Meanwhile, on the other side of the world...

The heat is intense, the afternoon we arrive there is enough wind, but the heat is still overwhelming on my island. A bloody 34 degrees celcius in the shadow and humidity up to a stunning 98%. Saltwater fishingtrip? Saltwaterfall running down my butt in between the cheecks. And it’s sweaty without salmonides on that particular streaming river…

But what the heck, it’s always good to be back home and the first morning I am out there at 6.00 am. Nice time to get on to the favorite flats and got my old faithfull TFO TiCrx #8 with me this first day. Just checking out the fish and their behavior.

That first morning I get three fair chances, manage to set the hook on one bonefish, but as I strip-strike the tippet already breaks. The fish flees with a huge bowwave in front of it. It was a true nice Arubian, estimated fork-tail about 20inches. The other two chances I think I spook the fish right before it is in perfect position, mostly because you’ll always want just that one other false cast to make sure you've got the distance right.

The next day I know what I am up to. Time to start practicing with the new gear. Got myself a cold beer with me, just in case I will manage to catch the first bone of the trip. This time it is the Vosseler S3, an Airflo Bonefish line and the Echo 2 SW #9 that will acompany me on the roaming and wandering on the small Arubian coral flats.

As it is still very cloudy I decide to start at a new spot, further west then I ever went before. I know a nice piece of reef. Seen some Bones there before and rumour has it there’s a small chance at Permit.

I walk on the edge as I think I see a greenish shadow that does move a bit. I keep an eye on it and just as I think it doesn't move I see it flashing a bit silvery for a fraction of a second. I know that! That could well be fish.

The first cast is just in place and a small strip already creates a reaction in the greenish shadow. It moves towards the place the fly dropped and I immediately loose sight at the fish. But I know it saw something and is one it’s way to prey, so staying calm is the advise I try to give myself. Easier said than done.
Then the tail pops out and I know it is eating something. I strip, feel resistance and strike. The run, the hit… it all happens so quickly. I shoot the line through my fingers, making sure it does not get entangled or wrapped around the fighting butt. The sooner the fish is on the reel, the better. Some clicking sounds as the connection of the fly-line to the backing rages through the snake-eyes of the Echo 2 SW.

Game is on! And immediately I grab the rim of the Vosseler to start breaking more. There’s an awfull lot of coral heads and very soon the line stands out to one point. The fish I can feel pulling, but the direction of the line does not move at all. Corals!!! I start running to retreive line and drop tension on the fish. Fortunately these S3 reels are seriously large arbor and I can get in the backing and first 10 yards of fly line almost quicker then I can run towards the place I assume the line got stuck.

One quick move with my stripping hand and the line is untrapped. But it goes straight out to a next rock. Luckily there’s nobody around, it must be a strange and funny sight. A fly fisherman who runs criss cross on a flat, untrapping his line from rocks for at least seven or eight times, while a fish just swims ahead of him crossing and trapping the line to yet another coral head.

But hey, I get it out in the open and after a second, softer run I manage to get the fish to hand. As it is low tide and the rocks are just underneath or a bit above the waterlevel I make some quick snapshots of the fish on an edge of rocks. Then the fish is released. Decent size, I would say average but on the small side for down here, but definitely a worthy opponent under these conditions.





I walk back to the car, satisfied with the gear and the first fish I sit down on a stone with a smile on my face. It is about 7 am as I pop up that wel deserved ice cold beer.

Sander

Flures for Finland

This creation by Harmen-Jan fits the description 'flure' like nothing else. Inspired by the wobble fly (found in this article) by Martie van der Brand, HJ took this concept to another level.


Take a (really) long shank hook, bend it like in the photo and attach a wobble blade.


Tie the wobble blade on the hook with the eye of the hook situated on top of the wobble blade.

And there you have a solid basis to build yourself any lure you like, with the comforting thought that (somehow) it will still be considered a fly. Take these things for instance:



They cast like shit, but no doubt these will catch us some mean pike. And for those of you that are more or less offended by this non-purist approach of pike fly fishing, maybe these type of flures are more appealing:



Just another light and easy castable, yet very durable EP streamer.

