish on the fly. This basically consists of luring the sailfish with hookless stripbaits within casting range, throwing the same fluff in the water the conventional guys use and after that just fasten your seat belts. "But hey, I caught it on the fly.....". Carp on dog biscuits, same thing. Throw a box (or two) of real dog biscuits into the water, wait until the carp come, toss your carefully made copy of the biscuit between the fish and you got yourself a carp on the fly (provided you used a fly rod and fly line to get your 'dog biscuit' to the carp).

A dog biscuit becoming a fly..........sounds like a miracle. And indeed, it is a miracle. A religious miracle. Because fly fishing is in fact a religion, albeit one without a god. I'll tell you why in part 4......

The Big Why, part 2

A few topics ago, right here to be specific, I asked myself the question what it is that makes us want to fly fish for pike. The more so, since - even up to this point - I simply cannot find any more or less rational reasons for using a fly rod and fly line instead of modern, conventional gear when it comes to catching pike for fun.

And I'd like to add another question to that: what on earth makes us want to call that thing at the end of our fly line and leader a fly anyway? It doesn't look like a fly to the pike, it doesn't look like a fly to other more or less sane living creatures, and (hey, let's face it) it doesn't even look like a fly to ourselves. Well, I think the answer to that question gives us a big clue about The Big Why as well. So let's see what we've got here.

The only reason we call the things that we tie to the business end of our lines a fly is because we somehow really want to. This may either be because we claim to have developed some sort of universal construction concept of what can (still) be called a 'fly', or because we basically consider all things (which can be) tossed with a fly rod and fly line a fly. And of course, there's always that nasty mix.

Now let's start with calling a fly a fly because of the construction concept. In my book, this doesn't go a long way. I mean, where do you draw the line? Using only feathers, fur, and hair, or maybe just anything as long as it's natural? If so, what about wood then? And if we include synthetics (like most pike fly tiers do), doesn't that make the difference with an ordinary lure nothing more than the fact that we use tying thread?

Regardless of how interesting this construction concept may be, it doesn't seem to be of much significance when it comes down to answering our questions. I mean, there's simply no denying that there are far more people calling themselves "pike fly fisherman" because of the specific fishing technique they use than because of the the way they make their "lures/flies", so it makes sense to take a closer look at that.

To be continued....

Sunday funday

O.k., so I guess we kind of tried. But to be honest: not very hard at all. There were so many things last sunday that felt more important than a desperate attempt to pull a pike out of the murky waters of the Kromme Rijn, that we hardly bothered to give it a serious go.

The weather was great. Below zero, but sunny, clear, dry and calm. We tend to call this 'crisp' or 'honest' weather, as opposed to the regular grey, humid and windy shite we have to cope with here in Holland almost all winter. Beautiful weather like this makes you want to enjoy and do other things than you planned to:

And then of course there were those 3 rods we wanted to test. What a treat is was to be out there on such a beautiful day and to have fun with such nice material! Different rods, different lines, different streamers, mixing them, discussing the findings, making conclusions, I mean, just look at this guy having the ultimate fly fishing fun without catching anything:

And although we still cannot reveal the rods we will use during the tournament, this last sunday funday sure narrowed things down to some really awesome sticks. To be continued........

The Strike of the Mighty Pike

So the december holidays are finally over. It's both valuable and great to spend all those days together with family and dear friends, but it sure cuts into the fishing time.

I didn't get any further than some pike-movies on the web the last two weeks. Of all those (sometimes shamelessly poor) clips, this one kind of struck me though. Put the sound of your computer to the max and follow the bird to the left closely.




Now that's what we like most about fly fishing for pike: watching your fly wiggle through the water, always prepared for that sudden strike, but still almost getting a heart attack when it really happens. So whenever we can, we fish in clear or at least shallow enough water to be able to see the strike and - if necessary - use bright streamers for better visibility for ourselves.

Tomorrow Sander & Hajé will test 3 new rods, hopefully resulting in the first pike of 2010. However, due to the frost all the clear, shallow polder-waters are frozen over, so we're stuck to sinkers on the more turbid, running waters of our local river the Kromme Rijn. But there's alway the chance of a meter plus out there, so who knows....

If given the chance though, these are the kind of strikes we prefer: