Day 13 - 26th May 25

More Ijssel Experience

I went back to the Railway Bridge stretch at Hattem today. I spent the first hour fishing a close line and feeding with casters and chopped worm in the feeder with the customary 2 minute casts. I also fished a full worm on the hook. I was hoping to locate some Bream.

However, after an hour I had no signs of fish. I then put out a 2nd rod further out. I would concentrate on that rod and try to get the fish feeding regularly (like I ended up doing yesterday). I would leave the shorter rod with a worm on and cast it every 10 mins or so. If Bream show up on that line then I will put other rod aside.

Other than a handful of small skimmers, nothing happened on the close line. I was starting to pick up fish on the longer line and I was seeing Roach earlier today.

At lunchtime I decided to retire the close-in line and focus on the longer line. I was struggling to get consistent bites. I would get 2 or 3 bites in succession and then go a while without a bite. I was alternating between maggot, pieces of worm , casters and small kernels of corn. Yesterday I could only catch on maggot whereas today I got fish on all of these baits. I also had a surprise Chub on double caster - only about a pound and a half.

I didn't get any large Roach but they were of a decent stamp: -

A new PB - just

It was nice to feel a fish taking line. Was it a big Roach, a nice Bream or an Ide. In the end it was an Ide of exactly 4lb and beat my previous best (also caught on this trip) by 1oz.

4lb Ide

Final Score

I ended up with 36 fish for just over 14lb. I didn't catch as many as I'd hoped but did improve on yesterday and I got a new PB - not a bad day after-all.

The wind forecasts for tomorrow are not good (with some rain for good measure), so still debating where to go.