The Dutch Four go for gold (or at least loads of pike...)

Sign of life

2010-09-25T00:35:00.003+02:00

Hello again you (previously) faithful followers of our blog. Where have we been since June? Well, doing all other things besides pike fly fishing, of course. I mean, if it weren't for that tournament in Finland last May, we would have dropped our pike rods no later than March and not picked them up again until October. With that in mind, the gap between June and September shouldn't be too hard to swallow, right?

Anyway, what's gonna happen to and at this blog? To be frank, we don't now yet (and being anyone else than Frank doesn't seem to help either). Sure, we'll fish for pike again in the oncoming months. In fact, we already did. So there'll be occasional posts about our piking adventures in the coming season and also some Finland stuff we didn't publish yet, but please don't count on the same frequency as before. So far, there's no tournament next year to keep the engine running full throttle, and then, like a strike of a pike, life itself fills the void before you know it.

So if you want your daily shot of pike fly stuff, go to Simon, and for an occasional change of diet you might want to check our blog every now and then.

Suuri hauki (Going for gold).

2010-06-18T00:24:00.001+02:00

3.00 AM, the alarm goes off. Damn that stupid phone…. But hey, hang in there dude, it is the last day and what a day it is. Instead of relaxing and packing bags. Waiting for the clock to tick away and our ride to the airport to get us on the road. Instead of all that crap, we got Simon crazy enough to go out for an early morning chance.
Nobody knows how it will be. Maybe it’ll be dead? No action at all. Or just the other way around? In the Netherlands I favor the early and late sessions. But in the Netherlands we favor cloudy rainy days above the sunny days we had the past three days. It seemed like in Finland you never have a clue, just think about home, and than do the opposite.

When we came downstairs Simon was up already. Time to throw the stuff in the car and get our asses going. We put the trailer behind the car and drove off. Just half a mile away we had to make a u-turn. It looked like Simon was just like us. He forgot his rod…. So we sniggered about it and drove back to get his rod. Yesterday evening we made up the master plan, we would pass turns and all three of us would fish. This way giving Simon a good chance to fish as well.
The boat went in quickly and I did not need to tear down the borrowed car of François this time for the battery (as I did with Simon earlier this week when the battery of the boat went down). We went onto the water and into the Delta, just 2 and half an hour before we needed to turn back, breakfast at 8. Where to go? I had just one place in mind…. Big Mama’s. Can you imagine that? Sunrise on Big mama’s with good company and on a total different time?

While we were cruising towards it we already saw swirls of bigger fish subsurface. Probably ide, but you never know. And when we got close to Big Mama’s I think we saw several pike predate before we even reached the exact place. We would be putting out an anchor as there was some wind and the boat to big to manage with a small paddle. When Simon slowed down to get to the spot I jumped up on the front deck and Hajee took his rod to the rear. We saw another pike just jump airborn, chasing some fish. This was insane! I took of line and made a cast, strip strip, twitch… we were joking. Instantly a good take. A very hard strike and I strip-striked in return. Fish on! Wow, and it was a strong one… it just went nuts in the water so I asked Hajee if he could assist me. He was about to make his first cast, he finished it somewhere half way and said: “oh yes dude, I get back my streamer and I am there…” “Wow!” I heard behind me and Hajee had a fish on too. A good one too, maybe even better! This just rocked, starting the day with two big pike.
I landed mine and Simon assisted Hajee, not much later both of us sat on the front deck, smiling happily with two nice fish, what a double… just makes you shut up your f%$#ng mouth and appreciate the moment.

Simon’s turn… He started fishing, I took a break and Hajee went up the front. One of them got into a fish, but lost it, then another one came to the boat. Swapped turns, Simon got another good hit and drilled it for some time. Lost it right in front of the boat. Hajee recorded it on video, but unfortunately he was smart enough to loose his camera on the trip back to the Netherlands. Simon ended the drill just a little bit to early and ended it with a nice comment about the barbless hooks we favor.
Then it was up to me again, but I don’t even remember it so well. It was just insane, every couple of minutes or so there would be a strike, a missing fish or just a fish boasting through the air (not on the streamer) obviously chasing something. A complete insanity and we enjoyed.

I remember Hajee getting a fish on the old backwards cap trick. And showing it to the sun who also came out to see us.

And then there was this huge charge on Simon’s fly. Really massive. He was groaning and moaning like Ali G’s great grandmother having a little reserved retirement orgasm… The moaning turned into howling and the guy just was tired of drilling a fish. A fish?, come on, this is not Tuna or Tarpon, just some pike we are talking about. And still I don’t think it was just all Simon’s condition that made it take so long to get that fish close to the boat. He did work hard for it and when we finally got it to hand, a very nice fish was to be observed in the hands of the organizer himself.

master of the Baltic?

just a marvelous fish!!

We took numerous shots of it, awesome fish dude!
After the release it was time… not yet to leave, but I brought a bottle of rum to give Simon as a mere token of appreciation at the end of this morning. But hey… this fish needed to be poured on. So we gave him the bottle right after the marvelous fish. And he opened it up and we celebrated.

fat pig(s)? ;-)

We continued and still had some good action, taking fish, missing fish, loosing fish and sipping rum. One good go on doing that for ages I guess. The end result of this morning was one jack-pike on the backwards-cap-trick and 7 or 8 good fish. Not just good fish, really good fish I mean.
These fish were Suuri Hauki!

as a finishing touch, god created the Dutch ;-)

CIAO!
ps... the next weeks I won't be around. Got some salmonides to chase, on behalf of the Dutch Four....

The last day.

2010-06-17T01:41:00.000+02:00

It promised to be yet another warm day when we got up already. When I went to bed the other night the birds were twittering. Guess that predicted it all.

It was an awesome day, we (Hajee and I) finally made it to the lunch packets before last. And we shook hands with the Canadians who were leaving this morning. Pierre-Luc and Benoit, two awesome guys and we had a lot of fun with them. Hopefully we will meet them again.
As not all the English were going out either we were to go with only three boats. One of them not lying in the dock/bay we usually went to. That was the boat of Jaakko and Olli’s father. This time and old friend of the family would be the “guide” on that boat and Hajee and I hopped in to his car and we had a bit further drive. The same boat as yesterday, not perfect like the skiff with oars, but fair enough for a fine day of playing outside.

how do you mean playing outside?

As soon as we were on the water we noticed this old man really did know the area. The pace he had when cruising to the starting point and going through different area’s where we already knew big stones are lying… He definitely knew what he was doing.
First stop: Big Mama’s.... Yet no perfect day like that first competition day, but you never know when you never show. We had one or two fish striking… like I would remember that… Usually you do, but this day was so fantastic.
As Big Mama’s was nothing we drifted out through Crazy Woman’s. “She not there and no other crazy pikey-women either”. So we crossed Harmen-Jan’s Pool. Not much of a blast… In the meanwhile we knew our two buddies (Erik and Harmen-Jan) were back to the same spot they cashed in big time yesterday. How would they be doing and would they phone us up if there was such a thing?
Then we turned around the corner of an island and made a drift in the area that did produce some fish at the last tournament day. Upon arrival Hajee already sets the hook on a very nice fish. We let the boat drift into a reed-bed and jump out, I take Hajee’s waterproof camera and take some x-rated material of the fish and it’s release, beautiful circumstances for such a nice fish. We get back into the boat and continue the drift. Our guide loves it and enjoys the retrieves. I can hear how enthusiastic he is about it, ‘cause when a fish strikes or gets on he produces the same aaah’s and ooow’s most of us would do. He also knows his boating well. With a paddle he makes nice slow and quiet drifts, giving us enough opportunity to cast.

releasing a fish

But that first fish, it was merely the tip of the iceberg. Today it was our turn and we rocked!.
The drift continued with several hook-ups and we turned around the area for a second drift. Again they were striking like an insane tribe of woman on a deserted island that have not seen a man for decades. After a couple of hits (and fish) for both of us I knew today would be the day…
I tied on a foamdiver. Surface lures on the flyrod, it can not be more intense to my opinion. I had maybe 4 or 5 casts (Hajee had two fish missing in the meanwhile) when I heard Hajee missing yet another one. I turned around and saw the swirl. When I looked back I just saw everything happen there. I saw the face of a nice pike just when it came out of the water. Amazing!

catching such a beauty on a popper, makes you horny, aight!

The fish were on, obviously. So Hajee and I decided to make yet another drift on Big Mama’s. This time Hajee did hook a nice one. 96 centimeters of brute force charged his streamer and made him think he had his first meter on for a few minutes. These fish were quite strong, as the drag on the Vosseler had to be set quite hard. Not to prevent the line from breaking, but just to prevent the fish from it’s short but nasty runs. The guide enjoyed every fish as well. “ooowh, aah… Hauki!” – is what he let us know.

finally something at Big Mama's

We saw David of the English hook up some nice ones too at Big Mama’s. It later turned on he broke his PB as well.

oooh, Hauki yessss!

And in the afternoon, after our fourth drift over the best part (where we caught the first fish that morning) Hajee and Erik did arrive too. Not much yet, but this place was good for them too. It was incredible to see ourselves on a fifth or sixth drift, still hooking up pike in the same area. The English in the close neighborhood, catching fish as well and Hajee and Erik, drifting right behind us and catching quite a bit too. Today Hajee and I got stoked… So this is how it can be!

the deceiver worked well

Todays'hotspot

The day ended way too soon and back at the lodge we all relaxed on the decks and had some beers. Nice way to leave, with a day of more than 40 pike in the boat amongst 2 fisherman. Yeah man, the Baltic rules!
We took our dinner out onto the decks. And when we were finished eating I made a joke towards Simon who also was well into the beer already. “I wonder how the fishing would be at 4 o’clock in the morning” I stated to him. “I bet an early morning session would be a wonderful experience and maybe the pike are active when it is not yet as hot as midday.” Simon laughed at me. “If you are crazy enough to wake up at 3.00 AM, I will be guiding you guys” he said to me. Not a single vessel in my body hesitated, a once in a fishing trip opportunity to get some valuable extra time on the water.

Sealing the deal with Simon

So we continued our beers and again ended up in the sauna. It must have been 2 o’clock when I laid down on the bed and put the alarm. One small effort tomorrow early in the morning, would that be something? And I fell asleep within seconds for a small nap before it would be 3 o’clock.
If we did well? Stay tuned…..

Fishing for pleasure, the post-tournament-syndrome.

2010-06-15T00:47:00.003+02:00

It was funny to see the end of the tournament did not mean all of us getting wasted and not thinking about the fishing anymore. Hell no, that very last day of the tournament the weather was nice and our learning curve kept growing. Even though some places would look similar, there were some differences. The pike were everywhere, that’s one thing we knew for sure. But you just had to get into an area where they were feeding.

And of course our new rigs gave us more confidence, just like discovering a huge difference in the boat between Hajee’s small unweighted EP-fiber streamer and my big zonker/bucktail double-deckers. It was amazing to see the difference in numbers of fish that took small streamers vs. big ones. We felt more comfortable hauling heavy weight rods by the day. The Echo SW turned out to be superb for some accurate presentations, where myself I fell in love with the action of the TFO TiCrX. That rod has a nice action, well spread over the entire blank and able to pull out streamers at 20-30 feet of the boat to just get them back to the edge of the reeds in one or two false casts.

So after the ceremony I asked Jaakko some materials and he took me into the shop to let me pick out whatever I thought I needed. Not much, simple yellow and white deceivers of about 10-15 centimeters were what I had in mind. So I tied two of those for the next day.

That next day was sweet. As I was a bit frustrated about not having the right streamer the day before we decided we’d go out and try to have as much fun as possible. Just practicing the casts, going to some new area’s we did not see yet and really enjoy the scenery. As we were right in the middle of a high pressure zone the wind was a bit shifty, and we got a new boat with a new guide. Our guide was the little brother of Jaakko and Olli. It was just pure enjoyment to get onto a boat with this young lad, who was interested in all our flies and stuff.

The young fellow liked to cruise around full trottle

with some handsignals we let him approach the hot area's a bit slower

So Hajee and me had a lot of fun, we saw so many pike just lying on the bottom, already finished with spawning, but yet not hungry or active enough to nail down our streamers. We practiced casts and pushpoled each other around through new bays. The casting was a good thing to do as well and Hajee tried to capture some nice shots of the TiCrX in full casting action.

TiCrX in fully loaded action

Hajee tried to make some pics from a different angle

What of course, to our rules ended up in a big mess!

We caught some fish, but in the meanwhile, a few miles away the other two Dutchmen had a blast.
Erik and Harmen-Jan found a spot where the spawning was definitely done. The fish were active as piranha’s and when they came back to the docks they were totally thrilled. Double hook-ups, nice sized fish, they saw it all.

Underneath an intermezzo that just got in from Eriks hand, explaining how they felt at that moment:
The jackpot

The Merikarviadelta is not as big as the Kvarken region where the tournament would have taken place if not for the ice. But still it’s a couple of square kilometres of water, islets, rocks and trees. So after we finished the tournament there were still some parts that we hadn’t visited yet, let alone fished in. It was in one of those remote corners that we (Harmen-Jan and Erik in this case) hit the jackpot.
We had a good boat that day, which didn’t need much depth, and an oarsman who knew his job rather well. The place we went was basically a straight “channel”, some two meters deep. We saw a couple a boats trolling with lures, but no action. We even saw two ospreys but they caught no fish either. So at first glance and apart from the beautiful nature it was not very special. On both sides of the channel however there were shallows. Our guide told us that during the summer the water level usually drops and the channel is all that remains until the cycle repeats itself in the fall. Very carefully we entered the shallows on one side of the channel and worked our way across, casting our streamers left and right in every nook and cranny. Not much happened. We spooked a few fish and caught a few small pike, probably males. After some time Harmen-Jan managed to catch a decent 90 cm fish. We felt relieved; at least we hadn’t come all this way for zilch.
We crossed the channel to start fishing the shallows on the other side. Immediately a big swirl showed the place where only seconds before a pike had dashed off. In its wake more pike started moving. “Stop the boat, stop the boat” we simultaneously whispered at our guide in this almost unfriendly tone of voice that leaves no room for discussion. Superfluous words these turned out to be as he had seen what happened also. Even before the boat had come to a full stop two streamers were airborne. They did little more than touch the water when all hell broke loose. Every single cast produced at least a take. It was incredible. And if the pike didn’t get hooked, so what? A few strips later another one would have a go. Under normal conditions we help each other by landing the other guy’s fish; but now there was hardly any room for this kind of friendly assistance. Double hookups can be a pain you know☺. Yeeehah! And when it slowed down, our guide took us just a little further into pike territory and we would brace ourselves for the next vicious slash at our streamers. When we reached the channel again, maybe one hour later, maybe even less, we had hooked, caught and lost god knows how many pike. We gazed at eachother in sheer disbelief. We shook hands and knew that we had just had our finest hour ever. The jackpot. This one will be hard to top!

complete mayheim

Finland in early may, t-shirts and nice releases
Harmen-Jan was trembling and stumbling over his own words… “I made a cast and saw a big bow-wave coming from behind…. There it comes Erik… It is there look! Look! Kaboom! And miss!” He made a cast right back into the zone and as soon as the fly hit the water he had yet another hard strike. The man was obviously stoked and finally they had discovered the pike-walhalla so to say. The last half an hour of their day was just insane.
It is nice to see people so enthusiastic and it really made us all desire even more for the next day of fishing, which would be the last one. The pike seemed to finally get over the procreating modus into a good feeding mode.

Harmen-Jan makes a recast at a miss, while Erik strikes into fish

even on foot they caught several fish

Back at the lodge we had a wonderful time sitting on one of the decks, exchanging the findings of this day, showing each other pictures and rigs and drinking a few good beers. When I walked back from the sauna to the room at about 1.30 I was already mindset for the next session. We’ll come back on that one.

