Berkel, Borculo - 16.07.2015
Today, I went up to fish the small River Berkel near Borculo.
I met up with Roger at a petrol station in Borculo and started the day with a coffee.
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 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.
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!
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 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.
I started on the waggler, casting about 2-3 metres from the far bank.
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!
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.
Five minutes later I was into a bigger fish.
A nice 5 lb Bream is always a welcome sight.
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!
Roger struggled because all the fish were over on the far side of the river.
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