These two types of flures illustrate the line between castability (is that a word anyway?) and the amount of disturbance a flure can make in the water. Sure, the visual action is important too (and in that perspective EP and similar fibers really do a great job), but when it comes to lateral line-triggering action the 'wobble flies' are almost unbeatable.

!@#$% the tropics!

Right, time to stop punishing ourselves with that tropical shite Sander has to put up with right now, and have something more meaningful on top in our blog stream. Here's the present we bought our team captain Harmen-Jan for his birthday and house-warming party:



It's nice to see that even our feathered fellow-fishermen are starting to understand that we just can't take all the fish. Go tell the cormorants, boy!

And with no more than two weeks before we go to Finland, there's a lot of fly tying going on:





Stay tuned for some products of those tables!

Training camp

A little bit more than two weeks to go before we are ready to hit the stage in Finland. Time for the more serious and passionate anglers to take a moment of peace. Step out of the crowds and get into meditation. Well, meditation?

Starting this Thursday I (Arubaman) will start my personal program to get into a full karma modus. The objective of my training mission is to get closer to the gear, practice some casting and get used to entire days of fishing. I also made an appointment with one of my good friend Laurenz (www.flyfishingaruba.com) to get some practice casting from a boat. And as the state of zen requires more then just casting, I will be doing my fair share of poling as well.



But is it fun to practice in the closed season? Here in the Netherlands no one is allowed to fish with flies or lures bigger than 2,5 centimeters and that way you won’t get the full exposure on the strengths of forceful double hauls. With such small lures/flies you won’t get a good chance at big fish like Simon promised us we will be dealing with in Finland.

And let’s be honest, when we go out to Finland it’s a lot of fishing, but we will have to adept to the booze we will be sharing with the other teams at nighttime too. So what better way is there then just taking a break off the regular veterinary work and go out fishing everyday? Getting pissed in the evening and feeling fine to make long casts the next day, when you still got the feeling some poor mans reel is rattling in your brain and the man with the hammer seriously is knocking on the forehead door?

Well, I think I made my point. This Thursday I will be travelling south for my personal trainings camp. Just getting to know my gear and preparing for the match is the perfect excuse for me to go to Aruba and Bonaire. Searching for some bones or tarpon while evenings will be filled with sipping some beers with my lazy ass in a local bar.

Ciao!









Photo's by Rianne Sneevliet

Early spring fishing: hallelujah!

Well, last sunday sure was a day with different faces. Because of the gorgious, quiet weather and rising temperatures, we were hoping to find some nice fish at the shallow lakes that are surrounding the Flevopolder. These ususally very clear lakes are perfect for wading and therefore allow for some great fly fishing. We were hoping to find some ide, rudd and maybe even carp at the shallows, that are now quickly warming up in the spring sun. And of course, there would always be the huge schools of bream to save the day.


At the right time and place, these beautiful lakes just scream for fly fishing.

Wrong we were. Apart from some sticklebacks we didn't see any fish there. This didn't put us down though, because it was just a treat wading through the mirror-flat water, casting to every suspicious-looking movement of the reed and meanwhile enjoying the amazing sight (and sound!) of swans flying over the water and all the other waterfowl. Also, it gave us a good chance to test the waders we got from Evert, and - last but by no means least - we still had the whole afternoon left to find fish at other spots.


No room for a regular back cast because of a photographer behind you? Just spey your way out of it.

But our quest for some nice fish at (by Dutch standards) more or less natural spots didn't pay off at all, so we decided to resort to the not very purist, yet almost guaranteed spring bream-feast at one of the well-known spots at the river IJssel. Again, apart from the odd bream that had other things on its mind, no one home.

Well this called for our last hope: God itself. So off we went to one of the marina's at the big lake IJsselmeer, to the fishing village where the religion of the vast majority of the inhabitants doesn't allow them to do anything else on sundays than just walk around town all day (at least, that's how it seems to visitors). And of course no place open to buy any food, so we had to fish the rest of the afteroon/evening with an empty stomach.

