Simply Pole Fishing

 Berkel, Borculo - 16.07.2015 

Today, I went up to fish the small River Berkel near Borculo.

A nice stretch of the Berkel

I met up with Roger at a petrol station in Borculo and started the day with a coffee.

Setting up on the Berkel

I have not fished this stretch of the Berkel before, but was expecting to be doing some waggler fishing.

The river does flow a bit at times, but with little rain for the past few weeks there was not enough flow for a stick float.  After some rain this is where I will do some stick float fishing.

Roger's peg on the Berkel

Roger was going to fish just the pole as he did not bring a waggler rod with him.

I set up 2 pole rigs and a waggler rod. A 1 g Drennan G-Tip 2 and a 1 g Drennan Carbo.

A simple insert waggler rig - easy to fish and it works very well

The waggler was a 2 g Drennan Insert Peacock carrying 3 AAA as bulk around the float, and a few No. 8s down the line. The depth was about 2 metres and I started at dead-depth.

Remember, always keep your fishing simple!

I really like the Berkel - a bit like the Old Nene at Benwick

The water here is about 2.5 meters deep on the inside and slowly shallows up to about 1.25 metres close to the far bank - the outside of a river bend is always the deepest area.

Zammataro Canal, Roach & Skimmers Black and some Caramel to taste :-)

I decided to fill it in on the inside and leave it alone.

Zammataro groundbait ready, rigs ready, let's start!

I fed 2 kg of groundbait with some casters and chopped worm about 5 metres to my right and about 5 metres out from the bank in the deepest water.

Our swims on the River Berkel. The pegs were comfortable.

I started on the waggler, casting about 2-3 metres from the far bank.

Hemp and Casters are a great combination!

I fed hemp and casters and fished with maggot on the hook.

I had my first fish on the second cast and had a bite a cast all day!

A small Roach - every cast!

I fed hemp and caster or hemp and maggot every cast - probably every minute.

Roger put in a few balls of groundbait at 11 metres and decided to fish just this one line. After about 4 hours he had not had a bite, so decide to set up a long pole and fish to hand. I lent him a waggler and he set up a rig.

Roger's first fish on the pole to hand - he had to fish right across to get a bite.

It was clear that all the fish were on the far bank.

After I had about 50 fish, I said to Roger that now and again you can always pick up a good fish when catching the small ones.

The Preston Innovations Absolute 14' Float rod is an absolute dream to fish with - and handles 5 lb Bream with ease.

Five minutes later I was into a bigger fish.

What a great sight - big Bream on the waggler!

A nice 5 lb Bream is always a welcome sight.

A fish counter is more useful than you might think. Keeping pace of your catch-rate is much easier.

The fishing was good, and at the end of the day I had 'clocked-up' 100 fish.

I had a look over my groundbait with the pole twice, but never had any indications of there being any fish there.

I had a good days' fishing and managed to put just over 5 kilos on the scales - the 2.3 kg Bream helped!

A nice day on the Berkel

Roger struggled because all the fish were over on the far side of the river.

Roger worked hard for these 4 fish - and he's still smiling!

He still caught 4 fish when he changed to the pole to hand. I do not think he will ever leave home without a waggler rod again!

Next weekend I am going to the Wessem-Nederweert canal to practice for a match coming up in August.

Tight Lines,

Steve