Day 3 - 16th May 25

A challenging day

I headed to the Mad German stretch of the mighty Ijssel today. The wind wasn't too bad when I arrived but it was still a cold northerly with no shelter once fishing.

First job was to assemble Piper Alpha so I could get into the water with enough clearance for the wash from big boats.

Piper Alpha ready for deployment

You can easily fish from the shore but your keepnet (and its inhabitants) would get battered every time one of the big boats goes by. Therefore it's safer to get into a reasonable depth and anchor the end of your net. I used an attached bag with a few big stones in it.

Successful deployment

This is typical of the boats that pass. As they approach, the river level drops by quite a bit and then, once it passess, the waves restore the level.

I love the fact that you can drive right to your peg and leave your car there all day. My kind of fishing :-)

The fishing

I fished 2 lines; one about 35m and the other closer in about 20m. I first tried the Korum flattened river feeders that I use back home. I tried 60g but it kept moving (on both lines). I then went up to 90g and it still didn't stay put. So, I christened the Preston Claw feeders that I had seen others using on the Ijssel. I found they held great and didn't cause the tangles that I was afraid of.

Preston Claw feeder

Unfortunately I didn't have any lighter than 90g. I am convinced that a lighter one would have held bottom.

Despite regular casting, it took close to 2 hours before my first bite on the long line (that I missed). The wind was really starting to pick up now and it was a chilly wind. A few minutes later I got another bite that produced a skimmer of about 10 ozs. I kept switching baits between worm, maggot, caster, corn and cocktails of all of these. I only managed one more fish (a small Ide) and was thinking of leaving. Then another angler came by and said that he'd had no success on worm but managed a few fish on maggot/caster cocktail.

So, I switched to that bait on both rods. It wasn't non-stop bites but I was now getting much more regular bites. This resulted in a few more Ide - one was about 2lb (big for me but small by Dutch standards), a few Roach and a couple of small skimmers.

A nice Roach

I ended up with 10 fish - not brilliant. There were a few other anglers around and they were struggling too. Still, I felt that I learned a few things and would be better prepared for the next visit to the Ijssel. 

One of the things I learned was to use a short shock leader (about 1.5m) rather than my usual one of about 2 rod lengths. The reason being that I was picking up what looked like silkweed on the line and this gathered at the knot that joined the braid to the shock leader. I was forever spending time clearing the weed to avoid crack-offs. Having a short shock leader meant that it never went through the rod eyes so didn't need clearing continually. As the casts were quite short and the feeders not too heavy, the shock leaders weren't required to cushion the cast but were there to deal with rocks on the bottom.

Another key thing I learned came courtesy of "Bertie" that came to see me. He had been reading this blog and knew I would be here so came to see how I was getting on. He told me a bit more about the claw-style feeders. I thought that you splayed out the arms to prevent rolling. However, he described having the claws bent under the feeder it such a way that they "dig in" to the river bed. Here is an example that allows lighter feeders to be used : -

It was great chatting to Bertie. Unbeknown to me, it wasn't the last that I would see of him today! I decided to pack up at 3pm and try somewhere else for the evening. 

Overijssels Canal

I was originally planning to re-visit the confluence that produced fish yesterday morning. In the end I decided on the Overijssels Canal which is even closer to my digs. Afterall, I am here to explore and try different things/places rather than finding fish and sticking to that location.

I arrived about 4:30pm and put in a few balls of bait before heading home to make some more food/packup for the evening.

I got back to the fishing for about 6pm. I fished 2 lines, one near some lillies and one up against a reed bed. However, after 2 hours I hadn't had a bite. That's when I heard a familiar voice - Bertie had cycled to see me.

Whilst he was with me, I got a bite and missed it. He stayed for 30 mins or so, chatting about other parts of the Ijssel that I fancy and answering some of the questions that I had about lakes in the Zwolle area.

About 10 minutes after he left, I hit a bite and landed this lovely Tench : -

5lb 5oz - it was chilly, hence the layers

A few minutes later I had a Bream of 4lb 5oz. Both fell to worm. I was hoping this was the start of the "magic hour" but the only magic I saw was disappearing fish/bites.

Tomorrow

I'm currently planning a day off tomorrow. I need to visit a few places and also need to catch up on some sleep. My plan is : -

• Drive to Vos Hengelsport (about 35 mins away) to get some more brown crumb, hemp, wheat and hopefully some light claw-style feeders,
• Return to Tourist Information in Hattem to pick up the Zalk lakes key that they had sold out of yesterday,
• Drive to a pet shop in Dalfsen to get some tickets for some lakes that I was told about by another reader of this blog,
• Tie some hooks,
• Top up food shopping