Awards ceremony (last part of the tournament)

2010-06-14T01:36:00.000+02:00

Back at the docks most boats were in or coming in. England 1 had the same experience as both of our teams. They did not have many hook-ups, but some sized fish and lost some sized ones too. All eyes were now on the Finnish team who were still right in front of the docks fishing the last minutes and once more demonstrating what a mean fishing machine they are. It just looked awesome to see them fish. One man up front, making casts to the left of the boat and one man on the back, making casts to the right of the boat. The man in the back (Saku) did not have a big casting platform, so he had a stripping basket on his leg and stripped into that basket. Their electromotor silently pulled the fishingboat through the water and they were fishing V shaped. The boat was in the middle of the V and this way they just combed out an entire area very effectively in one drift.
They stopped and came in at 2 minutes to four, so just right in time.
It resulted they did not have such a good day as some other teams, but still got enough pike aboard to not loose their lead. Although their lead was not as big anymore as it was after the first day, it was clear that they would have enough breathing space to stay in first position.
So the teams all got their gear together and we went back to the lodge. Simon had the exact scores and it was still a bit tensive how today’s totals would make up the final ranking. Could there still be a shift between the positions of England 1 and the two Dutch teams?

this pic sucks, but the cook Francois does deserve a place in the awards ceremony

Back at the lodge we had yet another good meal. Francois (Teddy) proved to be a good cook once more. And as the weather had turned very pleasurable over the past days we decided to take the plates outside and have dinner on the deck. Most competitors had been talking and exchanging theories by now and although the awards Ceremony still had to come, most of us were busy planning on how to fish the next days already. And of course, enjoying the location and the beers together with good company.
Simon himself had a terrible time in the meanwhile. Some miscommunication between him and the “guides” resulted in huge stress. The guides did not get the message some teams would still be staying for a few days and that Simon promised fishing for a week to us. So now he had no guides, nor boats for the next day… He did an amazing job and I am glad to tell you all there’s no need to worry about this being our last part of the fishing-trip report. He found a way to get other boats and men and we were ensured we could fish the other days as well. Thanks once more for that Si.
Okay, so we sat outside and it was time for the official part of the tournament. The prizes.
There were two winners on this tournament. The major game everyday was to catch as much sized fish per team and try to get the most length together. But the other part was for the largest fish of the tournament.
On the centimeters the Dutch did not manage to get gold.
The final result was:
1. Finland
2. England 1 (Mike and Guy)
3. Netherlands 1 (Erik and Harmen-Jan)
Netherlands 2 (Hajee and I ended in 4th place). In this final result it has to be said that the Finnish dominated, they had a serious lead. Nr’s 2 till 4 (so England1 and both Dutch teams) had a close match and I think we all enjoyed that a lot. Every pike missed or lost was one “that could have counted” and maybe just an excuse for being in another place than first. Although I personally think all teams have missed/lost their fair share, so in the end that will even out. The bottom-line would be that a close field adds a lot of fun for all competitors.
Then there was this other part of the competition, where it all was about the size of a single fish.
Saku won the prize for smallest pike captured…. Although Harmen-Jan and Erik still claim that the pike eggs that stuck into the fibres of their streamers should have been a smaller entry then Saku’s fish.
And then there was the grand prize of course… 4 days of fishing and lodging with Baltic Pike Tours at Kvarken…. Erik took that victory home for the Dutch and we were proud about “our” teammate.
But hey…. Have a look at the pics and they’ll speak for themselves.

Team Vision (Finnish), Saku and Tuomas won the first prize

England1, Mike (right) and Guy, receiving two rods for second price

Erik and Harmen-Jan, Netherlands1, both received a rod and got third

Hajee and Sander, receiving fourth prize from Simon Graham

cameras for coverage

Our man Erik, receiving the Grand Prize for biggest pike during the tournament

groupshot: Pierre-Luc, Eric, Benoit, Harmen-Jan, Simon Tuomas, Sander, Saku,Mike, Steve, Hajee, Guy and David

So far, so good. So now you guys know about the prizes. The upcoming days we'll post some more pics and reports about the fishing after the tournament. The Pike-fishing improved seriously and the last days were awesome. But I have to carefully warn the followers of this blog. On Thursday I will be heading down to Norway for trout and grayling a longer period of time. So after next weekend updates won't be part of it for a while.

As we would like to hear how you as a reader/follower experienced our first competition and blog attempts we would appreciate some comments. Around september we will be starting it all up again and if you let us know where to find you we'll let you know when we're getting back more actively.

I do have to give some sort of serious warning, as this week there is still some serious reports to come about fishing for pleasure.....

The biggest pike

2010-06-10T23:20:00.000+02:00

Okay, so we met up with Erik and Harmen-Jan right before the ending of the final day.
And I asked Erik to write down a bit of that experience. But before you start reading underneath I would recommend to just cranck up the speakers of your personal computers entertainment system. Because I think this song was on Erik’s mind for the rest of the week (at least I heard him whistling it several times after that moment of the day where he absolutely rocked!)

this song rocks, just like our erik did...

The tournament was supposed to be a friendly but nevertheless serious clash between four man teams from different countries. But as time progressed and the tournament came ever nearer, it became clear that not all teams would be at full strength: the Finnish as well as the Canadian team consisted of only two. So, flyfishermen as we all are, we bent the rules a little so that everybody was going to have a fair shot at piking glory. We simply reduced the size of all teams to two persons.
But apart from the competition between the teams there was a nice prize to be won by whoever would catch the biggest pike; Baltic Pike Flies threw in a free 4 day Kvarken pike fly trip for the contestant who was going to bag the biggest pike of the tournament. No small prize by any standard.
When during the third day of the tournament Erik hooked up with a big pike, he knew this might be it. He had put his streamer very close to a beautiful reed bed at a considerable distance from the boat, in order to not spook any fish, and it was brutally attacked as soon as he started retrieving it. The Dutch Four had practiced stripstriking thoroughly enough to make it second nature. So Erik, who was already pointing his rod at the fish the moment it took the streamer, instinctively knew what to do: step back and strip hard at the same time. The next moment the Baltic Sea exploded! Fish on! A fierce battle went on for at least a minute and then it was over as suddenly as it had begun: the fish had somehow managed to get rid of the barbless hook. PERKELE! If you do not know what this means, look it up in a Finnish dictionary. Then again, it may not be in it.
It took some time to recover from this disappointment, but in the end we're all flyfishermen and we all lose fish every now and then. Shit happens. It does. Don't be a pussy about it, get over it and start fishing again. And for some reason it took only 15 minutes for Erik to get a second chance. Another vicious attack right after the streamer hit the water. And as they say, everything is well that ends well. The beautiful pike, 105 centimeters long, didn't stand a chance against the strong yet very smooth drag of the Vosseler S3. The Dutch Four secured the biggest pike of the tournament.

Erik does know how to admire Finnish beauty

It ain't much if it ain't Dutch... is what this lady must have thought

Outside the tournament Tuomas, a real good flyfisherman fishing for the Finnish team and a great guy, even managed to bag a 112 cm fish. Congratulations Tuomas!

Voodoo child

Last tournament day part 2

2010-06-09T00:46:00.001+02:00

Harmen-Jan and Erik made a drift into a pool where they had some action the day before, Hajee and I also knew the place already and we referred to it as Harmen-Jan’s pool. On our drift we came close to a nice reed-bed close to an island, but as we got closer the guide told us to stop fishing. He pointed out to a small house on the island and explained: “crazy woman!” so from then on that corner of the Delta was called “crazy woman’s place”
We decided to make one drift over at big mama’s, as we still believed strongly that would be the ultimate place when talking big pike. Unfortunately I only had one sized fish missing my streamer, so it was time to go on. We circled around the island to another nice looking area with lots of dead reed protruding from the water. In between there were small canals and we tried them all. Hajee got a sized one and two jacks, so it paid off.

was it the spot or the old backwards cap trick*?

(* the old backwards cap trick makes fish think you are going home and they feel save to predate on baitfish again as they think your leaving)

Then it was lunch time. We lost sight of Netherlands 1 and there was no other boat to be seen. As Simon was guiding the British there was no one passing by with updates and we could only hope for the others to have a nice day as well. We stranded the boat into some reeds and ate our sandwiches, this time Francois had made sandwiches with cucumber, cream cheese and ham. Which was the same as all days before and still tasted good. Together with a good lukewarm beer it was nice sitting. The sun was out and believe it or not, it was May in Finland and we were sitting there in t-shirts.
After this pleasant break we drifted out the area, but we did not see anything and after 20 minutes of nothing we decided to move. That was another part of the tactics. If we would not get any sign of fish in half an hour it could be wise to move to somewhere totally different. As we believe that fish have to be active to be able to catch them. Or like guy says: “they have to be in the mood”
Our next spot was amazing. I started out a bit frustrated, hooking lots and lots of reed, but also Hajee obviously got more strikes. Maybe it was the rig? So we made a rig similar to Hajee’s for me (in another topic I’ll explain about the rigs). When we got into the new area I had a jack-pike on at the first cast. That gave some confidence about the rig. We drifted it out, resulting in a sized fish for Hajee in the corner most downwind at the end of the drift. We measured it with the guide and it was 78 centimeters. We recorded the score and Hajee made another cast on almost the same spot. Two strips and another pike rushed out of the reed to get his streamer. He had it on and the guide showed to be a man with a good sense of humor. “ah no, 78 centimeters”-he said. The three of us had a laugh, it ended up to be 73 and yet another fish on the scoreboard for us.
We decided to drift a bit more in that area and it turned out to be an afternoon with two faces. Hajee did manage to get more fish, even another one for the scoring board. Myself I missed 2 and had two jacks in the boat. It was obvious there was a huge difference. At a certain point I took the front position in the boat and made some casts into a corner in the reed. It was obviously a hotspot and I would have sworn there should be at least one hungry pike down there. After 4 good casts and stripping back in through that zone I took it for granted there was no fish in there. But as Hajee was on the back of the boat he then had a chance to make a cast to that same hotspot. As we have been fishing together so long we both approach such a spot with the same kind of cast, same spot, same retrieve. To my big surprise and frustration within three strips of the streamer Hajee had a nice pike on…. WTF! Was my first reaction. But at least good for both of us, this pike measured 80 centimeters and was yet again good for the score.

We discussed things and it looked like we finally got a little clue. This day Hajee had put on a small EP streamer (well, small to our standards) of about 6 inch long. Reassembling a baitfish pattern. I fished with the standard streamers I would fish everyday in the Netherlands and these are about 10-15 inches long. Could the difference in size and shape make such a big difference?
As Hajee now had 4 sized pike on the scoreboard we decided he should try to get his fifth. After that we would switch streamers, as his streamer was the only small baitfish thing we had aboard (yeah, I know, we tied hundreds of streamers and still don’t have it….). We drifted out the same area again and to my frustration Hajee hooked some jacks again where I did not see any action at all.
It was half past three and we needed to get back to the docks. At least we had four fish and it would all depend on how the others did if it was a good score or not. For the day total it was obvious, Hajee had about 15 pike on that single EP-streamer. Myself I had only landed 3 jacks.
When we exited the area we saw the others. Erik and Harmen-Jan. They were stoked. Erik had missed a big fish and got a second chance in the same area, getting a pike of over a meter to hand. That was fantastic news, perhaps this could help us get closer to victory. They had some other sized fish too, so it would be a good score for both Dutch teams today.

Tournament, the last day. (part 1)

2010-06-07T23:41:00.001+02:00

The day started out nice. Hajee and I made a serious attempt to not be the last guys to pick up the lunch packets and we managed to get into another car than the last one to leave the lodge. We stopped at the supermarket on the way up to the boats, yesterday evening was very good, but the entire beer-stock was emptied again. By now there was one lesson the both of us learned. We are better when we are relaxed and take a break every once in a while on a hard day of fishing. Just sitting down, making some jokes with the guide and having a beer. Some cracks would say it is a waste of time cause you only have eight hours to fish, but the other side is you are much better focused if you take your breaks the way you are used to instead of trying too hard to keep up a steady pace.

And yes, going for Gold (or at least lots of pike) means hard working. Our regular weapon would be a 9 or 10 weight rod. Try to make as much casts as you can with one of these rods and a heavy streamer and you know what hard working is.

Erik and Harmen-Jan in full action

The tactics for today were easy. Cast your fly almost into the reeds (the closer the better) and then strip in like a madman, just to stay free of the plants underneath. During the entire week none of the four of us had a fish strike very close to the boat. Most strikes were at about 10-15 meter or more. So after stripping in a few meters it was time for a serious rod-bending pick-up and recasting the streamer a meter or two away from the last cast. Unless you had the bad luck of hooking up some dirt. Then you would have to strip the entire thing to the boat and pick the dirt of your hook before you could fish again.
Efficiency, combing out the potential area’s and recognizing the good spots. Although the Finnish still had a good lead, England 1 and both Dutch teams were close enough to each other to have one or two good fish making good differences and still changing rankings. Even two or three good fish more than the Finnish team would give all the other three teams a fair shot at victory. So we had to do it today and the effort had to be 110%.
As said before, this day we were going to try another boat and our Team captain Harmen-Jan showed his value. He was at the boats first and claimed the boat he and Erik had yesterday for Hajee and me. And what a good boat it was… A skiff type boat, with a small motor you could lift up out of the water and the guide proved to be a master of the oars. Almost no reed-bed turned out to be too shallow and he could drift almost every drift we demanded. We started by going through the shortcut passage, the one we could not make with Kari’s boat. Netherlands 1 followed us and we decided to try to start quite close to each other so we could exchange all valuable information.

Hajee in front of the skiff, ready for battle as we cruise to the delta

Netherlands 1 took the reed-beds on the left-side of a bay, we went upwind and started on the right-side. The water in this bay was not the clearest, but yesterday Erik and Harmen-Jan had seen a lot of pike spawning in this area and that means they must be there. Our first three drifts were not so successful, but the guide was a big pleasure. He could really let the boat drift perfectly around the reeds and we felt that we were doing the best thing possible.
We tried to exchange some words with the guide, he did understand our English combined with hand and foot signals a bit. Pike is Hauki in Finnish, so we were educated that morning. So we started to make up silly songs and melodies… “Oh Hauki, where are you?”-Hajee sang and at the moment it came out of his mouth he had a strike. It turned out to be a little hauki, but at least there was a sign of fish. The song worked out a little bit as we had three little hauki’s more aboard the boat. None of them big enough to score for the tournament.

When we finished (no, we are not Finnish, we are Dutch) the area we cruised to Harmen-Jan and Erik. They still had no pike in the boat, but lost 4 bigger ones and that was a drag. Imagine getting 4 sized fish on the score in the first hour…. That would have been a serious attempt to get that gold medal. Harmen-Jan told us it was a madhouse, they started and had them on within that first hour, but unfortunately could not get any of them in the boat. At least one thing was for sure, the tactics were good and all four of us had good faith for the rest of the day.

typical view of the surroundings early in the morning

Tournament day 2, the evening.

2010-06-06T22:23:00.002+02:00

Another lovely evening at the Eumer Lodge was the end of day 2. We had Simon demonstrating to us how to tie some tubeflies. And of course everybody had his share of beers and brandies.

A lot of information was exchanged, even among the teams and the decision fell that Simon would be going out with the only other true fishing boat the next day, to guide team England 1 (Mike and Guy). This all in a collective effort to get England 1 and Netherlands 1 (Harmen-Jan and Erik) to the best chances possible to attack the lead position of the Finnish. Home-teams always seem to have a bit of an advantage and all other teams would love to support the effort to make that less true in this tournament.
The weather forecast for the coming days looked better and better. Day three of the tournament the temperatures would start to be summer-like. And for the days after the tournament (we were allowed to fish the entire week) the forecast was sunny with temperatures way above 25 degrees Celsius. After the tying most of us went out on one of the decks of the lodge and enjoyed the low sun shining through the trees. Some even tried to capture some trout on the river next to the lodge and as usual it was time for sauna and skinny dipping in the river before we went to bed.

sunset at midnight....May in Finland

Hajee and I talked it all over one more time. Both of us felt a little bit ungrateful to not go with Kari the next day, but if we still wanted to make a small chance of getting up in the rankings it was obvious we would need to go for another boat the next day.
About tactics it was clear. We had been trying different new rigs that are lighter than the ones we usually use. This to stay higher in the water, as the fishing through the reeds means you’ll hook-up a lot of dead reed.

Tournament day 2 (part 3)

2010-06-05T20:50:00.001+02:00

We were back early and decided to go up into a small creek where some boats disappeared into this morning. Kari was not totally fine with that, he was trying to explain us something, but in the end we decided to go in there, Hajee paddle-poling the boat and me on the bow, trying to get at least another fish for the score. When we came up to a pool there was this bridge and now we could see what Kari meant. This was a shortcut to the other places we would fish every day, but due to some rocks underneath the bridge it was too shallow for him to pass through.
Our day already tasted like defeat and we saw some nets standing in the pool. The moral was not so high as the end of the first competition day and just as we wanted to turn around and go back to the finish we saw the boat of our Dutch companions coming at the other side of the bridge. Harmen-Jan was shooting some photo’s of Erik with something big in his hands.
It resulted to be a seagull. It got trapped in one of the numerous nets that are placed on some of the spawning areas and they rescued it from drowning. As thanks the seagull tried to get a firm snap of Erik and it was obvious this bird did not want to become some blog-material for the Dutch Four. Luckily for us and unfortunately for the bird Harmen-Jan did manage to get some shots of it, before it bit Erik quite hard and got released.

net's not funny

what happened to the guinea pigs and half chickens?

