North Holland Canal - Neck - 24 March 2023 

The North Holland Canal is a fantastic venue full of fish. Today is a practice for the International Pole Meeting on 1/2 April. 

Fished on the south bank around the middle of the picture - it was peg 53 in the IPM match.

The canal here is 3.2 m deep at 13 m, and the depth is constant until 8 m from the bank. With a big flat area, I decided to fish at 11,5 m today. 

Comfortable peg - especially when using the Preston Absolute Platform

Groundbait was 2 kg of VDE Black Earth, 1 kg of Zammataro Roach and Skimmers Cloud Natur, and 1 kg of Zammataro Roach.

All ready for a good day - hopefully.

Rig wise, I set up just 2 rigs, a 1,5 g Preston Power and a 1.25 G Preston Inter Carbon. 

The Power had an olivette about 45 cm from the hook and two number 9 droppers below. Hook was a Preston N20 size 16 to 15 cm of 0.11 mm Akku Power line. 

I used a 1.25 g Inter Carbon shotted like the middle rig, and a 1,5 g Power shotted like the right-hand rig. All with Guru Micro Cubes or Preston Stotz.

The Inter Carbon had an olivette about 75 cm from the hook and 4 equally spaced number 11 stotz. Hook was a Preston N20 size 18 to a 15 cm length of 0.10 mm Akku Power line.

The Power rig was started about 5 cm over-depth and the Inter Carbon at dead-depth. 

Everything close to hand to aid efficiency.

Maggots and pinkies - dead and alive - together with worms, casters and hemp were the baits for today. As it happens, the best bait today was 2 dead white maggots on the 18 hook, or a caster on the shank and 2 dead maggots on the 16 hook.

Cupping-in just slightly to the left of the swim.

I cupped-in about 10 balls at the start - 8 fairly hard, and 2 fairly soft to break up quickly. 

Another nice Bream on the pole - I love any method where you use a float.

It wasn't long before I started catching a few fish. They were just not interested in worms, and I just couldn't understand why. Maybe I have to introduce a large amount of chopped-worms before they will settle on it. An experiment for another day. 

Preston Dura Slip 5 gets the Bream out really quicker - it's a bit too powerful for the Roach though.

Double dead white maggots on the 1.25 g Inter Carbon rig was the most successful combination for me today. 

I managed 10 kg on our short practice session, with Roger getting about 4.5 kg and Ingo about 7.5 kg. It wasn't as good as we expected but we still caught a few fish.

The North Holland Canal is well worth a visit.