Day 12 - 25th May 25

Trying to get into my flow

Today was a full day on the river Ijssel. I was very fortunate that there were a couple of local anglers near me and they were happy to share their knowledge/experience with me. I had struggled on the river thus far and hoped for a change in fortunes today.

I was fishing on the Railway Bridge section located at 

Railway Bridge

The locals were getting quick bites almost every cast. These, when hit, resulted in skimmers, Roach, Ide, Gusta and a Bream. They were frequently changing baits between maggot (live and dead), casters, worm and corn and getting bites on all at different times.

I couldn't wait to start and see if I could replicate their technique. I decided to feed less today, just putting in some loose offerings in the feeder for each 2 minute cast. I missed a bite on my 1st cast and caught an 8oz skimmer on my next - promising...

However, from then on it was very like my day at Storks Nest where I could only catch skimmers and they were getting progressively smaller. They were also few and far between. I was only able to get bites on maggot as none of the others were working for me.

Waiting ... and waiting

I could not work out what I was doing wrong. I tried a longer hooklength - about 1m, I tried a finer gauge hook, I tried a little further out to get more flow. That did produce a couple of fish as it bounced along but nothing else. I was using up the remainder of my groundbait mix from yesterday and wondered if it were too sweet for Roach & Ide, hence the skimmers. That ran out at lunchtime so I mixed a more bland groundbait - see if that would help.

It didn't, casting continually and not getting bites - very frustrating when I could see the locals catching. One of them left about lunchtime and estimated he'd had 10kg of fish.

By mid afternoon I only had 5 fish. Around this time the other angler packed up and came over to see me. He'd had a fair few fish too. He wondered if my feeder was emptying on its way down rather on the bottom. He also suggested a change to the way I hooked my bait. Would you believe it, a bite - that I missed. Then another next cast which I hit. As he drove away I continued to get bites and fish, now getting Roach in amongst the skimmers.

I thought about the possibility of my feeder emptying on the way down so gave it an extra hard squeeze or two to really pack in the groundbait. I am convinced that made a big difference.

For the next 2 hours I continued to get bites and hit a fair few of them - some were very quick, just seconds after casting in. Then there was 30 minutes or so of torrential rain. For some reason the bites dried up and then immediately returned once the rain moved on.

I felt that I was settling into a good feeding and catching rhythm. Still a long way short of the locals but I felt a lot better than I had earlier. Having had 5 fish throughout most of the day, I then caught another 25 in the last 2 hours. My penultimate fish was a nice Ide. The total weight was 8lb 2oz. Nothing stunning but a big improvement on my previous 2 visits to the river and a target to beat next time.