We lined up the boats. Both man in the other boat were stoked. They had a nice day, about 15-20 pike in the boat and some good sized fish to make a nice score for that day. The boat they had was very good and they recommended us to take it the next day. The tactics they used were the same as they started out with that morning. Just going into the shallows and try to find some fish that were finished spawning already, in the areas next to the spawning pike . And it did pay of, as Erik caught a really good one that could well be the one on top of the charts and going for the grand prize of the biggest fish. Both man contrasted against our deception and it gave us some energy. At least not everybody had a lesser day and at least the pride of the Dutch was still well defended. Tomorrow should be the final day and everything would depend on how the others did today. The 3 minute ride back to the docks was exciting, just because of that. All four of us wanted to know how other teams had done.
It resulted Harmen-Jan and Erik did quite well, the England 1 team of Mike and Guy also had some pike that were good enough for the count and the Finnish team kind of missed some fish so at least their lead was not huge anymore (still it was a lot). Hajee and I had to take some poundings and saw our Dutch teammates of Netherlands 1 pass by, where the England 1 and Finnish got more than just one pike, so they got more lead on us.
The Canadians and England 2 had a sized fish in the boat as well, so now all teams were on the board.

Fish like this are good for the scores

Erik does not like to pose, but he did very well

Later in the evening we discussed the day once more. In the end we came to the conclusion that big mama’s place had not delivered a single fish today. We lost some nice fish there, both yesterday and today. But all teams loose some fish and we just did not get well enough into the good action. Boats were planned that evening, Harmen-Jan advised us to go with the guide they had today. A much better boat to get onto the areas where the pike are at this moment. Hajee and I agreed we would do that, cause we ended the day quite frustrated of not being able to fish two man at the same time and not getting into the zone where the most action was. On the other hand I felt very sorry for Kari. He did all his best the past days and he searched us up every morning to see if we would go on his boat. Now we would be going with another boat and somehow it made me feel like a traitor. But hey, we wanted our share of the action as well, so let’s see if on day 3 we do get into a better boat and if one of our teams (or England 1) will be able to beat the locals on their home turf.

Tournament day 2 (part 2)

2010-06-03T00:47:00.000+02:00

Simon came along with some updates of the field. As we heard from him his recent information told us that the Finnish were having a hard time getting fish as well. One of the Canadians did get a nice one, around 90cm’s. The English had some fish but Simon could not recall if they had sized ones and our Dutch buddies did very well having at least 3 or 4 sized fish, one being a big one. “At least not all Dutch were as crappy as we are” we grinned. If the other teams were not catching that much either we had to come up with some idea on how to get sized fish.

fishing our asses of in hope for a strike

So what to do now? We decided the only possibility (to get in the good area’s) we had with this boat was to try to get close to some spawning area’s and then try to get the boat through in “nomoto”. Not the easiest thing, but Kari had one stiff wooden paddle in the boat. So I push-poled Hajee through a nice area. It got us on the board. One pike, just a bit over 70centimeters made us feel a little less frustrated. On the other hand, what is one pike when there should be so many? Hajee caught a small one and we felt a bit better. At least with one man poling and the other fishing we could get into some action. We came to an open place within the reedbed and we had seen a fish swirl there when we were on the other side of the reedbed. Here there could be a fish awaiting…
Hajee made a cast and after two strips we both saw the bow wave coming out of the reeds. I already knew poling and watching could be fun, but this was just awesome. The two of us where watching the streamer and there this fish came, rushing out of the reeds and with such an enormous anger it nailed down Hajee’s streamer. He was quick with his reaction and strip-striked into a solid hookup. The fish was having a ball, rushing through the reeds and I put away my pole-paddle. This was a nice sized fish and at least we could prevent a big damage on the scoring board if we would get this one on and counting. As we both hate nets I went to the bow of ship to chin the fish for my mate. And that’s when it went wrong. As soon as I got a hold of the rig and got to his bite-trace, the fish started shaking it’s head wildly. And just when I was getting an fierce neck-grip on it instead of a chin-grip it released. What a bummer!

right out of the reedbeds

subsurface, right before the streamer popped out....

I made my sincere apologies and Hajee told me it was no issue at all, those things happen. But I still feel bad about it when I look back at it. We finished of this area and we decided to boat to another shallow area and it would be my turn then. On the next two hours nothing happened. We did not see others, no sized fish. Merely no fish at all, asides from a few jacks that came up for a swirl or got to hand and released without ever leaving the water.
At about 15.00 we decided to head back to the start/finish. Maybe make some more casts near the docks, but we did not want to come in late and we both had a bit of a bummed feeling. Although we both had some action, this was not a good day for us to get into the upper regions and give serious competition to the others. On the way back…. Hell yes, good guess, we did Big Mama’s once more (like a lot of other fishing talk that sounds just horrible, doing Big Mamas...). Nothing but a skunk ;-)

Tournament day 2 (part 1)

2010-05-31T23:04:00.000+02:00

We wake up at 6.30 (the day would start early, at eight). After the sauna last night we felt relaxed and fell asleep right away. So we were as fresh as one can be on a good trip. At breakfast some jokes were made about Henk-Jan and Sander always being just a little bit later then the rest. But hey, what the heck… nobody knew this was all part of the tactics (just kidding). But as I walked out of the lodge with Henk-Jan at 7.30 all of the others were gone already. Teddy (the cook) saw us picking up the last lunch packets and a can of coffee and immediately phoned Simon. “there are still two guys here!”- he said. Fortunately (or was it indeed well over thought tactics?) The Finnish team was just driving away and they stopped 200 meters from the lodge so we could fetch a ride with them.
In the car we had a small chance to overhear Tuomas and Saku and that just gave a little bit more insight on the fishing they were doing. And they did very well that first day, so the inside information of Team Vision was a nice one.
Day 2, it had to be done on the spawning areas according to most of the fisherman. I had a look at my buddy and we smiled. For us we would start out at Big Mama’s place, ‘cause we were still stoked about the blast we had yesterday.
When we arrived at the boats most people were geared up and ready. Kari stood there waiting for us…. Same boat and guide, third day in a row. But we did not mind, this guy had showed to have a good learning curve and yesterday some pointing with the rod and hand communication combined with some “nomoto’s” was good enough to drift the deeper waters (let’s say 3-4ft) of Big Mama’s place.
Harmen-Jan and Erik picked up a nice boat for this day, a skiff type with oars and a guide who resulted to be in a good physical shape to just row and drift. Nomoto’s all day, those guys were lucky! As the competition was quite close between England one and both Dutch teams we all were very eager and we wanted to give good sport to each other. We geared up and boarded Kari’s boat. It was time to get started and when Simon gave the signals the boats ran out. The English went to the left, Netherlands 1 (Harmen-Jan and Erik) to the right and we went straight out, to the passage to get into the Delta and on towards the islands a bit closer to the river mouth. Big Mama’s place on our minds.

This little friend used one of Harmen-Jan's wire traces for his housing ;-)

As we were going through a canal we saw numerous turns in the water, the bigger whitefish were active just underneath the surface. That should be a good sign! So passed the rock with the seagull we went, towards the reedbeds we had in mind.

picture taken on a later moment, but there's the seagull and Big Mama's is just a bit more to the right

The wind was still slow and same as yesterday, just perfect for the same type of drifts we made before. As we arrived there we saw one big swirl of a hunting pike. That would be just another good sign. And with just some pointing with my rod Kari understood the masterplan. Drifting the same drifts as yesterday. The first drift was just stunning. I missed a good fish and Hajee even managed to get two good sized pike on and unluckily he gave them both a so called long distance release. I guess we missed the catching part of the “catch and release”-spirit.

without words Kari would understand the pointing of a rod

The second drift it was already getting warmer and we could not see whitefish activity anymore. Hajee had one fish swirling right behind his streamer and that was about it. The third drift there was nothing to be seen anymore… So it was time to go searching for other places. We saw Erik and Harmen-Jan going into a bay a bit more Southwards so we decided to go over to them and have a small exchange of thoughts and experiences. They were indeed in that bay, close to the reedbeds and making long casts right at the edge of the reed. While we were observing them Erik took a nice bream falsely hooked, but they caught a jack-pike as well. The Netherlands 1 looked like a mean fishing machine. Both guys making long casts and stripping in. Very effective and they were making the guide doing the right drift they had in mind.
When we tried to get closer we got stuck in the mud. That’s the disadvantage of a slightly heavier boat with a longtail engine that can not be lifted up. We had some talk with the other guys, it was all happening in the shallow and they had two sized fish on the board already.

Our teamcaptain had a good sized one already

That was indeed very good news, as it was still early and as we considered ourselves one team defending the Dutch pride Hajee and I both were happy at least the others did so well. The advised us to do the same thing as they did, get into the shallows and make casts towards the dead reedbeds that protruded out of the water. We got our boat free from the mudbank and did another serious attempt, but whatever we tried, we could not get close enough without getting stuck in the mud and reedbeds that were still underneath the surface.
Time for another plan and we let the boat drift across the bay to get crashed into a bigger subsurface reedbed on the other side of the bay. Hajee and I both got of the boat and waded out. At first a bit cautious, as we did not know how it would be, but it seemed like the reedbeds would hold us quite well. The only funny (and a bit scary) thing was that you could feel the beds sway underneath you. It reminded me of the time when I was a little boy and one of my friends parents had a waterbed. Those things also sway that much when you walk on them. All of a sudden there was a hole in the bed and I almost fell into it (at 2ft the water was to dark to see any structure). Oops… scary shit and Hajee who also found a couple of steep and deep edges agreed this was not such a good plan. So we waded back to the boat, a bit more careful this time. As it was almost noon we stood next to the boat and had our lunch. Going over numerous plans on what to do and where to go.
The other Dutch team was out of sight by now and we were the only ones in this bay. We went up to and made another unsuccessful drift on Big Mama’s , but there was no action there. And still I had the feeling this was the place to be for the bigger ones.
Simon came along with some updates of the field.

Simon was making miles and miles to keep in touch with the entire field

As we heard from him, his most recent information told us that the Finnish were having a hard time getting fish as well. One of the Canadians did get a nice one, around 90cm’s. The English had some fish but Simon could not recall if they had sized ones and our Dutch buddies did very well having at least 3 or 4 sized fish, one being a big one. “At least not all Dutch were as crappy as we are” we grinned. If the other teams were not catching that much either we had to come up with some idea on how to get sized fish.

Out for the weekend.

2010-05-29T12:30:00.001+02:00

As it has been almost two weeks and we are still flyfishing addicts above writers.... We could not resist the tempting call of the unused flyrods. They were begging us to please stay away from the computer a couple of days and take them out for a new adventure.

Let's see if it is possible to get some of these this weekend in Denmark.
Updates will continue tuesday or wednesday.
Ciao!

Tournament day 1, The aftermath

2010-05-28T17:13:00.000+02:00

We return to the docks and the sight is wonderful. Right in front of the little bay with the dock most teams are still floating. On all boats both team members are trying to get a last fish as hard as they can. As we are totally pumped by Big Mama’s place and it is already 10 minutes to 4, Hajee and I don’t fish anymore and Kari cruises the boat right up to the docks.

The Finnish team in front of the docks.

As we get on shore the other boats are also coming in. Everybody has experiences to share and of course everyone is anxious to hear about the results of the others. Our main interest is of course in the other Dutch team, we came here as four and we hope they had an even better day than we had.
Unfortunately that is not the truth. Erik and Harmen-Jan had a lot of fun, caught their fishes, but mostly jack-pikes. They caught more than we did, but not so big. So their score will come out a bit lower. On the other hand, they had more action and to Hajee and Sander, that is a sign H&S probably did not fish the good places as it was hard working for some fish and they only had that unique moment of time at Big Mama’s place.
Erik and Harmen-Jan had a different type of boat and they went on to the shallows. They have seen lots of spawning pike in the reedbeds, where on the other hand H&S (Netherlands 2) did not see pike spawning at all during the first tournament day. Erik and Harmen-Jan fished close to these spawning grounds, looking for aggressive fish or fish that were “spawned out” (=finished with spawning, not to be confused with Finnish spawning). In numbers that did produce a lot more compared to H&S’s experience.
Then the focus sets on to the other teams. We get news from Simon, the Russians most probably will not show up anymore. They were still at the border, the trailer of their boat was not allowed to enter Finland, according to the Finnish requirements (lights etcetera).

Mostly on the reedbeds where the action was.

The Finnish team did well, they caught more pike than the other teams and had some nice ones on the list. England 1 (Mike and Guy) also had good action and probably will have had more than either one of our teams. England 2 and the Canadians unfortunately both had a bad day and merely saw fish.
Back at the lodge the four of us sit down, we try to analyze all the new information we got. The result is that to get numbers fishing next to the spawning grounds resulted in the most productive way of getting them. That tactic was used by the Finnish, England 1 and Netherlands 1. On the other hand if Hajee and Sander would have had some luck and landed two or three more of the hook-ups/ strikes they had, it would have been totally different (well, at least the score would have been).
The options for the next day are many. And as we all mingle with the others the thoughts are moving away from the fishing and start focusing on whisky, rum and beers. Erik and Hajee take some rods out of a rack and make some casts in front of the lodge. Sander and Harmen-Jan relax on one of the decks, enjoying the good company of some of the other teams.
And as good sportsman we end up the night in Finnish tradition, butt naked in the steamy sauna. And to put our autograph on this sauna-thing we introduce Benoit (one of the Canadians) to skinny-dipping-in-a-river-of-melting-water-by-night. Because nothing beats a heart stopping cool off in an ice cold river.

nice thing, that sauna happening late at night...

The first competition day (part 2)

2010-05-26T16:22:00.000+02:00

Man… does that beer taste good or what? The practice day we did not take out any beers at all (decision of the team captain) and this morning I discussed with Hajee wether or not to bring some beers along. “At least a couple to celebrate the first pike that counts”, was my argument. Okay, we have to fulfill a lot of promises and fish or asses off, but in my opinion one fishes at his best when he fishes the way he always does. And for me and Hajee that is indeed with some relaxing and a beer every once in a while.

So the Karhu tastes good and we let Kari take the boat to a next island a bit more upwind. We plan a drift along the shore of that one. Well, Hajee and I look at the map and the winds, then send Kari towards the spot with us and call “nomoto” on him if we judge our position right for a drift. Luckily the wind is not howling today, otherwise a drift with such a high boat and no driftbags or any kind of rudder would be a big drama.

We drift along the next island and reckon there are some nice spots on it. Unfortunately there is not a single bit of action. But hey, this drift goes great and we can see that if we keep on drifting we might go a bit further away from the island, but straight into the area where Simon caught the first Finnish pike we did see on this trip, right in front of our eyes on practice-day. So we fish on with confidence. Then I hook a nice branch. I pull it towards the boat slowly (never use your rod to drill branches) and take it out of the water. I think I heard a splash.

It must have been some sort of gut feeling that made me want to mark this area somewhere out in the open, and I push the branch I just landed into the muddy bottom about 1.5 meters below us. The back of the branch sticks out for about half a meter out of the water. And then I hear the sound again, sounds like fish, so I turn to Hajee and ask him if he did see something. Nope. He says he thinks it was the little attempt Kari made to brake our speed a little bit with the paddle that was lying in the boat for so long.

Then I hear the splash again and look over my shoulder. A swirl, I am sure about it. I point it out to Hajee, but he does not see it any more. It was pike, I am sure about it. And then I spot a fish swimming right underneath the surface, about the size of a decent ide. It swims a bit distracted and it draws my attention. I point it out to Hajee. And at that moment, a huge swirl right behind it. That is pike, definitely. The fish rushes away in fear and we can follow it. Another swirl in it’s neighbourhood. And another one. There is a pike chasing down this big baitfish. Not much later we see yet another swirl a bit farther away. We call upon Kari for the moto, and I am still not sure if he saw anything of this action or just missed it all together. Then about 40 meters in front of us a huge pike strikes again in the surface. We can see it almost head and tail in a trashy fast forwarded way. With some big splashes.

