To combine the useful with the pleasant, part 2.

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

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...

...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

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

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

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.

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....

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

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

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

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.

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....