But even though our whispered curses about the absence of food where not very flattering for the ever-present supernatural being, he (or she) apparently felt it was time to reward our efforts and give us some fish. Well actually, shiploads of fish. Like prophet Harmen-Jan foresaw, at this holiest day of the week, the marina turned out to be one big fish church. In this piscatorial holy grail, we found trustful, devoted fish that confidently took our flies for manna or - depending on the religion - a communion wafer.

We started fishing next to the famous Dutch reel-designer Ari 't Hart, who never shies away from the occasional fish feast. Ari said he started fishing at around 11.00 and that up till now (16.00) almost every cast produced a fish or at least a strike. As if to prove this, he caught, unhooked and released a nice roach before he finished his first sentence.

Within a couple of minutes we joined the fun. And indeed, roaches were all over the place. Well not all over the place, because every now and then the school moved a bit, but we could always find them again by taking just a few steps to the left or to the right. The fish were no 'bricks' (as we call the really big ones here in Holland), but all were in the range of 20-30 cm, which still puts a nice bend in the rod.


It was quite busy down there.


Fellow fishermen not only share fishing spots, but also the fish itself.

But since it was not roach we came here for, after a hour or so we went to look for schools of ide. It didn't take very long to find them. A huge school with some really respectable fish moved right in front of us. Harmen-Jan was the first to cast. Almost immediately he hooked a big ide, but while playing the fish, another ide, just a tad smaller, struck on the dropper that Harmen-Jan still had on from the roach fishing. This was a serious problem. I mean, how do you land two big ide with one net and the water almost two meters down below? The fish were way too big to lift on the 6X tippets. While Harmen-Jan tried to tame the fish a bit, Henk-Jan deemed it wise to net the fish at the tip first, so that Harmen-Jan was still able to somewhat control the fish on the dropper. Regrettably, Henk-Jan got mixed up with the fish, netted the fish on the dropper first and off snapped the other one. O.k., lesson learned: just one fly!


Two of these on a 6X tippet and you're in for a (r)ide...

After that both exciting and clumsy start, the next two hours we entertained the strolling villagers by catching one ide after the other, while also hooking the occasional big roach in between. "Hello mister, are you trout fishing?" And every time we thought the ide were gone and we wanted to go home (hungry as hell in fishing heaven), the big swirls came back again and the fun went on.....


...and on....


...and on....


...and on.

But at some point, even the greedy Dutch Two had enough. Then again, this may also have been due to the sheer exhaustion from fighting all those fish and the permanent lack of food. Anyway, totally satisfied we said goodbye to the God-fearing fishing village for this year.





Because how great it may be to hit the fishing jackpot every now and then, let's not forget this marina fishing doesn't have an awful lot to do with fly fishing. I'm pretty sure we would've been equally satisfied if, after a long search, we only caught maybe one or two big, solitary ide on sight after stalking them first, then carefully figuring out how to approach them, what fly to use and how to cast it without spooking the fish at the very first attempt.

Fly fishing is trying to solve a puzzle, to leave the easy fish alone and go for the difficult ones. Let's hope we catch a lot of those in Finland. Amen to that!

Early spring fishing

Because the piking season is closed since 1 april, we have to resort to other species if we want to get our weekly shot of fishing fun. And although it feels a bit like cheating because of the pike tournament coming up in Finland, we just can't ignore the beautiful weather it's gonna be tomorrow (well actually today, so I really should hit the sleeves):

vandaag 1° / 18°

That's 18 Celsius, a wind of 1 Beaufort and a 'weather grade' of 10 out of 10! And since it takes a sudden rise of temperature like this in early spring to wake up the fish from their winter mode, this is an excellent opportunity for HJ and Hajé to see if there are some nice ide and roach to be had. And if that don't work, there's always the bream to save the day.

Well that's quite a lot of expectations, so find out later this week how things turned out for these Dutch Two.

Airflo lines

With the rods and reels taken care of and already presented on this blog, it's time to talk about fly lines. One might be tempted to think that for pike fly fishing, lines are not that critical. This may be true to a certain extent while fishing for pike in Dutch polders, where short to very short casts are the rule and the water is hardly ever deeper than 1 meter (often less), but not out there in Finland! In Finland we'll be fishing at sea in deeper, very clear water, so if we want to stand a chance at all to win the tournament, we'd better cast as far as possible every single time.