And then we lose sight of this active fish. But surprisingly just half a minute later I can see the injured baitfish swimming around again. We try to stick close to it, but there’s no action anymore. Okay… at least there was a pike that was very active and chasing a fish for a longer trail. Not a place we would have recognized as a hotspot, but the fish was a whopper, that’s for sure and we both know it would have been one that would go on the scoring charts.

As we sit and wait if something more happens all of a sudden I think about the branch. I know almost exactly where the first swirl of that big pike was…. So we make up a plan (all based on Dutch polder-knowledge and imagination) on what to do with the couple of hours we still have left for this tournament day. In the Dutch polder we would leave a pike that has been moved but not hooked alone for a while. Let it set back into it’s ambush (in the polders they stand in the exact place minutes after they have been hunting) and try for it after a small break. Maybe it is the same here? We think it is a good idea to let Kari go around this area and set up another drift, aiming at the branch and hoping the big pike will have gone back to it’s place when we pass by on the second drift.

As the wind has shifted a little bit we have to start the drift a bit further away of the island than our first drift. More open water. But still we let Kari stop the engine quite a long time before the boat will be in the “hot place” near the branch, because we want to be sure not to spook the fish.

We start drifting and fishing. Making casts and retrieving, looking out for the part of the drift we both will be able to make two or three casts in that area where I suspect the pike to be. We drift past a couple of rocks and reed. I make a cast towards this structure, as it gives at least some impression of the structure in the water.

Not even a single strip completed....kabooom! A fish nails down my streamer quite aggressively. I strip-strike full force and it is quite a mass on the business end. Yessss! My first pike of the trip, and I am sure it is one for the scoreboard. I spool it on the reel, not because I think it is so strong, but just because I don’t like all that loose line in a small boat when you are also trying to land a fish, measure it and take some pictures. As I have the fish on reel I notice how nice it bends my TFO TiCrX. And it even breaks through the drag of the Vosseler... This fish has some strength, not bad considering the fact we are fishing with a 9 or 10 weight.

Hajee gets a chin grip on it and I take it over from there. We measure it and it is definitely a fish that goes on the board. The boat shivers and trembles as Kari pulls out another of these Hula-moves. Four arm movements this time and the man is running out of breath because of all the excitement. As he lights up another cigarette he refuses one of the hot beers we offer him. We do a small shootout with me and the fish and release it carefully. Cheers mate!

I take a look at the streamer, what a mess, but with some water it is back in shape quite fast.

During the shootout and drilling the drift was continued and now the boat is past the branch. But hey, who cares… we are here, 2 friends enjoying the tournament and we propose to do the same drift once more. It is great to see the learning curve of our guide. He quickly knows he has to motor the boat around this area and start yet another “nomoto” drift. We start casting again and after about five minutes Hajee takes a good strike of a big fish. Unfortunately it does not get hooked, but hey, we got action. We continue the drift as we are still not at the spot where we assume the pike we saw hunting could be positioned.

Some 50 meters further we are close to the branch as Hajee takes another strike and sets the hook. This time the fish stays on and his TFO Axiom goes into a deep and nice curve. He drills the fish towards the boat and when I get it to hand for him we both are enjoying yet another lovely fish. This will put us up on the scores for sure! Although we don’t know how the others are doing, we finally get some good fish to the boat. As I take the fish out of the water and hand it to my buddy I see another great Hula of our guide. He needs to stop for a haul on his cigarette, and then makes two more awesome swings. The boat is rocking and we are having a ball. We shoot some pictures and open up our last beer (stupid me, I only took 3 beers with me). It goes down like one of the best ever.

We don’t even need to talk to Kari anymore. A pointing of the rod and he knows. Start the engine, cruise widely around this area and set the boat for yet another drift. Meanwhile we set some alarms on my phone. We have to be back at the dock at 4 o’clock sharp. If not the score is disqualified and we do want this on the board!

On the next drift it is a madhouse. I miss a huge fish, strike it, feel it and then almost tumble backwards as the fish gets loose. I make a back cast and intend to drop the streamer in the same area again. What streamer??? It is gone! I strip in my line. The crosslock is all bent out and I guess there is a big pike mama around that got herself a souvenir. That’s why barbless fishing is so important. Pretty sure she gets rid of it within a couple of shakes with her head. Goodbye good streamer and goodbye trophy fish (you know… the one that got away).

That same drift Hajee misses a big one too and now we are both totally tripping on adrenaline. We are obviously on a good spot with quite some big fish that are in their feeding period. We call the spot Big Mama’s place already. This is fishing, in all the excitement and passion you want it. Drifting and fishing and being aware that every cast and retrieve could trigger a big fish to strike.

We make yet another drift. And the first alarm goes off. Time to start thinking about returning back in time. And again Hajee picks up a strike. Unfortunately another long distance release follows. But hey, we still got time for another drift. And as we point it out Kari already knows exactly what we want. He’s enjoying the fishing just as much as we do. Motor across to the starting point. Then a “nomoto” drift and for four consecutive drifts we had action.

On this next drift the alarm on my phone goes again. But as it is so exciting I don’t want to take it out of my pocket for a snooze. Damn...lost focus! A big fish hits my streamer and I set the hook. After a short but hard yank on the line the fish is off again. I take out my phone and shut it off. “Terrible amateur” is my silent thought about myself. Just letting that phone distract you a bit and missing yet another very big fish. But I am not the only one, as Hajee also scores another long distance release. It is insane how active these big fish turned all in a sudden and we wonder if it is happening in the entire Delta or just here.

Unfortunately the phone just beeps again. Time to head back to the docks. But hey, as we run off to the meeting point we have a euphoric feeling. Despite the large amount of missed or lost fish, this kind of action is what we both had in mind about fishing in the Baltic. On the way back we wonder how the others did and what their tactics were.

The first competition day (part 1)

2010-05-25T10:55:00.005+02:00

We wake up at a less than Christian time. 7.15 a.m. is not that early, but still quite harsh when the evening before you admired the Finnish daylight (till about 1.30 a.m.), enjoyed a sauna and had some good company of other teams trying to distract you and intoxicate you. Well, we did our best ourselves to intoxicate the others and judging some faces at breakfast I think I did well on that one.

8 o’clock the cars head off to the boats. The tournament will start at nine. At the little marina most fishermen are eager to get a boat. Kari (our guide from yesterday) is already waiting for us. He grabs my back and takes it on to his boat. And as yesterday was not good for any of the teams, Hajee and I decide to get on board of Kari’s boat. At least we know the man a bit since yesterday and we don’t have a clue (yet) that the different types of boat could matter for the fishing.

When Simon gives the sign most teams rush out quite fanatic and everyone must have had some spot in mind he discovered the day before. A good place to start so to say. Hajee and me are into plans as well. We already have a spot in mind, the one where Hajee missed one of the few pike we saw yesterday. As for the tournament only pike bigger than 70cm will get you on the board, we hope that this pike will attempt to grab our streamer once more. Yesterday (practice day) she did not feel the hook or the streamer. She just missed it.

That first place shows us pike fishing in Finland is not like back home. We combed out the whole area where that fish missed yesterday and did not catch a thing. Not even a scale of a falsely hooked bream came out of the water. In the Netherlands missing a pike without the fish even getting hooked usually means you will hook up the next day. You know the exact spot where that fish ambushes and the next day he/she will be hitting your streamer again. But here in Finland…. Hell no, that pike does not react (maybe she isn’t there any more?).

So we think about what we did the previous day. With the practice day Hajee and I went out away from the river mouth. Hoping to hit the jackpot a bit more out on the Baltic. But that did not pay off yesterday, so now it was up to new imagination. As the other team did not get a real blast yesterday (yes, of course we spoke over each others locations yesterday evening, prior to the tournament) we still don’t know what will get fish to the boat. Yesterday most teams have seen a lot of spawning pike, and as Guy (one of the English) says, "maybe they are just not in the mood.”

We decide to check out some totally different spots and end up discussing whether the engine of the boat could spook the pike. As Kari is quite a heavy person who likes his cigarettes and his booze every now and then, he does practically everything on the motor. We make signs and tell him “nomoto (= no motor)”. We realize how bad your English turns when you try to communicate with someone who does not speak the language at all. But hey, Kari turns off the engine and we start trying to make wind drifts with his boat.

We go back to a spot where we saw the organizer hook up with a fish (more on that in another post) and let Kari just drift the boat over that area. We end up in the vicinity of a small island and put the boat against the reedlands. Time for lunch and coffee. We discuss how it’s been up until now. Not so good, but judging the results of practice day, the fish were just not in the mood. Still actively spawning it would be a matter of luck to find a pike that was willing to take one of our flies.

And even the area that would be more likely to have some action was still a point of discussion. We figured it would be worth a shot to go fishing right next to or maybe even on top of the spawning area’s and hope for some pike that were already finished with their sexual rituals.

Typical spawning grounds for pike

So after lunch we decide to drift along the small island and make as much casts as possible on a drift into the weedbeds and try to trigger something. As we reach the downwind point of the island, Hajee makes a cast just parallel to the downwind shore of the island. He strips in his fly and all of a sudden he takes a strike. He strip-strikes as a reply and not much later he can land the first pike of the day. And above 70 centimeters, so counting for the tournament… Finally, just a couple of minutes before 13.00 team Netherlands 2 is on the board! Our guide understands the joy and pulls out some kind of breathtaking Finnish hula. (well, with two arm movements he is already out of breath...).

We take some point and shoot shots and after releasing the fish we pull out some beers. Time to celebrate our first accomplishment. Who would have thought we'd be so happy with an average pike like that on our second day in Finland? Luckily, the day is not over yet....

Update postponed…

2010-05-23T23:24:00.001+02:00

Unfortunately, two of the members had a serious fish coming their way. They tried to catch it barehanded, but it was an epic fail. But that happens when you are walking around wearing caps of the Predator Tour . Well maybe the whole picture is a bit of an epic fail….
But at least we can say we got in a shot with a huge predator ;-).

The tournament: rules

2010-05-23T01:10:00.000+02:00

Although the main purpose was to fish and have a lot of fun, meeting other pike-anglers and sharing knowledge or maybe discuss interesting matters, of course there was indeed a competitive element and that just added up big time to the fun of going to Finland.

The first evening we had a meeting in the conference room of the Eumer Fishing Center. The organizer, Simon Graham, welcomed us all and explained the different aspects of the tournament. As there should be so many fish around, the basic would be to have a maximum of 5 entries per team member per day. Fish should be measured and released after measuring. A picture of the fish was needed to verify and there should be no blood (to ensure the fish is unharmed) on the picture. All streamers should be barbless.

Mike Green from England letting one go during the pre-tournament meeting, in an attempt to eliminate one of the members of The Dutch Four (Erik, in this case).

Fishing would be from a boat, local men would be our guides and we would be going on their boats. As there was huge difference in boats it would be ideal to swap boats each day and as the guides are monolingual Finnish we got a map of the area to point out where we’d like to go. Making an X with your arms would mean stop the boat. The old arms and feet communication, that just made an extra addition to the competition ;-)

Simon gives a rough description of the battlefields for tomorrow.

Then the team discussions came up. As the Finnish were just with 2 guys and the Canadians too, we came up with a way to make the competition better and above all more fair. I would not like to send them back home crying with the lame excuse that the Dutch were four and the English also had four members, just like the Russians (who were still on their way and maybe stuck at the border with a bottle of vodka?). Also most people agreed that neither Finnada ot Canaland sounds like a true team, so combining those teams was not an option. The true spirit of fly-fishing came alive and we decided unanimously that it would ad more fun to the Tournament to go with teams of two instead of four. That meant the Dutch would now have a team 1 and team 2, and so would the English.

Winners: There would be three different competitions.
1. The Biggest Pike. The competitor with the biggest pike caught during tournament days would win the grand prize of a holiday in Kvarken. All supplied by Simon Graham’s Baltic Pike Tours.
2. Most length. The team with the most centimeters recorded (remember, 5 pike over 70cm per person per day) would win First prize.
3. Smallest pike. The tiniest pike would win a small prize as well.

So after the practice day we already reported about, it was time for the first tournament day. Stay tuned to find out out how we went along at the first of three fierce competition days.

Did we come all the way up here for a skunk?

2010-05-21T23:24:00.004+02:00

Like I tried to write in the first (and last update) during the days we were in Finland the fishing started out quite tough. The very first day of practice we were glad I got at least a smell of fish and falsely hooked a bream. But that was not why we came out with a shitload of awesome gear.

But hey, when is something a skunk? I mean, from the very first moment we arrived the trip was great already. Meeting the Canadians in Helsinki, when boarding the last plane of the journey. The drive from the airport in Vaasa to Merikarvia, with the English in the back of the bus. We definitely shared some knowledge and thoughts, some English said it all depended on misses pike, whether she was in the mood…

A chat with the English team in the back of the minibus.

That first day we had a little tour through the company of Jaakko and Olli Ojamo, called Eumer and mostly known for their tube-flies. All the teams felt like Charlie in the Chocolate factory, walking in a shack full of tying materials, like a kid in a toyshop or an American in the Red-light district of Amsterdam.

Am I actually here right now, or am I drunk? Oh well, probably both...

Finnish fur comes from....

Charlie in the chocolate factory

Jaakko and Olli, the proud and very friendly owners of the company

Discussing tactics and streamers

2010-05-19T23:25:00.001+02:00

The evening before our practice day we had a small sit together. We went to the dining room of the lodge and put all our streamers on the table. Sander had ziplocs full of his favourites, while HJ, Erik and Hajee had the nice wooden boxes with them that were made for the Dutch Four by Jan Boonstra.

What a bunch of streamers, at least 200 tied with the nice materials mostly provided by Tom and Kaj. And of course there’s Dyckers for all the EP we used, and I have to admit I am becoming a bigger fan of EP by the day (the other three members of the D4 already were convinced).

So we all looked into each other’s collection and took out what we thought we would be needing. As we were sitting there, every now and then a member of the other teams would pass by and have a look, and it was interesting to discuss the streamer choice with them. It seems that us Dutchmen tie much bigger and more breathing streamers than most other competitors do. Everybody was still very confident of his own materials and we had a good laugh with the other teams about each other’s streamers. The upcoming event would show who was right and who was wrong….

The boys are back in town

2010-05-18T10:31:00.015+02:00

As stated yesterday we're back to the Netherlands. After a long week of hardcore pike fly-fishing the mind is totally set on pike at this moment. We had an incredible week. The organizer, Simon Graham, turned out to be a relaxed South African dude who really did all he could to make our stay and tournament as pleasurable as possible. We met 4 Englishman who had the sense of humor the British are known for, team Canada were the kind fishbums you would love to have around at your campfire, the Finnish were good guys and a mean pikebusting machine with a nice “vision” on things. Hell, even François (the cook, not your waitress) was a good man to sit down and share some thoughts and many a beer with.

We were lodged at Eumer, a nice place with decks that make you sit comfortable next to the Merikarvia river, sharing some thoughts with teammates and the other competitors. When our food was ready we would all be called to sit down and enjoy. When we wanted to tie up some more streamers, we could go to Eumer's fly shop next to the lodge to get free tying materials and have a ball in the conference room stocked with vices, bobbin holders, etcetera. We could even grab a rod and fish the river wich was stocked with decent sized rainbows. Or maybe a sauna, and after that a skinny dip in the river? It was all possible over there.

We ended up doing quite well on the tournament, especially considering the circumstances and the fact that we didn’t know the area and its fishery at all.
As the tournament moved to another location just 2 weeks before it would start, Simon had to rearrange a lot of things, especially since the Merikarvia river mouth is not so specialized in pike fly-fishing yet. The biggest problem were the guides. Up in Kvarken there are guides, here they just hired some guys with boats. This made the challenge even bigger, now everyone had to discover the area themselves. The guides (most of them) would not speak more than just Finnish and that made it even more difficult to explain the things you wanted. Basically it was just hands and feet.

At a certain moment I said to Hajee, my partner for this week, that it was quite stupid and funny that we kept on trying to explain the guide where to go and how to approach the area we wanted to fish in English, because we may as well have spoken Dutch or Swahili.

There was a huge difference in boats and the idea was to swap boats every day, so at least everyone had some days on good or better boats. And during the week we learned so much. The first days were tough as hell. As most pike still had their brains on procreating instead of feeding, it was hard to get on to those little area’s and groups of fish that already finished spawning and did fancy a nice after-orgy snack. During the week things improved dramatically and on the last two fishing days the pike all were really on a roll. How amazing it was to witness all that happen. It was pure pike-heaven!

