Day 18 - 31st May 25

Thank you Zalk

I pre-baited Big Zalk last night and set my alarm for an early start to increase the chances of that peg being free. The drive there was quite stunning with the early morning mist: -

The village of Zalk

View across the Ijssel

When I got to my peg I mixed up some more bait and baited up again whilst I set up my gear. I had pre-baited 2 different zones, about 60m apart, and planned to fish both to see if either were prolific. Before I baited up, I cast my Deeper (sonar) to where I had pre-baited the night before. This really got me excited as it was pinging (detecting fish) like crazy. I cast it again, a little way off my baited area and things were much quieter.

Ready to start

It took me a while to get fishing what with mixing bait, baiting up and getting "Piper Alpha" installed. Eventually I was ready and got a bite on my 1st cast but missed it. I got another bite the next cast resulting in a Bream of around 3lb. I then caught a couple more on that rod that were of a similar size. Up to this point the other rod tip hadn't moved. When it did I caught a much better Bream of around 5 - 6 lb. For the next few hours I was getting fish regularly on both rods. It did appear for a while that one rod was picking up better fish than the other but eventually the better fish started to show on both rods.

The bites were not so immediate that I couldn't cope with 2 rods so I kept fishing both. By lunchtime I had 23 Bream and was catching quite steadily.

Then mother nature played her hand and the wind stopped completely leaving the lake looking like glass. Bites stopped immediately on both rods and little happened for the next 90 minutes except a couple of small Roach: -

There was a brief interlude of around 20 minutes when a slight ripple blew up. As if a switch had been flipped, I got bites/fish on both rods during this time.

All afternoon was pretty much like this. I did pick up a few Bream but nothing compared to the morning.

Side note: the hot weather caused a lot of Willow fluff to land on the water. This caused problems with jamming in my rod eyes and taking ages to remove. Thankfully it didn't jam when playing a fish. There are so many cool gadgets invented for fishing (hook tyers, loop tyers, Levabiombo shot removers etc), what we need is a weed/willow fluff remover - are any inventors reading this ;-)

Weigh-in - a new personal record

Colin kindly assisted me weighing in my 32 Bream. They totalled 140lb 4oz. Yet again I have set a new personal best as that's my heaviest catch in a session - beating what I caught on Wijde Aa a few days ago.

This net will stink a bit: -

Slime covered net

I did try to video me releasing the fish but butter-fingers that I am, I pressed the wrong button. Must try harder!