With that in mind we can only be very lucky to have Airflo as our line sponsor. Because if there's one fly line out there that fits our specific needs in Finland, it has to be the Airflo Ridge Striper (by the way: don't you just love those gorgious ranunculus on their site?). Now let's have a look at the specific features of this line and find out how well it fits our needs at the tournament.

First: it's a dedicated COLD saltwater fly line. And since we're supposed to be fishing within 4 weeks from now in a sea that's currently still rock solid because of an ice cover of appr. 40 cm. thick, this feature perfectly fits our bill.

Second: although it's not a dedicated pike line, the taper of the Airflo Ridge Striper is quite right: a mid-lenght belly and a relatively short front taper are great for casting big flies a long way.

Third: to make the casts even longer (and that's what we want), the line comes with the Ridge technology: less friction on the guides of the rod and therefore more distance. Perfect!

Fourth: well this is a feature that makes it really stand out from other fly lines (even dedicated pike lines): the Power Core. It means that the line has virtually no stretch, so setting the hook is much more direct, even at longer distances. For pike fly fishing, this is a truly great benefit, since setting a bushy hook in the toothy mouth of a pike can sometimes be a quite a challenge. Combining the strip-strike technique (more about that later on this blog) with these Power Core lines takes hook setting in pike fly fishing to another level.

Fifth: these lines also come in a clear intermediate version, which we will be using next to our regular floaters.

And finally: our collection of lines we take to battle in Finland also doubles as a nice visual illusion for this blog: is it straight or not?

The ticking clock

Here's another update of the ice situation in Vaasa, Finland. First the current situation:

That's still 40-60 cm. of ice!

And this is the normal situation for this time of year:

That's also still 46 cm. of ice, so apparently that's what usually can melt away within less than 3 to 4 weeks.

Although we thought that the temperatures above zero for the last week would have shown some melting, according to the hard math of the Finnish Meteorological Institure this seems not quite the case so far. However, Simon has written some comforting words about this on his blog. We'll fish, not skate, that's for sure!

EP flures

Remember what was written on this blog a couple of days ago? About the flures? Well, here's some more. This time we tied some green ones to fool the pike with. Evert from PML suggested this colour as a good one for the Baltic, and we just don't want to hear his "told you so" after the tournament. The fun thing is that EP-fibers (named after their inventor, Enrico Puglisi) enable you to tie all kinds of patterns. The sky is the limit. Well actually it's not the sky, it's really your imagination. Because EP-fibers come in a large number of colours, there's no end to the possible combinations of colours a tier can choose from. Along with that comes the unparalleled durabilty of the material, which comes in handy when fishing for toothy gritters.

Of course there's no reason to limit yourself to using EP-fibers only for pikefishing. We caught perch, ide, asp and even seatrout with EP-streamers. But that's outside the scope of this blog as you undoubtedly know by now. EP-fibers are distributed by Dyckers, a sponsor of the Dutch Four. As times require they have a nice webshop where you can find all the goodies. And apart from that you'll find a lot of information about tying and fishing these remarkable streamers. You should really check it out, if you haven't already: www.dyckers.com is where it's at.

The other rod

For most fly fishermen talking about rods and gear is like talking about the hottest girls in highschool. No need to explain I guess, we just get excited about gear the way we did ‘bout them girls back then. In some way it has more similarities, on the other hand the taste differs more (among fisherman) when it comes to gear. Not only beauty counts, but what's underneath too. Not just looks, but also the fishability. Maybe that’s why some guys would go for a regular good looking girl instead of the bitchiest cheerleader around. Just because the regular good looking ones did not come with such an attitude.