Also, because of a steady high that was sitting in this area, temperatures reached up to 25 Celsius. We fished the last sessions in our t-shirts, under a cloudless sky and we still managed to have a ball! Lots and lots of pictures were taken and yeah, we are the pitiful bastards who need to figure out which ones we want to use for all the different destinations/sponsors.

The upcoming weeks we will try to share our sweet memories with you all. Hopefully one or two pictures a day, accompanied with some text explaining a bit about the picture or telling some anecdote. So see you back then!

The first fish of the week was caught by Sander. Well done mate!

And here's one for Ralph, our reel-guy:

Back from Finland

2010-05-16T23:26:00.001+02:00

This evening we set foot on Dutch ground again after our mission in Finland. And man, what a week this has been! Regrettably we couldn't update the blog during our week in Finland, so you've been stuck with a report (even without pictures) of just our practice day until now.

But that's going to change. There are so many things to show and write about this awesome week, that we don't even know where to start. For now, let's just say it has been a week with different faces. There was the tournament itself at the beginning of the week, and after that the free fishing on friday, saturday and (even) this morning.

And although I really need to go to bed right now, we might as well give you the results of the tournament straight away, especially since Simon will undoubtedly be posting them on his blog very soon anyway.

After the 3 tournament days, Finland came in first with around 1.400 cm., England 1 second with around 1.100 cm., Dutch 1 third with around 1000 cm., Dutch 2 fourth with around 900 cm. and Canada and England 2 fifth and sixth at a respectable distance. But of course, that doesn't tell the whole story at all. There's so much to say and show about the tournament itself and the rest of the week that, until we have had a decent sleep to recover from all this, we would just recommend you to stay tuned at this blog for quite a while.

We're off to Finland!

2010-05-08T18:00:00.016+02:00

Well, actually, tomorrow morning. The flies are all tied, ready to be ripped apart by the numerous Baltic pike we intend to fool with them. Here are the boxes of Erik and Harmen-Jan for instance:

And there's a major change too: the tournament is moved 150 km. south because of the current ice situation in Vaasa. The ice there is still not gone, and even if it was, the fishing would have been bad because the pike would still be spawning. So Simon took the tournament to the Merikarvia river mouth and we'll be staying at the Eumer Fishing Center.

To be honest, we have no idea how the piking over there will compare to the Kvarken area, because we've never been to either of those places. But then again, we just feel very lucky Simon managed to move the tournament at all and didn't have to cancel the whole thing. From what we heard, all this would probably not have been possible without the very kind coöperation of the famous Finnish tube fly brand Eumer, who offered their lodge for accomodation and also took care of other logistic problems. Thanks for that Eumer!

We'll probably arrive at the lodge sunday evening, and monday will be a day for practicing and exploring the fishing grounds. Then there's 3 days of tournament, and after that 3 more days of free fishing. Of course we'll do everything we can to put some raw stuff on our blog from Finland on a daily or two-daily basis.

So stay tuned and fingers crossed!

The Dutch Four

BTW, how nice would it be to catch a pike on a rod like this, with a reel like this and a streamer like this:

All these colors just scream "Holland" and "Gold".....

Seeya!

Perch

2010-05-07T18:00:00.002+02:00

Preparing for the tournament means tying a lot of streamers. Not just 2 or 3.....hell no, at least 6, but preferably 10 from each type you have in mind.

For me there are new things to try, but also some proven patterns from the past. Pike just seem to know who’s competing with them for the baitfish. Probably that’s why they take their rivals out first, and what’s a better way then just feeding on your rivals?

When we were at Tom’s place for tying materials I already knew the Perch would be one of the streamers I would tie. And when I saw all the nice and good quality materials Tom and Kaj sponsored us with, I already got the perchy itches. Nice perches, I think they will do well on the pike down (or better: up) there in Finland. And if not, they still make a great decoration in a tropical setting.

Will this be the streamer that does it all? We will see, just 3 days from now!

Sander

El Negrito

2010-05-06T18:00:00.000+02:00

El Negrito is Spanish and it means Little Afro-American. I think it is a nice name for a totally black streamer with just some bling on it to attract all those big ass mama’s! And that will be the purpose of my negrito. Going out there in the ice cold water and busting up some of the biggest lady pikes that are out there. ‘Cause we will need all the charms a streamer can have if it is about winning the tournament next week.

As you can see the tying went well down here in Aruba. I bought myself a bottle of rum and poured some out for the fish I caught. But I poured out a lot at the improvised tying bench too. Just because when you’re sitting in the shade and sipping rum, life seems the easiest thing there is to deal with and tying streamers becomes great fun. Oh, and by the way, if you try to judge the size and efficiency of my little black homeboys by the bottle standing next to them: how much do you think a Caribbean pirate would drink on a regular training camp?

Sander

Bunny bugs for picky pike

2010-05-05T18:00:00.002+02:00

Although so far we didn't feature many patterns with them at this blog, it's no secret zonker strips are one of our favourite tying materials for pike streamers. They're very durable, cheap, incredibly non-air-resistant and - last but not at all least - they have an almost unparalleled action while waterborne. What I especially like about zonkers is that it takes only the smallest twitch to give the streamer a very attractive, totally 'alive' impression.

We all know how often a pike will just follow the moving streamer but not charge it; both an exciting and frustrating experience. The first reaction to that is usually stripping even harder. While this sometimes may be succesful, it's my experience that more often than not this only means doing the same thing just a tad faster. Also, the faster you strip, the earlier you'll have the pike at your feet and spook it.

Therefore, when a pike is only following, I prefer just letting the streamer stay put for a while in front of the pike, with an occasional small twitch that will show the pike this thing is both alive and not planning to move out of the pike's territory. This proven tactic will often annoy the hell out of the pike and provoke the longed-for strike after all. A positive side-effect is that this is a good training in self-control and a one of the most exciting ways to catch a pike.

Like I said, for this purpose, zonker strips are the bomb. And while we were at Kaj's place to stock up on zonker strips, we noticed he had some great coloured rabbit skins too. So we went for those instead, and after some practicing and cut-off hairs, Harmen-Jan and Erik got things down and produced a long-lasting stock of strips in a range of different colours. It's cheaper, you can cut your own preferred sizes and, above all, it's fun!

Losing your virginity in (training) camp

2010-05-04T18:00:00.003+02:00

It sounds like a regular phrase in the Boy Scout handbook and I never would have dreamt that something like that could happen to me. But it did. And not somewhere in the late eighties, beginning nineties when I was a teen. No, as a matter of fact, it just happened a few days ago.

And it was a big turn on, since the partner in crime was someone I had my mind set on for quite some time already. For years we had been flirting. Well flirting....maybe just a small blink, some flashing to each other and some serious denials on my advances were the biggest achievements up until yesterday.

I took the Echo 2 SW 9 weight out for a hike on the flats. It was not as early as I wanted and the sun was high enough to seriously emphasize local warming. Steam coming out of the armpits as it burned right on top of my head. And as I wandered on my flat I was thinking about the moon phases. Full moon at the moment… It means tides are almost dead. It had been low tide since I was out on the flat (and probably hours before) and still no sign of tide going to rise. And that’s just what every saltwater junky searches on the flats. A rising tide.

So I did not see Bonefish yet and was wondering if I should stay (or should I go now). And all of a sudden she was there, like a mirage, for a very short moment I could see a stiletto shaped black tip. Just peeking out of the water at maybe 45 meters distance from where I stood. I looked better and harder, did not see much more and the water was just rippled by the wind. So I continued to walk. Once more I thought I saw something, just so elegantly waving towards me. It had moved from when I first saw it and I knew right now that this was one of those confrontations with that hard to get bitch that you just would love to nail, to make all your wildest dreams and fantasies come true.

But well, I won’t make a long novel out of it. I chased her for more then one hour, noticed at a certain time that she was not alone. They were about 10 smaller sized fish and 2 bigger ones in the back of the school.

At first you try to go for the biggest ones, but that sort of spooked the little ones two times, so I decided I wouldn’t mind letting one of the smaller sisters taking the premiere. And at a certain point I felt a yank on the line, I set the hook and a strong rush, something silvery flashing away from me. Oh my… it is on!

Luckily I had 16lbs test tippet on the rod and the Vosseler S3 set tight enough. The flat is way too rocky to give the fish any space and why would I do so if not necessary? With the right gear, there's no need to let the fish run whereever he wants; it only increases the chance of a break-off.

Still it took me over 3 minutes to get the fish to hand. And I felt amazed when I landed her. Weeeeeeehaaaaaaa! I rushed to a rock nearby for some shots with the timer and took some of the fish next to the rod. It might not be the biggest most beautiful one, but here is my first ever Permit!!

And just like the real virginity deal, I felt like a huge king afterwards, I got that monkey off my back...period!

Sander

Pike eat pike

2010-05-03T10:33:00.000+02:00

It's a well-known fact that pike occasionally eat themselves too. Well, I mean other pike. Maybe just because they're hungry, but it could also be that their territorial instinct tells them to do so. Either way, it's not a bad idea to have a more or less pikish pattern in your fly box, I mean flure box.

Now pike fishermen with 'conventional' tackle just take a piece of painted wood that actually looks like a pike, but in our elite fellowship of the fly, a vice and tying thread somehow really have to be part of the construction process.

So here's a rather impressionistic approach using only the traditional pike-streamer materials bucktail, zonker strips, feathers and some flash (you all know the eyes are just for the pictures....).

And here's the model:

O.k., o.k., I can almost hear you saying this pattern better be fished with some speed.....

Style follows function

2010-05-01T15:26:00.000+02:00

When we were at Hot Spot Fishing a couple of weeks ago to shop for our sponsored goodies, Tom showed us a streamer with a remarkable functional approach. It was designed to be a weedless streamer, but instead of the usual nylon weedguards, he just used a zonker strip! Here's how it works:

This design requires a huge worm hook that most fly fishermen usually would shy away from. It is essential to tie the zonker strip (take a magnum) just below the eye of the hook as shown in the picture above. This way, the strip will be perfectly in line with the flattened hook point.

After you've tied all the additional stuff required for your particular design, it's time to pierce the hook through the zonker strip as shown in the pictures below:

In the end, the whole thing may or may not look like this monstrous design :

The advantage of this pattern is not only the zonker being a weed guard, but of course also the fact that the hook point will face upwards while travelling through the water. In my pattern (as in most patterns) I also kept the hook as clear as possible to facilitate hook setting. If you dress the whole hook with stuff, the hook may not be able to slide anymore once the pike has its mouth shut, and you cannot set the hook properly.

You might also notice the way the bucktail is tied in. This keeps the silhouet of the streamer wider when looked from down below (like a pike normally would see it). Don't be too generous with the amount of bucktail though, or you'll end up with a sheer uncastable projectile.

And there you have it: style follows function. A threat to the eye, but a treat for pike!

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

2010-04-28T23:32:00.000+02:00

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

2010-04-27T00:09:00.000+02:00

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!

2010-04-25T23:47:00.000+02:00

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

2010-04-22T21:37:00.000+02:00

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!

2010-04-20T22:49:00.000+02:00

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

2010-04-18T01:02:00.000+02:00

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

2010-04-15T09:06:00.000+02:00

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

2010-04-13T20:07:00.000+02:00

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

2010-04-12T21:24:00.000+02:00

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

2010-04-10T14:51:00.000+02:00

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

2010-04-07T23:14:00.000+02:00

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

2010-04-05T22:54:00.000+02:00

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

2010-04-03T22:30:00.000+02:00

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....

Payday

2010-04-02T01:13:00.000+02:00

The wind was howling, the rain was pouring and it was the last day of the piking season in Holland. An excellent combination to put the devotion for piking (and Evert's Bromanodell Jacket) to a serious test. Without any expectations whatsoever (and just enough hope to go at all), I took off for the last piking hours before Finland.

When I arrived at the first spot, the wind was blowing so hard I didn't even have to cast the streamer to get it to the desired spot (not that I could cast anyway). I just had to stick the rod in the air, let the wind catch the fly and then feed line until the streamer reached the required fishing distance. However, as nice and promising as the water looked, the only fish I saw were carp that didn't survive the extreme winter we had in Holland this year.

But for these last few piking hours, I had the itinerary with alternative spots already in my head, so off I was to a place Sander introduced me to some weeks ago. Good decision! After I moved and/or spooked two pike and caught a rather small one, I went to the place Sander described as the hot spot right there. And indeed, at the second cast in the surprisingly clear water, a pike rolled over the streamer right in front of me. Wow! Being able to follow your streamer during its journey through the clear water and then suddenly witness it being charged by a green flash out of nowhere: never ever will I get tired of strikes like these!

EP streamers are very attractive in clear water, both for pike and piker.

After a strike like that, you can either go home totally satisfied, or push your luck and go on for a couple of hours at the risk of not catching anymore and hence go home with a somewhat disappointed end-feeling after all. At this last day of the season, of course I had to take my chances and go all the way. Another good decision! Because only a few minutes later, a really nice pike was landed at almost the same spot.

After that the spot was fished out and I decided to finish the day at my initial goal: a narrow, clear canal in the middle of a small village, not quite picturesque but known for its abundance of preyfish and (be it small) pike. This place treated me with a real feast. It may have been the spot itself, or maybe just the time of day (early evening), but whatever the cause: the pike were all over the place. I must have landed at least 7 pike over there, and moved quite some more. Not big ones (50-70 cm.), but more than enough to cherish this windy and rainy day until we get to go to Finland.

Mmmm...., nice reel....I mean, pike!

So regrettably, this is the last home-made pike porn on this blog before Finland. Starting today, it's only allowed to fish with flies/lures that are smaller than 2,5 cm. here in Holland until June. It hasn't been a great season here in Holland (to say the least), but who cares if we get to extend it this May in Finland......

From now on you'll find more technical stuff on this blog: we'll present some more sponsors (rods!), write articles about their products, present some flies we intend to fish with and discuss other material stuff. And of course, there's always our ticking ice-clock and other things that try to (but will not) spoil our mission in Finland.

The ticking clock

2010-03-30T21:24:00.000+02:00

Time for an update of the ice conditions in Vaasa. Here´s the situation at 29 march:

Still 40-60 cm. of ice. Mmm.....I guess the good news is that the ice cover didn't grow during the last week. But still no worries, because the averega ice cover for this time of year seems to be 48 cm.:

Also, temperatures in Vaasa for the next week will be around average for this time of year:

Still, for us Dutchmen it's quite hard to imagine that such an amount of ice can melt away that fast, especially when night temperatures remain below zero. Here we're happy with 6-10 cm. skating ice (which we had an awful lot of this winter).

Hopefully next week the update will show a nice decline in ice cover.

The downside of fishing solo, part 2: impressionism

2010-03-29T11:31:00.000+02:00

Fishing alone can be nice every once in a while. You can do what you want, go where you want, fish the way you want and quit when you want. Also, there's no buddy that annoyingly catches all the fish right in front of you, spooks all the fish or - even worse - frustrates, just by being there, the possibility to brag about your catches the way you would normally do.

But there are downsides too. There's no one to talk to, no one to share the excitement with, no one who will share his sandwiches with you and no walking fly shop to provide you with the stuff you once again forgot to bring yourself. And what about pictures? Who's there to prove it when you actually do catch something? Or even worse, a nice fish?

In Erik's case, the answer was: no one. Well there was someone around, but as it turned out, that person regrettably proved to take a rather unique, impressionistic approach to photography.

I'm sure Erik and his pike are in there somewhere, because he told me so on the phone. And being a lawyer, I really think we should sue mr. Monet Photographer for not paying attention to the Vosseler cap that Erik was wearing so thoughtfully to please one of our main sponsors.

Featuring: Pike Master Lures (PML)

2010-03-26T21:43:00.000+01:00

We're very proud and pleased to present to you our clothing sponsor: Evert Oostdam from Pike Master Lures in Lisse. He will provide us with very slick outdoor clothing from the Swedish fishing brand BROMANoDELL. Evert is distributor of lure-fishing products and runs lure-fishing trips under the name PML Travel in Europe and Canada. Also, Evert is the main man behind the international lure-fishing tournament Predator Tour, which is held on a yearly basis in Europe.

About 3 weeks ago we visited Pike Master Lures to have a chat and check some sizes for the clothing. While sitting down and sipping coffee at his very cool table, Evert was kind enough to share his endless knowledge of piking with us and provided us with some very valuable tips for the tournament as well.

And of course, a group photo had to be made of The Dutch Four in their BROMANoDELL windstopper Fleece:

We thank Evert for his kind coöperation and we'll come back on this blog to present the BROMANoDELL Pro Guide jacket, pants and waders we'll be using during the tournament.

If you don't expect anything.....

