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!
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