Well, enough for the parallels and paradoxes. When our team started, we figured out what kind of rods we would like to use to seriously challenge and provoke all those other stick-swinging pikers that will be there in May. Over the last years I have been fishing with a no nonsense rod that did not fail me. And if the rod did break or got damaged on the battlefield there was always a superb warranty service. Because when you go out and fish a whole day, all that counts is being able to rely on your rod. And if it ends up broken, the only thing you care about is whether it will be fixed before you go out on your next trip. Whether it be wandering around on the flats in search for a stealthy bone, or just scavenging around in the Dutch polders in search of pike, it will be you and the rod who have to take care of the quick and accurate presentation of your fly. And the best rods are still the ones that can help you deliver just that.

But let’s just quit the BS and get to the point of this writing. Herewith we would like to introduce our other rod sponsor: Temple Fork Outfitters.
In the past I did all the abovementioned things with a TiCr X, and when we were discussing which rods we would like to use, it was TFO that came up in my mind immediately. So a letter was sent and the response was hopeful. “Just tell us what you guys have in mind” it sounded. And some weeks later a couple of testing rods arrived in the Netherlands. 10 weights, as we thought it would be handy to really have some heavy weight equipment with us at the tournament. The requirements were easy. The rod should be good to fish with all day and tough enough to deliver even the heaviest, biggest zonker flies we can tie. Think big, like 10-15 inch long double zonkers...

Within the selection of rods TFO sent us, there was this one rod that got us all stunned. So ladies and gentleman, we hereby would like to introduce to you our other weapon of choice: the TFO Axiom: 10 weight, fast and easy nine footer. Just 4 pieces of smartly produced carbon that make one helluva mean and tough, yet very responsive stick. As I am more a fisherman then a casting technician I just want to describe this sublime rod from the point of view of a fisherman. Okay, I have to admit, I spend most of my spare time looking for fish and adventures, so I cast a lot, but in the end for me it is not about the 30 meter long cast on a lane, but how the rod works in the field.


Smart and durable composite grip to facilitate the (especially for heavier line weights) widely used tumb-on-top technique.

When you look at this dark blue beauty at first, it looks like a very fearsome and hard stick. It feels like a very fast action rod, but when casting a bit with it you will soon notice the right pace is just remarkably easy to pick up. Myself I am quite a slow caster, and still this rod is able to give me the perfect feel. I can judge easily when to make the frontcast and the backcast without spending too much attention and concentration on getting the timing right. Even without a double haul this rod still enables you to get your XXXL streamer into the zone where the fish are lying in wait to charge your fly.

Having fished with a lot of different 10 weights, both on tropical trips as on occasional pike trips on bigger water, I know what it means to be carrying around a heavy weight rod all day, making lots of casts and still staying comfortable (I mean, your arm muscles must still be able to lift up that pint of beer or bottle of rum at the end of every single fishing day of your trip, if not the trip could be considered as a fail in my opinion). When it comes to long days of fishing you want this type of rod, it is hard and mean, but still gentle on you and even after several hours you can still rely on it to do just what you want without tiring to much. Making just that perfect cast when that single trophy comes along and still being razor-sharp, 'cause when you get that hookup the drill should be something that makes for the icing on the cake.


With a firm butt and golden rings, she's one sexy Queen: "Oh, and you give it all you've got, fat butted rods, you make the fishing world go round"

And just like our other rod, the economics are also a huge plus. TFO perfectly shows that no one should spend too much money on a rod. It is just perfect fishing material at a reasonable price. The savings you make on the rod can make a huge difference on your reels budget and mostly in this heavy weight a good reel could make the difference of capturing or losing that once in a lifetime trophy. Well, enough said; it is just an affordable rod that can be qualified as a true solid and reliable launchpad for whatever you want to throw towards big fish. The perfect match for any true addict of the sport.

And to get back to our parallels and paradoxes: this time it feels like we did get one of the true beauties, and she is actually willing to go all the way with us!

Sander

Featuring: Echo and Baltic Flyfisher

Our rods for the tournament are indahouse, so it's time to proudly present them on this blog. We already decided beforehand that we would want to take a 9 weight and a 10 weight rod per person. Although some of us fish with an 8 weight here in Holland (and with small streamers you could easily go as low as #6/7), fishing from a boat at sea is best done with a 9 weight or up. Not because of the size of the fish, but to be able to cast a big, heavy streamer in a strong wind. After testing quite a few different rods we came up with the nice combination of a medium fast 9 weight and a fast 10 weight. Let's start with the 9 weight in this topic, the Echo 2 SW.