2010-03-24T00:17:00.000+01:00

....everything's a bonus. Regrettably, we did exactly the opposite about 3 weeks ago when we planned another full day of fishing after the 3 hours on the previous day. Lured by the abundance of (at last!) ice-free polder waters near Utrecht and the promising stories of Sander and Hajé about their home-waters, Harmen-Jan and Erik once again made it all the way over from the east to treat themselves to some hungry/angry pike.

How different things went. During the morning, only Sander managed to get a small pike.

In the afternoon, Hajé joined the unlucky group at one of his favourite spots he already recommended beforehand. Being sort of a 'host' at this water, he modestly started fishing at a spot that already extensively had been fished by his mates. This turned out to be a bad decision, because at the very first cast Hajé hooked and landed a nice pike.

And then you have to tell your mates that you didn't do that on purpose....

Luckily, not much more than a few minutes later, Erik was in business. Another fat-bellied winter pike showed itself.

Erik then showed us a neat and very cool-looking trick to release the pike with a fast flick of his hands, so that the fish swims away immediately. You may take the swirl as the proof of a happy, healthy pike swimming away in sheer gratitude:

Well, those two catches within a couple of minutes were rather promising for the rest of the afternoon. Aaaahhhh, stupid, stupid, stupid! More expectations! And indeed: no more pike that day, game over. Why don't we ever learn that you can't manage expectations? It just don't work. Even if you decide not to expect too much in order to feel really lucky when you do succeed, that decision alone already creates enough implied expectation to ensure instant failure.

Don't expect, just be surprised. Sounds like a great motto to win the tournament. So we better not follow that rule, because then we would expect to be surprised. Etc...........

The clock is ticking....

2010-03-21T09:33:00.000+01:00

Well look at the weather here in Holland right now! After an unusual cold and icy winter, now spring is everywhere. The coming week temperatures will even hit 19 Celsius, where 10 Celsius is normal for this time of year!

Weather Amsterdam

Nice contrast between death and new life

How different are things in Finland right now, the place where we're supposed to celebrate our glorious victory at the Kvarken Pike Fly Fishing Tournament:

And check out the amount of ice that is still there:

That's 40-60 cm. thick ice, which all needs to melt away within no more than 7 weeks! Mmmmm......disturbing stuff. But here comes the reassuring part: as you can see below, 50 cm of ice in Vaasa seems to be quite normal for this time of year.

It seems that, like almost every reality show on TV right now, we also have the exciting element of time pressure. So from now on we'll frequently update the current ice conditions on this blog. It's our very own ticking clock in our very own reality show: will we need rods or an ice breaker?

Spring is in the air!

2010-03-17T09:46:00.000+01:00

The other day at the office, after the second cup of coffee, I thought I smelled something through the always darkened windows. It kinda felt like life itself. Mmm.....weird. In here? And although the environment I was in did its very best to cover even the smallest sign of it, there was no denying that suddenly spring was happening all over the place.

A few minutes later I was already in the train back home, pulled myself from the suit that never suits me into something more suitable, and off I was to a nearby polder. Ducks and geese were flying everywhere in huge flocks, hare were playing hide and seek with me and buzzards were meowing overhead.

Time to rig the rod and get me some pike!

Well, that part turned out to be rather tough. After an hour or two I still hadn't seen any pike. So I decided to take the best out of this beautiful day at this beautiful place and practice some casting at a nice spot out of the wind. After at least 50 or 60 casts and fast retrieves in the top 10 cm. of murky water in exactly the same spot I suddenly felt some resistance while stripping in. And to my own surprise the first thing I did was set the hook with a firm strip strike. This is rather promising for the tournament: even when my mind isn't fishing at all, I still seem to react when I feel something at the other end of the line.

And the pike? Well, let's call it my pity pike, for I didn't deserve it at all but it saved me from going home with a skunk. And it left me with some questions too. I mean, how can you explain the pike striking after 50 or more casts in exactly the same place? Was it more or less asleep and did I wake it up with my repeatedly disturbance of the water? Did my neverending casting finally annoy the fish to the point that it snapped and charged the streamer? Or was the pike just passing by and did it take my streamer the first time he saw it?

You know what? I don't really care. Answers may be nice every once in a while, but not without new questions. That's what keeps us fishing.

Real porn?

2010-03-16T22:56:00.000+01:00

Well, almost. The fly reel is without a doubt the ultimate boys toy of fly fishing. Why? I don't know. May have something to do with the the shape of it, makes it kinda look like a wheel of a car. And boy, do men love cars....

Anyway, it goes without saying that we're (more than) very happy with our reel sponsor, Vosseler Pro-Flyfishing. The first shipment of these bomb-proof yet stylish all-German pieces of machinery hit the small Dutch town De Lutte a while ago, and the rest (with some other cool colors) is due next week. Here's a first impression (although faithful followers of this blog already saw them coming by twice here):

Check here again to see how they look on a rod. Sssssaweeeeettt! Of course an in-depth article on these great fly fishing tools will follow soon on this blog. And when it comes to testing: if we don't get a meter+ pike on it before the tournament (just two weeks of season left here in Holland) we'll test the drag by playing Harmen-Jan's car through the streets of De Lutte. And after that we'll see if it will also be able to stop Sander and Hajé's Volvo's....

Get a grip!

2010-03-13T23:15:00.000+01:00

While surfing at Youtube for some juicy pike-porn one can't help but stumble upon exactly the opposite every now and then. It's truly amazing how much horrible stuff you'll find out there. Take this one for example:

This really, really hurts, and not just for the pike. What on earth was this guy thinking when he decided to try and catch a pike anyway? That the pike would unhook itself (even with all those barbed hooks) and then jump out of the boat again? "Oh my god, I caught a pike, now what?" While for all kinds of fishing some skills and sanity wouldn't hurt, this is even more true for piking. The relative vulnerability of the pike in combination with the sharp teeth provide its catcher with a serious challenge to keep himself and the fish unharmed during the catching and releasing process.

Apart from being a nice argument for using barbless hooks, this video shows once again how important it is to master a secure grip. Sure, there's the neck-grip (see above), but that's only for relatively small pike and it also lacks some of the advantages of the gill-to-jaw grip.

Here's the grip in action:

As shown here, one of the advantages is that there's no need for a net. Because a net, even properly used, will harm the pike to some degree no matter what.

Another big plus of the gill-to-jaw grip is that there's no need to put the pike on the ground while unhooking it. There is a however however, because big pike do need to be supported with the other hand while in the gill-to-jaw grip. This would require either a fishing mate to unhook the pike or putting it partly and gently on the ground (grass or softer) anyway. But even with the pike (partly) on the ground the gill-to-jaw grip has a great function, because it prevents the pike from crawling all over the place and damaging itself along the way.

But we're not done yet with the praise for this technique. Usually the pike will automatically open its mouth while in the gill-to-jaw grip. Excellent! And if it doesn't, it only takes a little help:

Here's how the grip looks from inside:

The bigger the pike, the more space there is in its mouth and hence the easier the grip. With a small pike, there may be only room for one finger. At that point, one might consider the neck grip instead.

In Holland there has been some research about this, concluding that in most circumstances the gill-to-jaw grip is the preferred way to handle and unhook a pike while practicing catch and release. So get a grip yourself!

Boat training

2010-03-11T23:45:00.000+01:00

Last tuesday Sander and I decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and treat ourselves to an afternoon on a small boat at one of the prettiest places we know of to fish from a boat. We knew that at this water in wintertime we would have to be happy with a pike our maybe two, and we knew the wind was coming from the east (bad piking wind in our book), so we just enjoyed our day out there and had lot's of fun pretending we were already in Finland.

We payed a lot of attention to drifting, the location of the boat during casting, line handling and other stuff specific for fishing from a boat. Since we're supposed to be in a boat with 3 people (guide and two fishermen) and we don't know yet what kind of boat we'll be fishing in, it's pretty clear we can't be sloppy when it comes to logistics. For some of us a challenge, since not all of us have that organized, systematic approach in our normal fly fishing life.

Anyway, we didn't catch our see a pike. Too bad, but we'll try again with the four of us within one and a half week. We have to get as much fishing (and boating) time as possible right now, because march is the last month we're allowed to fish with streamers here in Holland. The next fly bigger than 2,5 cm will be cast in Finland. We just can't wait!

Tournament Tactics, part 1

2010-03-09T22:40:00.000+01:00

Now that the tournament is no more than 2 months away, we're starting to notice some changes in our fishing behaviour lately. Very slowly, a subtle difference in approach and decision-making is creeping in. Where normally we would just enjoy a day out at the water, take in the scenery and make an occasional cast every now and then, recently we're gradually putting more and more emphasis on the amount of time the fly is actually in the water. Granted, that's not quite what we consider fly fishing to be about, but hey, we've got a tournament to win here (there, in Finland, I mean).

The first time I noticed this change was about 10 days ago. At the end of a tough fishing day, while I was desperately trying to lure a pike from under a shrub on the other shore, I caught the shrub instead. Since my streamer was totally stuck, I was already considering a pull-off when I remembered the bridge we passed a couple of hundred meters back. So I put my rod down, walked all the way back to the bridge and then back again to my streamer on the other shore.

Normally I would release the streamer and walk all the way back to my rod on the other side, but Sander proved himself a real team mate and ready for the tournament. Being a true beta (and on the other shore), he smartly attached his streamer to my fly reel and told me to strip in my fly line, thus slowly pulling my fly rod over the canal towards me without it submerging at all. Great thinking, because this way I could start fishing immediately again! So when my rod arrived safely and dry on my side of the canal, I only had to detach Sander's streamer from my reel, steal his streamer and start fishing again with one competitor less. Yessss, I'm ready for the tournament too....

To combine the useful with the pleasant, part 2.

2010-03-07T23:14:00.000+01:00

In our penultimate post we left our report with Erik's long distance release of a nice pike. Here's one taken just before the smart fish decided to stay out of Erik's hands altogether:

Harmen-Jan did what he could to get himself a pike too, but his furious efforts didn't bring him the well-deserved fish that morning.

Sander however decided to fish the same spot over and over again, because he "knew" there had to be a pike at such a promising spot and he just had to wake it up from whatever was causing it not to strike at one of the previous 40 casts. This may not be the right strategy to win the tournament in Finland, but it did get him another nice pike.

In total these 3 morning hours only got us 4 landed pike and some more moved or lost. No blank at all, but definitely not what we hoped and even expected after the long period of ice. So off we went to our clothing sponsor (who will be featured here soon) and after that to Tom from Hot Spot Fishing. The next day we also had some piking time together, so find out if we did any better that day in one of the upcoming posts on this blog.

Featuring: Hotspot Fishing

2010-03-04T22:27:00.000+01:00

Last Friday was one of those days. A day on which the four of us had the feeling we were kids again. But this time it was even more than being just kids. We felt like “Charlie and the chocolate factory” and that’s a fact. Now I don’t want to go down way out of line on the funny side about the Roald Dahl edition, but in the Dutch edition Charlie is called Sjakie and that happens to be one of the favorite names I call friends, especially Hajé. Okay, I got to admit, sometimes out of respect I call him Mister Sjakie, but that is only when he really deserves it.

Back to last Friday. At around 8 o’clock in the morning Hajé and I met the two eastern brothers (HJ and Erik) somewhere along a true poldercanal in the middle of our country. The ice was partly gone and finally we could do what we do best… fly fishing for pike. We rocked the canals and some fish got to hand; reports on this will of course appear on this blog too. After that the four of us went to the first sponsor appointment of the day, where we got to fit some nice heavy weather outfits to keep us warm. More on that visit will follow here on another occasion.

Round 14.00 we parted ways and HJ and Erik turned back east. Hajé and me were going on part two of the sponsor mission and that is when the metaphor with Charlie and the chocolate factory turned reality. In this blog report it will be about that last sponsor visit, a true joy for every fly fisherman.

We drove up to Zoeterwoude to visit Hot Spot Fishing, a shop that’s owned by Tom. He specializes in predators. When you enter the shop it feels like you enter some sacred basement. The shop is loaded with everything one might need for targeting pike, perch, pike-perch and other hunters. And it's full of lures: jerkbaits, spinnerbaits, softbaits, you name it. All big well-known brands are there, but he also has a lot of extraordinary things. From big (and I mean HUGE) to small, Tom has it all. On top of that, Tom takes great pride in building his very own spinner baits, bucktail spinners and other creations to fool friend Esox.

You wander in and there’s the table, we sat down and had a cup of coffee, the way it should be in any shop. Talking to Tom is like opening a book on theory and philosophy about fishing for Pike. The man has good knowledge and definitely knows what he’s talking about. Of course, like most men in the scene he has his own vision, but I think he has enough experience for all of us to learn from.

At the other end of the table is his tying bench. A vise is set up and flash is hanging around everywhere. Tom started tying to make his very own bucktail spinners and spinnerbaits, but after a while he also discovered his materials were the same stuff most fly fishermen search for and now he has a very nice well assorted tying corner. In this corner he has everything you will need to tie yourself some really nice streamers or get the things you need for a nice tropical mission.

After talking to Tom for a while (and looking at his book with truly amazing pike porn) it is time to get to business. Both Hajé and me are a bit shy to ask for it, Tom senses this perfectly and breaks the ice. “Go on and get your stuff” he encourages us. And there we stand in front of the racks. Lots and lots of nice tying materials are smiling to us and we would love to get our hands on it. The urge to tie flies starts running through our veins and we definitely want to get some nice materials.

Tom suggests we start with the bucktails. Just to break the ice a bit more he says: “you guys were talking about 20 bucktails…. I don’t care whether it is 15 or 25, just grab what you need!!!!” Oh yes, we feel a lot like Charlie in the chocolate factory right now. That would make Tom the true Willy Wonka for our team…wonder where the humpa lumpa’s went in this story ;-)

As I look at those bucktails I take out the whites. Good white bucktails have turned out to be a true proof of good shopkeepers in my opinion. When your local dealer is sold out halfway or at the end of the pike-season you know the last tails were shitty and he did not make the effort well enough to please his customers… then you know the true spirit of your local hero. Because wouldn’t every fly tyer get a bit frustrated when one of the most important colors of bucktail is not available? The white bucktails…there are just three of them hanging on the wall and as usual the last one is not to be marked as the perfect one. It’s just like the gals in the bar… the worst ones stay longest awaiting the mystery bus to pass by. So I turn towards tom and ask him if he cares if we get his white bucktails down to zero. He starts laughing at me. Pulls out a crate of underneath a shelf and says he won’t be the type of guy that runs out of bucktails. The crate….. it is loaded, white bucktails up until the edge of it! And then for the heck of it he pulls out more crates… What color you want sir?

Okay, so the bucktails were no problem at all, I pulled out some of them from the package. I like to really feel the fibers and judge them with my hands to see if they are good. And surprisingly there were barely any bucktails you would not like to have.

Next up, some tying hooks. All four of us are excited about the extreme pike hooks, so Tom was not a bit greedy and generously donated like a 100 pieces to us. Furs, flash… it all past the revue and HJ and me felt more and more embarrassed to pick out things. Oh boy, this is really the dream come true of two kids in a candyshop.

We stopped our plundering at the flash department. Oh my… Tom imports most of his products directly from the USA and he had real flashabou, saltwater flash in very long strips. Just amazing how one can get happy about some glimmering packages stuffed with modified plastic. At some moment we decided it was enough for the day. Tom never pulled the brake or told us it was too much, can you imagine that?

We sat back again and continued our talking. Tom showed us one of his multipack marabou spinnerbaits (multipack being the number of packs he used for that one thing) and I can assure everyone of you that your mother in law would be sure to confuse it with the latest type of static duster they sell on the tele. After some more conversations on tying and fishing it was time to go home. This day was just amazing…

P.S. Regrettably the camera of Rianne turned out to have an error while photographing Tom with his incredible static dusters, so this is the only one we have right now. But we'll be back for sure to resolve the other half of this friendly walking pike fishing book.....

Thanks Tom!

To combine the useful with the pleasant...

2010-03-03T00:36:00.000+01:00

...is a Dutchism that we more than put into practice last friday. We had an appointment at 12.00 with our clothing sponsor (who will be properly introduced on this blog later), and after that we visited one of our sponsors for the fly tying materials (who will also be properly introduced on this blog later).

All four of us had to take a day off especially for this, so why not take full advantage of it? And that's what we did. We made an early rendez-vous at one of Sander and Hajé's popular - and hopefully ice-free - piking waters at 8.00 in the morning, which meant that the guys from Utrecht could set their alarm clock at 7.15 while Erik and Harmen-Jan had to leave their beds as early as 6.00.

