Day 9 - 22nd May 25

Non-fishing morning

I needed to replenish my caster supply and get a few flavoured baits and additives (e.g. molasses, brasem etc). I also needed to replenish my food and beer supplies. Finally I had some tackle changes to make and bait to prepare.

It was near lunchtime by the time I had done all this so I treated myself to a snack of crackers and a few different cheeses - very nice.

The plan for the rest of the day

I intended to fish the river Ijssel in the afternoon/early evening and then pre-bait Big Zalk ready for a session tomorrow. I checked the weather forecast for the wind direction (was going to be strong today) and chose the following stretch to have the wind blowing from behind me.

 

No prizes for guessing where I ended up

This is known as "Storks" or "Storks Nest" and is near the village of Zalk. You have to park near the gate at the following location and then walk past the Storks Nest to the river.

Location: -
https://w3w.co/dream.anchors.churn
‎52.523057, 6.012345

Stork was in residence today

I got myself setup in peg 2 and fished at about 24m (yes Chris, I am copying what you did, in all but 1 respect - more of that later).

Ready to start

Just as I was about to start I was passed by one several big boats. The most turbulance came when 2 large boats passed each other in opposite directions right in front of me.

I was only fishing 1 rod today and was casting every 2 minutes. I tried one of my new 60g legged feeders and found that it held quite easily. I taped up the mesh to slow the bait release.

60g legged feeder from Vos Hengelsport

I started on a maggot and caster cocktail. I got a bite on the 2nd cast and caught a nice Roach. That was a good sign. A few casts later I had a skimmer of about 10oz. From then on I was getting regular bites but these were from skimmers that got progressively smaller. Perhaps maggot wasn't the best bait today. I tried caster and worm but didn't get instant bites. I went back to maggot and caster and found that I was missing quite a lot of quick bites, also I often brought back a naked hook - no bait. I tried shortening my hooklength from 70cm to 50cm but that didn't make a difference. I also went to a bigger hook - starting at 14 and moving to 12 - no difference.

My stomach reminded me it was food time. My usual plan whilst eating my pack-up is to put on a larger standout bait in the hope that small fish won't interrupt my pack-up. If I do get a bite, hopefully it's worth the interruption. So I put on a grain of sweetcorn and left it whilst I ate. I left my timer running just in case I did get a bite. After about 5.5 minutes I got a nice bite that resulted in this "Gusto" (not sure of the spelling) - what we call hybrids.

Gusto

The above photos show a blue sky with some cloud. That was about to change - suddenly a squall came through with very gusty winds and driving rain. I have a Tilley hat with a chin strap but that blew off, the wind was so strong. Thankfully it landed in my keepnet (my best catch of the day!).

Squall

Same view 5 mins later

So, back to the fishing. I fished for about 4 hours because I wanted to pre-bait Big Zalk. In that time I only managed 10 fish. This was the one respect that I didn't copy from Chris - he had over 60lb. I will crack this river eventually.

I did feel better about this session than my last but I clearly have a way to go. I did have one idea after my previous session; I had previously attached a plastic carrier bag to the end of my keepnet and placed a few rocks in it to reduce the amount of wash when a boat passes. This worked but by the end of the session, the handle of the bag had been stretched to the point of being useless. Today I attached a strong elastic band to the end of my keepnet then attached the bag to that. It still reduced the wash but the bag was still as good as new at the end of the session - the elastic taking all of the strain.

On to Big Zalk to pre-bait

As you may recall, I had a bit of an problem buying a key from Hattem Tourist Information as they had run-out when I first went there. I returned two days later and got a key.

When I got to Zalk lakes and looked at the lock, I thought "hmmm, that key doesn't look big enough". Sure enough it didn't fit. I called Bertie to make sure I was at the correct gate/lock. He confirmed that I was and told me that he also had a piece of paper that you need to display in your car window. The paper has the key number on it.

I did not receive any such piece of paper and, rather suspiciously, I had key number 1. This didn't sound right to me at the time.

So, I will have to visit Hattem Tourist Information yet again. I also need to re-think my plans for tomorrow as I clearly cannot fish Big Zalk :-(