The Echo 2 Saltwater is a strong and very handsome rod with two faces. It has two tip-sections, the softer A-tip for accuracy and the stiffer D-tip for distance: a very nice and unique concept.



Echo claims the tip-sections are different, but not so much that you couldn't use the other tip as a spare in case of emergency. I think Echo is right about that, although you really can tell the difference between the two tip-sections. The A-tip bends the rod in a progressive way, while the D-tip forces the rod to load sooner in the lower sections. So far, we found the D-tip to be better for casting our heavy streamers (and we would think that the A-tip, which generates a faster rod action, would be great for lighter flies that will not misbehave so much while airborne).

Considering how deep it bends into the butt with the D-tip, the Echo 2 SW remains remarkably strong and accurate. This is a good thing, because it allows for casting big streamers a long way, while on the other hand the nice bend in the rod will guarantee a lot of feeling when you've got a fish on. It's truly amazing how well-made these rods are by any standard, especially when you find out about the economics: for the price of one Sage (or Loomis, Orvis, Winston, etc.) you can buy two Echo 2 rods (of course in different line weights) and still have some money left for a fly line or, maybe even better: the Echo Micro Practice Rod for improving your casting skills indoors.

Oh, and one more thing: if you happen to be a sucker for the esthetics of a fly rod, you probably already noticed the nice dark blue blank of the rod, but how about these very slick Titanium nitride coated stripper guides:


Sweet!


Our Echo 2 SW rods are kindly donated by Stuart Longhurst from Baltic Fly Fisher in Tostedt, Germany (just below Hamburg). Stuart is distributor of Echo Rods for Europe, and also runs a fly-casting school with his daughter Silja (yeah, that's right, the first female FFF casting instructor in Europe). You can buy Echo Rods straight from his web-shop. If you're from Holland and you'd like to try one of our Echo 2 SW 9 weights, you can reach us at: thedutchfour@kpnmail.nl. We live in Utrecht, Ommen and De Lutte.

Flures for Finland

The other day, I told some colleagues that I was going to Finland to fly-fish for pike. And although these city folks think of nature as something that needs to be permanently eliminated from their back yard and (only) preserved at the other side of the world, they still were able to hold against me that pike don't eat flies but fish. Well I wish you guys good luck explaining to people like that (which means to 99,99 % of the world population), that the things we want to catch our pike with are flies, period.

Confronted with that much opposition, I think it's both fair and save to come up with a name that acknowledges the somewhat separatist approach us fly fishermen tend to take, while on the other hand admitting that the things we fish with are just lures.

Enter the flure. Here's one that we plan to use in Finland:



Not just a bunch of feathers, not a real-life imitation, but an easy castable and durable EP-impression of something very fishy. Especially since herring and roach are high on the pike's wish-list over there.

Featuring: Kaj's Flyfishing

One of our first sponsors ("from the first hour", we would say in Holland) is Kaj's Flyfishing, a nice and very well-stocked fly shop in Tilburg. Kaj takes great pride in maintaining a well-balanced collection of fly-fishing products along with an inspiring fly-only atmosphere in his shop.

While the current tendency in the fly fishing business is towards real shops having more and more trouble to compete with the internet, Kaj's Flyfishing appears to be remarkably less affected than other shops. When Harmen-Jan was shooting some pics there, it was quite impossible to have a serious chat with Kaj because of all the customers that were around. Especially in a time where consumers are becoming more and more critical every day, this can only mean that Kaj is doing something seriously right!


Sit back, have a chat with fellow friends of the fly and discuss the latest creations that are lined up in an innovative gallery.



Every single inch is used to keeps stocks high and diverse.



Jungle cock by the skin.



Kaj in (his) business.



Over-sized clousers for pike?



These wobble-flies (invented by the Dutchman Martie van der Brand) are very popular for targeting asp on the big Dutch rivers.




It takes a lot of surfing at numerous internet shops to match a single step into Kaj's cosy place. And of course there's the coffee, the stories and the ever-present experience....