The first canal didn't produce any landed pike, just two 'followers'. A pity, because at this spot one always has a chance at a meter+. Off we went to a nearby polder. Since we find that during winter time the pike tend to congregate in the vicinity of farms and houses, we chose to fish the less picturesk but more productive roadside polder canals.

Although nothing to rave about, these canals did give us some fish. Hajé was the first to land one:

Next was Sander with a nice hook-up that took quite some more time than he expected:

After that it was Erik's turn, but the pike got off just before we could take some proud pictures of man and fish. We did capture a runaway shot though:

To be continued....

Last weekend

2010-03-01T00:18:00.000+01:00

Well, last friday and saturday gave us some mixed results. Our sponsor visits were great and productive, but the piking was rather tough. Sure, we did land (or better: hand, since our pike normally don't touch the ground) quite a few pike, but things weren't nearly as wild as we expected it to be after our own Dutch Ice Age.

Neverthelesss, we enjoyed ourselves to the max fishing together and making all the progress with our sponsors. Stay tuned for some reports of all this on our blog. Here are some hints:

Sponsor stuff

2010-02-26T00:13:00.000+01:00

With all the ice one might think that things have been pretty slow lately with regards to our project. Well, on the contrary. During the last two months or so we've actually made great progress on the sponsor front. Although we will not reveal any names yet, we're very happy to say that we've got things down with the rods. Two great brands will provide us with truly awesome sticks, one with 9 weights and one with 10 weights. Because these two rods are also quite different in character, we can cover a huge range of different circumstances and conditions with this combination. And it gives us a lot to write about, so much more about that later.

Also, tomorrow (after a short and early piking session) we'll visit our clothing sponsor for the necessary fitting procedure, and after that we're off to one of the guys that will help us with fly tying material. And, with any luck, maybe our special reels from Vosseler have arrived too!

So in the next couple of weeks you'll see lots of new sponsor names popping up on this blog, together with our shamelessly subjective words about their great products. But that being said, with a unique project like this, would you settle for anything less than the stuff you really like? Thought you wouldn't. Who would anyway? It's our hobby right, not our job. We do this purely for fun, so might as well enjoy it all the way.

And that's exactly what we intend to do with this project: enjoy every single moment of it, and (with that enthousiasm) show anyone who's even remotely interested how great it is to use a fly rod for catching pike. Along with that comes Catch & Release of course, one of the main and very valuable principles of the tournament. Top that with the stunning Finnish wilderness as our fishing grounds, and you have a truly great package of fly fishing fun which just screams to be shared with other enthousiasts. Keep following this blog and you'll know what we mean.

Polder Porn

2010-02-23T21:59:00.001+01:00

What a disappointing piking winter this has been so far. Despite our serious efforts to stimulate global warming this winter, it has been unreasonably cold so far.

But at last, the ice is seriously melting now here in Holland! Maybe even as soon as this weekend we'll be able to wet our streamers again in our most popular piking waters when it comes to fly fishing and scenery: the picturesk Dutch polders. So let's warm up a bit to that thought:

Well let's hope that next week we'll be able to add some pretty polder pike to that!

....two to go.

2010-02-20T13:48:00.000+01:00

All right, so let's return once again to our last, freezing session in The Far East. Here's Harmen-Jan's pike:

This must have been the pike I spooked just a few minutes ago when I walked by and saw a cloud of mud in the water. Three things are pretty evident: 1) this pike suffers from amnesia 2) this pike has enough to eat 3) Harmen-Jan must have been a carp fisherman in a previous life.

And (of course) just when I was putting Harmen-Jan's camera back in the car, he had another pike on. No monster this time, but fun enough, especially considering the circumstances.

And Erik? Well, he sure did have some bad luck this day. First he was fishing at another spot that turned out to be pikeless. And when he joined us to have his fair share, he immediately hooked a pike too, but unwillingly performed a long distance release (under the road, as a matter of fact).

So Harmen-Jan's Super Secret Lunch Break Spot once again saved the day. Within maybe 20 minutes we moved 4 pike at a spot of no more than 10 meters long by 3 meters wide. That's winter piking too.

One down....

2010-02-18T21:26:00.000+01:00

Despite all the hurdles mentioned in the previous post, somehow I managed to land the pike. Yesss........., one down!

After some proud pictures it was time to check how Erik was doing at yet another promising spot.

However, as Harmen-Jan was about to prove, Erik had bad luck. The pike turned out to be congregated at a spot of no more than maybe 10 meters in length (and not much more than 3 meters in width, as you can see).

And since the fishing is still slow due to the abundance of ice right now, once again we'll leave the pike porn for the next post. Seeya!

At last

2010-02-17T01:11:00.000+01:00

Allright, enough blues for now, time for some more action.

If the few open waters in the west don't produce any pike, let's head east and see if the local waters of Harmen-Jan and Erik will be any good right now. After a great lunch at Erik's place we jumped in our more than multiple layers and started off at the stream we all hoped would give us a fair pike or two, with a chance of a real whopper as well. After all, last week Erik lost a meter plus there fishing on his own, so with the three of us it was nothing more than reasonable to expect at least one meter pike landed.

Although quite murky, the water level turned out to be not too bad at all. So off we went in search of our beloved fish-croc. And even though we didn't see any fish at first, being out there together, having fun and enjoying the scenery was already more than enough to justify our hands freezing off in the cold.

Then we arrived at one of Erik's hot spots, which deserved some extra attention. Being a true gentleman, Erik insisted that I would pick up the pike that was waiting there for us. But whatever we tried, it remained sound asleep (or maybe just laughed at our streamers).

O.k., so no pike there, and time was becoming an issue if we wanted to land any pike that day. At least, that's how it felt to me. Harmen-Jan however still looked surprisingly confident as we stepped in the car to get to the next spot. Not much later, I understood why. He decided to take us to one of his favourite spots for picking up a pike during lunch break at his previous job (yes, he's the kind of guy that always has his car loaded with rods and streamers to be all set for a fish and run whenever possible).

Although Harmen-Jan warned me about the size of the stream and even more about the size of the pikeable part of it, I still had to raise an eyebrow or two when we arrived there and even more when it turned out I was supposed to actually fish in there. Eventually I did, but not after carefully watching my back to make sure no one else was witnessing this pityful piking attempt.

And even when Harmen-Jan advised me to cast my streamer to a certain place and be ready for an instant strike, I was still in my mode of sheer disbelief when I cast the fly and wanted to start stripping it in. This turned out to be not a bad approach at all, since it gave me the most spectacular strike up till now. While I was already thinking about the next cast (and the next fishing spot, to be perfectly honest), a pike rolled over the streamer the very moment it hit the water. Somehow I managed (or maybe better: was lucky enough) to hook the pike and the battle was on:

The question is however, will I land the pike after......

..........the police comes along, the pike decides to hide under the ice, and..........

.......the other obstacles along the way? Find out about that within two days on this blog!

The Blues

2010-02-09T22:51:00.000+01:00

In the header of this blog we proudly announced that there would be a lot of pike porn, since here in Holland we can fish for pike almost all winter long. Normally. But this has not been a normal winter at all. The most productive waters for pike fly fishing have basically been covered with ice since december last year up till now. Because we had quite a good beginning of the season we still had some reports left to post, but that stock has dried out now too.

In a desperate attempt to get me to some pike, last week I tried my luck twice on some new, running, waters, only to find that a) I didn't see any pike and b) fishing in a river valley that's pregnant with the smell of pork shite isn't my cup of tea. And it looked so good last week. Temperatures went up, even above freezing point at night, which is of vital importance to get rid of the ice quickly. But then things changed and we're screwed with more frost for the next two weeks or so. Now I know how our fellow fly fishing friends in Scandinavia must feel all winter long (hang in there, Simon).

The other day, I even found myself wiggling my #3 and #4 weights inside the house as I let my thoughts carry me away to teasing trout streams in springtime, gentle grayling runs in the colorful fall and everything else in between. And it's only the beginning of February! We still got two wintery months ahead of us, not to mention the fact that when the spring time fishing is in full swing right here in Middle Europe, we're off to places that (in) may still feel like the middle of a Dutch winter. So when our fishing mates are taking a nap in a lush, flowery pasture after the first, successful half of a typical trout fishing day at one of the nearby Belgian or German streams (probably even wearing shorts, the bastards), we're more likely to find ourselves dressed like the Michelin Man on a boat in Finland, still freezing our asses off in the polar winds.

And although all four of us would never in a million years want to exchange the tournament in Finland for yet another week at a trout stream, right now we feel it's time for some musical self-pity. It's flooding down in Texas? So what? It's freezing down in Holland, that's what really matters! Take it away, SRV-man......

And how can you still have a rude mood after this?

My God, I could go on forever thanks to Youtube. What a musician, what a personality, what a life and what a death. I mean, how ironic can it be, making a song like this and then dying in a helicopter crash?

Well how about that? The blues started off as the problem, but in the end it turned out to be its own therapy as well. Must be something more divine in there somewhere. And yes, with Stevie around, (a) god is never far away. Amen to that (and of course to the melting of the ice...).

Very private sessions

2010-02-05T11:28:00.000+01:00

Okay, so the first pig of the season was a fact. Me and Dr. J. looked back at that small lunch break session with some sweet memories. It is mid October and I am totally into pike. Practice makes perfect and as it is my day off I definitely need to get out to fish. The only problem is there are no buddies who can join. And although that makes it possible to have all the sweet spots for yourself, it cuts away some part of the fun.

Usually when I go out alone I am not concerned about pictures… It is the catch I want and fish can be released either in the water while having a good grip on them or I’ll take them away from their environment for a small moment to unhook it properly and get it back ASAP. But now it is a bit different. As we are eager to get material for the blog it is good to keep in mind there might be a nice photo opportunity, whether it is a nice shot of the scenery or a sweet spot. Something that comes along and is worth writing about.

I hate to put the fish on the ground, pictures of a fish lying helpless next to a rod are very rarely an addition to any report and surely it is not the good role-model we all pretend to be.

After a walk with the dog in the park I come to the conclusion I might as well go to some places I have not been for a while. Maybe explore some new spots. When with friends it feels comfortable to go to places at least one of us knows, just to be sure there are potential chances of getting fish on. The first place that comes in mind is nearby and I get the dog in to the house and get my gear. Minutes later I am on my way. I park the car, the water looks quiet and as it is a Monday (the worst day of the week according to my own philosophy) I am not yet expecting too much. Nice and pleasant casts, working my way along a canal. The water is clear and it does not take long before I get my first “follower”. But whatever trick I try, it does not get the fair-sized fish to strike. Blame it on the Mondays ;-) is my final (and first) conclusion. Hell, it can’t be me that does something wrong, can it?

Within 50 meters I see another pike. Fairly close to shore it lies in ambush awaiting some prey to pass by. As I cast away from it and then make the streamer pass by it reacts slowly. The pectoral fins lift up the pike and it seems to be preparing for a strike. Then it sees me and with a swirl it is off, leaving some washed up mud-clouds behind. See…blame it on that bloody Monday again (oh, sorry Bono, I know you like to refer to Sunday as bloody).

I think I saw at least two more pikes that where scared of anything strange before finally I managed to provoke a strike. I strip-strike with confidence and not much later the fish is at hand. Got the camera on my vest, so why not take a lousy shot for whenever a photo is needed about these terribly lonesome sessions. The pike is back in quick and swims away… Poor guy that will be trying his luck here on Tuesday. He won’t catch much.....was it already because of the weekend most fish won’t strike, now just blame it on that Monday!

I go along, but don’t think I am bored, although Mondays are not so good, it is better then sitting on the couch for some different kind of private/lonely session. And way better then working, let that be clear.

I see some more action, but none of the fish I see are truly into it and one misses the streamer but does not let me get a second chance. I guess she noticed something was not right with that prey and the second (third, up till ten casts) shot there was no reaction anymore. I even tried different streamers and different angles, not to mention placing my cap the other way around on my head. The old backward cap trick: when you place your cap backwards they might think you re leaving and are less suspicious, makes you also look way cooler by the way.

Then there is that curve in the canal, no bridge, just a basic curve, the water is a little bit wider over here and I am sure it is deeper too. Several casts don’t give any result until I make that nice cast right along the side of the canal. After some strips I see her coming… It is a definite yes and without any fear she makes a terrifying shot at the streamer from behind. Bloody…. This is the type of lady we go out for. Without any hesitation she goes on and swallows the streamer, leaving me shocked for a moment, as she comes right at me I don’t feel any tension and I have to strip hard to even think I can feel something. Then she turns to the deeper part and I feel her yanking on the line, a hard strip-strike must set this deal. As I lift the rod tip it gets bend way down from the start. I can only feel this enormous pressure and that feeling is one that could be described as “most satisfying”. We have a short struggle to determine who is the strongest player out on the field today. But after a while she capitulates. As I get her closer to shore I notice she’s fat. Not a piggy, but a hog! I strip in some more line as she is next to shore, then let the line loose and grab the leader. I slip my hand behind the gill-plate, get a firm grip and as I look at her I notice something about the body is weird, she has a massive bulge in her body. When I start lifting her the mouth opens and I immediately get an answer to the why. There is still a pike’s tail coming out of the throat and judging the size of the tail her previous prey would have been a nice catch itself.

Where is that buddy when you need him?

Now one of the real difficulties of this type of mission sets in, this is definitely a fish you do want to have a picture of. Holding it firmly with one hand in the water I grab the camera. Thank god for the desktop tripods that we can get nowadays. It was already attached to the camera, so with one hand I flap out the pods of this mini tripod. Then I try to get to the timer in the menu of the point and shoot camera. I pull the big mama ashore and try doing it all as fast as I can. Press the auto shutter button and stroll back a meter or so. While lifting up this fish with both hands, I take three shots this way and then get her back in the water. Will there be any useful stuff shot? I don’t care for that moment, she has to be returned and as I put here in the water she tells me it is alright by splashing a big spray of cold water in my face as she takes off. I sit down and enjoy the glory of the moment. Then the concern starts hitting me. Are the pictures ok? Luckily for me a quick glance at the pictures shows me they are not the grade A quality, but the fish is on it and that’s enough. During the process I even had a chance to measure and without any bragging about it, she beats the 40 inch mark fair and square!

No need to say I drove home with an ever bigger grin on my face. Who is that retard that says it is waste of time to fish on Mondays?

Sander

The Big Why, final words.

2010-02-02T23:58:00.000+01:00

Just a few posts ago I mentioned some resemblances between fly fishing and religion and concluded that somehow us fly fishermen want to do things the hard way. And indeed, I think in the end that's the best way to distinguish fly fishermen from other sportsfishermen and answer the initial question of this series of posts.

Fly fishing is a hobby, it's all about fun, about feeling good. And for many people, there's a direct relationship between the amount of effort they put into something and the amount of fun they get out of it. Reward and satisfaction are the key-words here. I find this typical for flyfishermen: we like to limit ourselves to a more difficult and often less effective way of fishing in order to get more fun out of it. We simply put more emphasis on the way we do things than on the result (or, as philosophers would say: it's about the road itself, not the destination).

And although other types of fly fishing may have some other rather significant 'fun parts' to them (e.g. dry fly fishing and nymph fishing on sight), I think when it comes to pike fly fishing we're pretty much stuck to the hard-way-explanation: the reward of the effort put in and the statement to others. I can live with that....

Double Trouble

2010-01-29T23:23:00.000+01:00

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

2010-01-26T22:35:00.000+01:00

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

2010-01-24T01:26:00.000+01:00

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.....

2010-01-21T00:17:00.000+01:00

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!

2010-01-18T00:24:00.000+01:00

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

2010-01-13T22:48:00.000+01:00

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

2010-01-13T00:08:00.000+01:00

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

2010-01-09T23:50:00.000+01:00

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

2010-01-08T00:51:00.000+01:00

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

2010-01-05T23:57:00.000+01:00

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

2010-01-02T14:47:00.000+01:00

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:

Out of office

2009-12-31T01:13:00.000+01:00

Due to notoriously non-liquid fishing waters and the holidays we're out of office until next year, which will start no sooner and no later than 1-1-2010 on this blog.

Boy George, pike fly fishing & christmas

2009-12-25T23:30:00.000+01:00

"You must be permanently on grass man, if you really think that thing at the end of your line looks like a fish", the man behind me said. "And to wave it back and forth like that all the time, what's that good for? Why don't you just throw that thing straight into the water and keep it there, you know, I mean: where the fish are?"

