Zuid Willemsvaart Canal - Prins Hendrikstraat, Aarle-Rixtel - 11 August 2024 

Today, I am on the Zuid Willemsvaart canal fishing with Theo and Ingo. We are having a day on the pole.

A nice looking bit of canal - let's just hope the fish are here!

We haven't fished here before, but I know that the canal has a few of fish in it, so we are hopeful of a good day.

Another cosy peg with the car right behind me and a nice flat grassy bank.

We arrived at 09:00 and we were ready to start fishing at 10:10. It doesn't take that long to set up 3 pole rigs and get the bait and groundbait ready.

Ingo is a happy chap - little did he know how hard the fishing was going to be.

Today - as usual - I have white maggots and pinkies - dead and alive - casters, hemp and a few worms. To make my dead maggots and pinkies, I put the maggots and pinkies into separate air tight containers and place them in the fridge. The next day they are dormant, I wash them and cover them with cold water. This keeps them dormant and they eventually die in the water.

Theo has found some shade from the strong Sun.

The casters are good - I get them from the Bokoi fishing tackle shop in Susteren. I also picked up a large pack of mixed worms.

All ready for the start with everything I need close to hand.

Groundbait today is 1 kg of VDE Black Earth (half a bag), 1 bag of Sonubaits Sweet Skimmer (900 g), 1 bag of Sonubaits Black River and about a 1/3 bag of grilled crushed hemp. I don't make the groundbait too wet - squeeze a small amount together in your hand, and when you drop it, it should stay together. 

What a lovely looking swim. The water had a nice colour to it.

Into the 4 balls of groundbait for the initial feed went a few casters and a few dead maggots and pinkies - not too many. I can add more later - the groundbait itself will get the fish into the area and interested in feeding. 

My bait for the day. Dead maggots and Pinkies are an absolute must have for fishing these days - they catch you so many fish, and are great for adding to the groudbait.

I have made up 3 rigs. Because the canal flows hard to the left and to the right, I have set up a 2g Dave Harrell Flat Float. This in on 0.16 mm Preston Akku Power line. An olivette about 45 cm from the hook and a few No. 8 Stotz stung out below. This rig is about 1 float length over depth. 

My 3 rigs. The new Flat Floats from Dave Harrell are fantastic.

The other rigs are a Preston 1.5 g Power with a bulk and 3 No. 9 droppers, and a Preston 1 g Inter Carbon with a bulk and a string of No. 10 droppers. The Inter Carbon will catch a few fish as the hook falls through the last 50 cm of water. Both these rigs are fished at dead depth. 

The canal here is about 2.8 m deep, so I have to use the top 3 sections of my Preston Competition 3000 Pole. The lighter 1 g rig has the line shortened to 4 m, but the others have 4.4 m of line. I have 2 No. 8 Stotz as back-shot on all the rigs. These are placed about 1/3 distance towards the tip from the float. Then the float will not get pulled under by the back-shot.

I fed the 4 balls at the start and started on the lighter rig. It was clear after 30 minutes that it was going to be another hard day - none of us had had a bite yet.

It was a good hour before I had my first fish, a small skimmer about 3 ounces. After 3 hours I only had 5 fish, Theo had 1 and Ingo just 2. It was proving to be a hard day.

I caught fish on the lighter rig when the flow stopped, on the 1.5 g Power rig when there was a slow flow, and on the 'Flatty' rig when it was pulling hard left or right.

I ended up with a nice Perch and a nice Roach in my 17-fish catch. It was hard work but at the same time an enjoyable day. Theo only managed to catch the 1 fish - he had a hard day. Ingo caught a few more, but also only about 8-9 fish. 

In the end, having caught 17 fish doesn't sound too bad, but they were not easy to catch today.

I don't think I will bother with this stretch of the canal again. The flow to the left and right when the locks are filling with water is no fun.

I sure there are more fish there, and I think in the evenings, when the locks are not used as much, that it could be OK. But I'll never know...