River Vecht, Dalfsen (eventually)
26.06.2015
Today, I took a days leave and went up to fish with Roger. We planned to fish a canal in Hardenberg.
We set everything up, plumbed up, got the groundbait ready and started to fish at around 10 o'clock.
The canal was 3 metres deep, there was a nice steady flow and it had a little colour from about 1 metre down.
I made up three rigs. A Drennan Carbo 1 g with strung out 11s below the olivette and a 1 g Drennan G-Tip 2 with just two droppers below the olivette. The third rig was a 0.5 g Chianti (4x16) for fishing on the drop.
No matter what we tried neither Roger or I could get a bite. After 2 hours we called it a day.
Second attempt
After a short drive we arrived in the centre of Dalfsen. Since Roger was here last they have made a few changes, and where we were going to fish was a quayside. Roger asked a park attendant if we could fish here and he gave us the green light.
We set up our gear a little higher than normal on the top of the quayside.
I only set up one rig a 1 g Drennan Carbo with string out 11s below the olivette. A size 18 B611 to 0.09 Reflo Power bottom and 0.11 Reflo Power main line. The depth at 10.5 metres was about 2.8 metres so I used a Top 4. Nice easy fishing.
I started feeding a small ball of groundbait every run through and it wasn't long before I had my first fish. Fishing with a single maggot caught me small fish and a change to double maggot brought me larger fish.
It was an hour before Roger had his first bite and he was only 6 metres away from me. Feeding a small nugget of groundbait every run through soon gets the fish lined up, and it can stop anyone else from catching. I started five minutes before Roger, and that was why he struggled for a bite until he started putting in a small balls of groundbait every chuck.
I had a Pike take a fish and snap me off instantly, and then had one of about 2 kg take a fish on the way in. I played it for about a couple of minutes before the Pike let go. The Pike in the swim killed the fishing though and it was hard to catch. I think a small pack of Pike had moved in and that was the end of the fishing for me.
As you can see from the photos above, when you are photographing fish, keep something soft between them and the ground to help protect them. Here we used the soft mesh of our Preston keepnets.
We only fished for about 3 hours as we wanted to head off to the tackle shop to get some fresh bait for tomorrow. Let's hope I don't have Pike trouble tomorrow.
Tight Lines,
Steve