Just a typical question from a passer-by that will sound familair to a lot of us pike fly fishermen. Shouldn't be too difficult to answer, one would think, but I dare you to give that a serious try specifically for pike fly fishing. Because indeed, why don't we just throw something that really looks like a fish straight into the water? Why do we insist on fishing with things that look like we tied a hook into Boy George's hair? And why all the hassle with that line in the air anyway?

Good questions. So let's make a comparison with some fellow pike guys, the lure fisherman. Let's start with what's in favour of lure fishermen when it comes to catching pike:

they can cast further;
they can cast easier, especially with a lot af wind;
they can cast in places where fly fishermen can't;
they will hook less passers-by behind them;
they can fish a water faster and more efficiently;
they can fish with exact copies of prey fish;
they can fish with giant projectiles;
they can fish with lures that make a lot more disturbance in the water to attract pike;
they can fish deeper and have better control over the fishing depth;
they can fish easier and with more people in a boat.

Now let's have a look at the supposed advantages of pike fly fishing:

it's a very active way of fishing for pike (so is lure fishing);
you can cast "flies/lures" that don't sink and allow for a shallow, very slow retrieve (what about balsa poppers and the modern streamers for light spin fishing tackle?);
the fun of tying your own "flies" (many people build their own plugs or jerk-baits: compare that to tying a bunch of feathers on a hook);
playing a fish on a fly rod is a lot of fun (modern spinning rods with braided lines are the ultimate in lightweight piking).

O.k., so it must be something else then. But right now it's christmas, so we've got other things on our minds (like we should). Let's give this weird "pike on the fly" thing some more thought later, o.k.?.

I'm (not) dreaming of a.......

B&W

2009-12-23T00:12:00.000+01:00

Now, let's have a look at some pike pictures from to those old days:

Check out the parasites on this one.

As you can see, this one was taken when the world was already slowly starting to turn color.

Guilty

2009-12-20T14:49:00.000+01:00

You all know that fly casting is an art. The art of loop control. The real artist knows exactly what to do and when to do it. Timing is the essence. The skilled caster keeps the lower and upper leg of the loop both travel in a straight line path. Because what he wants is a narrow loop that will pierce through the omnipresent wind like a hot knife through butter. Now take a look at the picture and weep. What the !%$*^& am I doing here? Sometimes it takes a picture or a video to see the error of one's ways. Or maybe I can blame it on the photographer.....

Erik

Dear Erik,

Nope, sorry Erik, a photographer just record what he sees. He can control shutterspeed (1/125; should have been faster in this picture), aperture (f/6.3; about ok for a d.o.f. that needs to cover the whole line), sharpness (diffucult to say what causes the unsharpness of the streamer, motion blur or out of focus) and ISO (500; could have been higher to facilitate a higher shutterspeed). He has influence on the place he takes the picture from and so determine the composition of the picture, but only photoshop and other computerwizard tricks can make a bad cast look good.

But, casting a large streamer, you managed to get it across without hitting the floor or a tree. You placed it within 1 foot of the bank on the other side of the river, so who cares about art.

Harmen-Jan

N.B.

Apart from making a bad cast look good (which would've been a hell of a challenge in this case by the way) you can also use Photoshop to serve as a less radical, but still very useful tool for tweaking your pics. In this case, it took a B&W layer on which you brush back the original colors of the line and after that a further blending change of the layer to make the line and streamer stand out more from the rest, while still keeping some nice green colors in the background.

Hajé

Hide & seek & funny jaws

2009-12-18T21:53:00.000+01:00

Winter is moving in here in The Netherlands. To us pike addicts this is an important milestone. Fish can be found almost everywhere during the rest of the season, but when it gets colder they tend to flock together and the pike will follow their prey. So if you can find them, you may well catch several pike within a short timespan. We were hoping for such a feast a couple of days ago, but to no avail. All Harmen-Jan and I caught were a few solitary pike. Rather small ones really, surely nothing to brag about. But two things are worth mentioning: firstly, all pike had an upper jaw that was shorter than the lower jaw. Just look at the pictures to see what I mean (lousy pictures that were shot with a mobile phone because Einstein forgot to put a decent battery in his hotshot professional three month's wages supercamera).

Most pike fishermen have seen it before I suppose. But since all pike were caught in the same body of water, one might assume that the pike were somehow related and "funny jaw disorder" is maybe hereditary. Looking at Harmen-Jan I think it may even be contagious. Any readers that go by the name of Darwin? Step forward please.

Secondly, every single pike was caught under or very close to a bridge. Once we saw through these hide-and-seek tactics, we picked up a pike at nearly every bridge. Isn't that what all (fly) fishermen do, looking for patterns I mean?

Erik

Ice, ice baby.

2009-12-16T11:31:00.000+01:00

So there you have it. Our pike heaven froze over. Apparently, nature thought it was time to protect the heavily targeted fish with a temporarily defensive shield. Good for them, and in the long run probably good for us too, since the last month we already noticed fishing pressure has had u huge effect on pike behaviour.

Although we still did find some open water in the polder yesterday, we couldn't move a single pike. But, as our former soccer hero Johan Cruijff says, every disadvantage has its advantage. And indeed, since Dutch ice ages tend to be accompanied by nice, stable weather, it's a real treat to be out there anyway.

Harmen-Jan's EZ-ties: Magic Twisty

2009-12-14T00:07:00.000+01:00

The other day I saw a kid playing with some sort of worm, a toy called Magic Twisty. He ran it through his fingers and it moved very nicely. Bright colors, very attractive to a kid…… and maybe to a pike as well. I pictured myself tying it to a hook…..well what the heck, why not? So I went to the shop and got me some of those buggers in different colors.

But I felt it needed a small addition, let’s say fins. Or at least something to give me the feeling I actually tied the thing. So I put some bucktail in the same bright color on the hook in I horizontal plane, strait out left and right.

Now the easy part, I tied the worm right on top and voila. There we have the magic twisty streamer.

I don’t think it’ll survive 10 pikes, but I’ll give it a try one of these days. I’ll keep you posted on pike-attraction.

Harmen-Jan

Back to seasons's start

2009-12-12T23:52:00.000+01:00

When I first read about the tournament last august it triggered me to start thinking about pike fishing again. In the Netherlands pike season closes in march, and before it is legal to start pike fishing again the true fly fishing addcit already is busy with other parts of his precious sport.

Myself, I am a true addict. If I wouldn’t fish for a week, I don’t think I could be held responsible for my behavior anymore. To my girlfriend that can be annoying. I will never be able to walk past a pond, stream or any other type of water without checking it out for the rest of my life. Spotting fish, looking for obstacles, checking out if something is hatching, or even better… is there activity of a rise for example? There is not a single day I don’t think about a fly rod, a tying pattern or fish.

And when I am too busy, I will always manage myself into a position where I will be able to fish for just a little while. One free hour of spare time, just making a few casts during lunch break. It all adds up to the need for fishing that my soul is craving for.

So back to the start of the adventure. The tournament and just thinking about participation made the itches come. Although it was the beginning of october and I was still in a trout and grayling modus, thinking about small nymphs and dry’s, the attention got drawn to the bigger flies. Much bigger I should say, being streamers of at least 10 inches.

The last trip to Denmark should have been a nice and promising autumn one, but weather was going to be worse up there. And last minute, Hajé and I decided it would not be worth the drive all the way up north, just for some murky water nymphing with a strike indicator, where the aim would have been sight nymphing for the biggies. So instead we both decided to earn a little credits with our girlfriend (or family in Hajé’s case). And we did decide to go out one of those days for that very first session of guinea pig launching for pike.

Getting to the spot already was loads of fun, because we both went there with our own car and on the highway we already drove next to each other. After 8 or more months where the heaviest rod we took to battle was a five weight, dressed up with a nymph or dry for trout, it always is a bit surrealistic to stand next to a small canal (Dutch call them sloot) of about 10-20ft wide. Dead water, no stream or ripple except for some wind. The 8 weight and 10 weight rods come out of their tubes and the streamers look even bigger than last year. Myself, I tie on (well, tie…. it’s a crosslock) one of my favorites. A big streamer made out of 2 zonkerstrips and a large bucktail head.

It’s at the second cast a shadow rises and the next cast the fish can not resist that ignorant bug anymore. A big swirl and a strong pull on the line. I strip strike and not much later the first pike of the season is a fact. Hajé takes some pictures and it gets it’s freedom back.

We stroll along the small canal, bridges and corners are hotspots, but yet it does not seem to work that way. The water is still warm and we can not really figure out a specific hotspot. Just locating the smaller baitfish and chances are there is a pike in the neighborhood. We exchange our rods every now and then. One is my own, a rod that never failed me and I already had so many nice adventures with it. The other rod we brought along is a rod we are testing. It can be a potential sponsor rod for the competition. Of course we will report more on the rods in other reports later this year.

Hajé ensures he’s not going home with a blank before the first hour passes away. And we are happy we did not go to Denmark but stuck around in the Netherlands. It is incredible how quick one can get the pace of piking back. After that first hour it is done. The addiction of fishing for pike is really back and it will take long before this leaves the blood again.

We manage to get two more pikes, one each. Average sized fish for this polder, between 20 and 25 inches. Here´s Hajé´s one:

Then I cast my streamer in between some branches of a willow and it drops on the water. Just two strips and the water explodes. A hard take, a good strip strike and the fish is on. This is a bigger one and although I fear no breaking of my material I need to give it a few meters of line. When I get her in the hand it is quite a lady. She reaches a nice 35 inches plus and Hajé and I admire the beauty and strength of this Dutch crocodile. A personal best for this polder, and that on the first day! The rod managed very well, good way of testing it on animals ;-)

Disaster happened to be just minutes away, because within ten casts after we released the nice fish I got my line stuck behind a log. As I pull it to get loose the fly line snaps within the guides of my rod and the rod gets abused badly. Later when I inspect it I notice there were three guides that did not survive the outward shooting of a broken line. It means the end of a fishing day. We walk back to the cars, unbelievable how far you can stroll away in just a few hours. As this was our first day of the planned trip to Denmark we decide to go out on one more day as well (the trip to Denmark was planned for 4 days, so the family still has a 2 days profit), already the addiction has hit us very hard…

Sander

N.B. Not all the pictures of this session were posted, because that would´ve involved shopping away the rod. And since we´re still in the middle of the process of rod testing, we didn´t make any final deals yet. So you might wanna take a rain check for those other picco´s.

Polder pike from the East

2009-12-09T23:03:00.000+01:00

Harmen-Jan & Erik, who are both a member of the “Vliegvisgroep Almelo” (Fly Fishing Group Almelo), which is a subsidiary of “Vislust Almelo” (Fishing Lust Almelo), had their annual piking day in november with their club in a polder in the eastern part from Holland (which is no more than 2 hours from the very western part of Holland).

For those of you that are new to these things: a Dutch "polder" is land made out of water. Don't ask us about the chemistry involved to pull this off, but it obviously seems to be working quite well since we build entire cities on (or rather: in) it. Anyway, the classic Dutch polders basically consist of totally flat grasslands with cows or sheep on it, and with smaller and bigger canals in between to drain the water (and drown the animals, as it turns out). This not only means lots of water, but also - and more important to us pike-flyfishermen - lots of shallow and accessable water.

In winter-time, the pike follow the baitfish to places where it is a bit deeper, or to more sheltered spots near trees or buildings. However, due to the relatively warm weather, Harmen-Jan, Erik and their club mates found that the baitfish (and hence the pike) were still scattered too much. So jumping from one hot spot to another didn't produce a lot of pike. It was a matter of casting, taking one step, one cast, one step, one cast, etc.

Eventually this method got them some fish, but it's usually not the way to catch large numbers of pike. At the end of the day, all club members had moved some fish and most managed to land 1 or 2. Not a lot, but more than enough to justify getting out there. Then again, when it comes to fly fishing, what on earth justifies not getting out there when you can?

A real pain in the.........

2009-12-07T22:57:00.000+01:00

.......lateral epicondyle.

Testing fly rods is hard work. Especially when they're 9 weights and up. In an attempt to fully load a possible sponsor rod (a 10-weight; I wanna cast at least the whole fly line with this thing) Harmen-Jan regrettably also fully loaded something else: his elbow.

Oh well, just a little overstraining of the muscles. The best thing to do is probably just some more fishing with the lads. And indeed, all went well during the fishing, but in the evening and the day after Harmen-Jan couldn't pick up a coffee cup. And when he found he even had severe difficulties holding on to his beer, he knew something had to be done right away.

The internet. Epicondylitis lateralis humeri, a.k.a. tennis elbow. A tennis elbow is an inflammation of the tendons that join the forearm muscles on the outside of the elbow. The forearm muscles and tendons become damaged from overuse — repeating the same motions again and again. This leads to pain and tenderness on the outside of the elbow.

Family doctor: "This may take a while, up to a year of rest maybe."
"Well I don't think so doctor, any other options?"

"A fysiotherapist. And if that don't work, we'll inject the damn arm to total silence....."

O.k., let's start with the fysio. Twice a week ultrasound treatment until it hurts to hell, massage it, and train, train train. Concentric weight lifting, or rather, slowly lowering a weight of 2 kg in your hand, so the muscle and especially the tendon gets loaded evenly and gently in order to make it less vulnerable. And indeed, after two weeks it's already getting better. So say goodbye to a full year of treatment. Ha! This will be done within a couple of weeks at the most!

He thought. But then the arm hit back hard. And yet, Harmen-Jan is still confident he'll be able to get rid of this nuisance within no more than two months. Word has it he's already consulting some sort of arm whisperer as we speak. And that's only his second option. God knows what happens if this guy gets desperate!

To be continued.......

Friday pike-day

2009-12-05T01:13:00.000+01:00

So our theory about friday being the best piking day of the week didn't prove totally wrong so far. At the same spot where we only managed to catch one small pike with the four of us on a sunday, today we caught 3 and missed at least 10 with the two of us in not much more than two hours. That sounds o.k., but there are much more pike missed (moved but not hooked) than in october (which is the beginning of the pike season in our book).

For us, there's really only one reason for the high missing rate: fishing pressure. A fascinating thing. It makes us tie al kinds of different streamers, in the firm belief that variation will fool even the most wary pike. But who's to say it's the streamer anyway? Today, all the pike were caught and moved in the first hour. After that, nothing at all. Since we know this water we're sure there are pike even where we couldn't move one.

Conclusion so far: we're pretty sure about what causes the higher missing rate, but what puts the fish off remains a total mistery. And of course it's exactly that mistery that keeps us fishing in the first place...

C&R

2009-12-03T23:13:00.000+01:00

Catch and Release will be a major principle of the tournament in Finland, and it was one of the most important reasons why decided to participate in the first place. In Scandinavia it might be something relatively new, but here in Holland almost all fishermen release their pike and have done so for ages.

Now don't get me wrong: I don't object to taking a pike home for dinner at all (they're delicious, by the way), but if most pike-fishermen would do that here in Holland we simply would not have any pike left in our waters within no time. We're a terribly crowded country, and, despite the fact that we do have a lot of water, the fishing pressure is huge.

So we put them back. But there's more to it. Especially with C&R we don't like the pike to get damaged during the process. The pike doesn't like that, nor does the fisherman who's next in line to catch the same fish. We want nice, undamaged fish, not only to admire the sheer beauty of mr. (or even better: mrs.) Esox, but also to hang on to the illusion that the fish we so skillfully outwitted hasn't been caught before.

So we try not to put them on the ground or on other rough surfaces (no pics of that kind on this blog). And of course we only fish with single, barbless hooks. There's really no reason not to when you intend to put the fish back. Sure, you might lose a jumper every now and then, but when that happens you already got the best of it anyway. And let's face it, the occasional loss of a fish caught with a barbless hook is nothing compared to the frequent hassle and damage (to the fish and sometimes even yourself) you'll experience when using barbed hooks or - even worse - doubles or trebles.

Allright, so much for the preaching, let's get to the fishing. Tomorrow we're up for another, albeit short, session. Since we consider friday to be the best piking day of the week (5 days have past since the previous weekend), I'm afraid there's once again no excuse for a skunk.

Troubled waters

2009-11-30T23:09:00.000+01:00

This is what your favorite river may look like after some steady rain. A way too strong current. Your streamer disappears in a murky substance that bears only a vague resemblance to water. It's more like soup. A no-fish soup. Not much hope of catching a pike today. Not here. But there's always somewhere else. And somewhere else paid off this time. After a few casts a fairsized pike hit the streamer like a freight train. Released of course, so it may get to the next station on schedule.

Erik