Early spring fishing: hallelujah!

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


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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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


It was quite busy down there.


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

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


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

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


...and on....


...and on....


...and on.

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





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

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