Twente Canal, Zwaaikom - 24 November 

I have fished this venue several times now, and have had good and bad days. The fish usually take some time to arrive, but when they do arrive it can be one fish after the other. There are also a few Perch to be caught and the odd Bream of two.

The large bay at Zwaaikom. This is where I won the Stippevent in 2018. You can also see 30 new platforms to the right.

Today is a Sunday, so we should have no problem with large boats. We'll have a few rowers out on the water, but they didn't have any affect on the quality of fishing.

All set up and ready for a session on the canal.

They have redone the bank here in Enschede. There is a new 'tins' bank for the first few hundred metres and also in Zwaaikom, and a few concrete platforms between.  The concrete platforms are further back and quite high, so it's the 'tins' at Zwaaikom for me today.

The trees are protecting the canal from the very stong winds, and the wind is off my back.

It is really windy today, so the trees here should give us some shelter, and the wind is off our back. I'm fishing with Uli and Roger and we will be doing a few winter sessions, so keep an eye on the website for those reports. 

Roger and Uli are to my right and we have a good 30 metres between us. We parked our cars in little slots in the wood behind us.

The canal here is about 3.8 m deep, so I'm using a short top 4, which uses a short No. 3 section. It's 4.63 m long, so I have a nice length between float and pole tip.

Short top 4 today - perfect for the depth of water. I can use six different top kit lengths to cover different depths of water.

I will be using the 11.5 m extension, so with the short No. 3 section, I'll be fishing at 10.81 (11) metres. As there are no ledges to contend with, the shorter pole length with the short No. 3 section will be good.

A view of the vast amount of water at Zwaaikom.

The canal here is used in a lot of matches - in fact this is where the Stippevent was held for several years. The weights were never big, but 5 kg during a pleasure session is always possible and 3-5 kg in a pole match would normally win.

 Rigs 

I'll be setting up just 2 rigs today, I can fish them at either 11 m or 4.5 m - a top kit length from the bank. All I have to do is mark the different depths on my pole and it'll be easy to change depths. 

The bait for today. I left my spare bait boxes at home so had to improvise with a bowl for the Bloodworm.

The water level can rise and fall here - less so on a Sunday when the locks are not as busy - but you have to keep an eye on the depth and adjust your rigs accordingly. Today, only one boat big went through, but the water was constantly up and down by about 10 - 15 cm. 

The first rig short is a 1.25 g Preston Inter Carbon on Preston 0.14 mm Akku Power line, with an olivette and a few No. 10 Micro Cube tapered droppers. Hook-length is a ready made Preston N10 size 18 on Akku Power 0.08 mm line.

The second rig is a Preston Power 1.5 g also on 0.14 mm Akku Power line, with an olivette and a few No. 9 Micro Cube droppers. Hook-length is a ready made Preston N20 size 18 on 0.10 mm Akku Power line. 

The ready made N10 and N20 hook-lengths are the only ones I now use for all of my pole fishing. I have loads of different hook patterns loose in my hook boxes, but rarely use them these days - but you never know when you'll need a kamasan B511, B512, B560, B611, or a Preston N30 or N60.

Back-shotting is important today to keep the float exactly where it is supposed to be. Two No. 8 Micro Cubes a third of the way from the tip towards the float is perfect. The back-shot keep the float still, but don't affect the tip of the float.

 Pole elastic 

As I mentioned in my last article on the canal in Helmond, I'm using 1.1 m lengths of elastic in my No. 1 pole section. At the moment I'm using Drennan Hybrid elastic in all my tip sections - 2x 3-5, 2x 5-7 and 2x 7-9. I picked up the Drennan Hybrid elastic from Hengelsport Hennie Kruidenier in Haaksbergen (< link) a week ago. I will be trying the 3-5 on the Inter Carbon rig and the 5-7 on the Power rig. The elastic worked very well, so I'll be carrying on with the Drennan Hybrid elastic for now.

 Groundbait 

At this time of year when I'm expecting Roach, there is a high concentration of hemp and coriander in my groundbait. A bag of Sonubaits Black Roach and a bag of Black River mixed with 500 g of Evezet Grilled Crushed Hemp is my base mix. I then add around 1 kg of VDE Black Earth (not the heavy stuff). That mix will give me plenty of feed for a winter pleasure session on most canals when after Roach. I've also mixed in some Sensas Gardons liquid to try and enhance the attraction in the water - about 100 ml.

A few Joker and a few casters. I didn't use much Joker and took most of it back home.

 Hook bait / Feed bait 

Bloodworm & Joker are with me today as the bait was ordered for the cancelled Albert Canal match I wanted to fish. I'll put just 75 ml in the start feed and trickle some in through small groundbait balls as the session progresses. 

These are the usual for my canal fishing. 1/ 4 litre (1/2 pint) each of live maggots, live pinkies, dead maggots, dead pinkies, casters, hemp, and 500g of mixed worms.

I was going to put chopped-worm in through a small bait dropper on the short line at 4.5 m, but my worms were all dead - I think there was something in the earth that killed them, but not sure.

Although I have Bloodworm, if my previous session is anything to go by, dead maggots and dead pinkies will be hard to beat. There is something about the dead bait that the fish seem to love. A Bloodworm and a dead maggot or pinkie could be a good combination.

 Initial Feeding 

At 11 m, I fed 5 balls with 75 ml of Joker, some casters and a touch of hemp. It looks like a lot of Joker in the photo above, but it wasn't.

Roger took this photo of me trying my best to get a bite. Eventually, I did catch some fish.

  Fishing 

The inside line i didn't even try today, I just fished the 11 m line. It took over an hour to get the first bite, a Tommy Ruff - that's never a good sign. I switched between rigs and changed depth regularly, but only managed bites at dead depth - and with the water constantly going up and down by about 10 - 15 cm, it wasn't easy. 

A Tommy Ruff. All the Tommy's and the Perch were covered in small black dots - must be a parasite or disease.

I had 2 Tommy's and 2 micro Perch and then after 3 hours I had my first Roach - only about 3 oz but still very welcome. Over the next two hours I managed to add 11 more Roach and a few Perch to the net to end up with 19 fish. It was hard fishing. 

Not the best day's fishing, but still a few fish on the Twente Canal.

I caught best on a caster and dead maggot on the 1.5 g Power rig - the stability of the rig seemed to help. I didn't get a single for on Bloodworm, they only wanted casters and maggots, either dead or alive. 

I cupped-in a small ball every hour to try and kick-off the swim, but it was very hard fishing. I thought the Roach might arrive after a couple of hours and we would have a good day, alas it wasn't to be.

Roger and Uli had about the same kind of catch as me. It was a hard day and the Roach didn't respond as well as they usually do. I was a little bit angry with myself that I didn't check my worms, because I thought they would be a good bait today. Remember to always check your bait!

There were a few feeder anglers here as well today, but they all went home having caught next to nothing as well.

It was great to have the second outing with my new Shimano Aero X7 Competition pole - I'm really liking this beauty. I'm looking forward to getting a few bigger fish on it - although it's already got a Tench to its name. 

Next week I think I'll go up to the North Holland canal, and hopefully catch a net full of Skimmers. Fingers crossed.

Tight Lines, Doc.