January on Hollands Diep/ Biesbosch - an overview
New years day 2022. Corona regulations and illness of family members at home resulted in cancellation of all new years celebrations. Having nothing better to do, I arrive at the first fishing spot on 01/01/2022 at 08:01 AM. And within 5 minutes I kick of the fishing year with a nice 66 cm zander.
And check out my office view this morning.
This was one of the few times I saw the sun this month. Because, what an immense amount of fog we had. It was a challenge to say the least to fish. And some days were simply lost due to the fog.
The second day of January I went out with my buddy Ruud. It was an extremely windy day so we searched for refuge in the Biesbosch. Somewhat sheltered from the wind we got the first boat grand slam of 2022 😃.
Next trip planned was with Jan and this trip had a slow start, although Jan caught a really nice zander in the end of the morning hours. But the real pay off came in the afternoon, when we had a real live feeding frenzy on the #livescope.
The following trip with Petrick and John was not spoiled by mist, but by big waves. When we finally arrived at the spots where I had such good fishing with Jan, one of my guests became so 'sea'-sick that the only thing we could do was go all the way back in search of calmer waters. In the end we only had like 1,5 hours effective fishing time at spots with calm water but also hardly any fish. We ended this day with only one tiny zander as a disappointing result.
Fog, fog, fog. That's what we have next, stuck in the Biesbosch, only a few spots to fish. Staf and I went out fishing hours for pike and totally in vain. Not a single fish showed up, not a follower, not a glimpse on the livescope. Nothing! In the afternoon, visibility became a little better so we tried our luck on the river where a few zander were our part (and on asp!). Better than nothing and considering the circumstances we concluded that we did the best we could.
Pretty windy so no fog. At least that's the forecast. Ruud and I want to fish Hollands Diep and we leave the harbour early morning. We do some livescope-fishing on the river waiting for the sun to come up. And then... what the F*#$#@K?! Mist. We are laying on the river waiting for hours for the fog to dissolve. Luckily some fish were willing to ease our pain.
Next trip is again with Staf and again starting with.... fog. Unbelievable. We start the same way as we did before, meaning we enter the Biesbosch looking for pike. This time we get a lot more action. We have followers on the livescope and manage both to miss several bites. It's Staf who finally breaks the ban when he lands a nice pike.
By the time we finally land this fish, the morning is already almost past and visibility is getting better. So, also this time we move up tot the river to try our luck there.
The right choice as we do find a lot of good size zander this time with for both of us a bonus fish. I do the kick off with this beauty.
And Staf tops it with this absolute monster.
And then it's Gilles and his son Maurice's turn. Livescope-fishing and just old fashioned casting bring zander and pike in the boat.
Marc is my next guest who very spontaneously decided to drive form Germany to Holland for some fishing. Fish were picky and all in all not very big, but in the end we had ample double digit numbers in the boat.
We are getting at the end of January and a colleague of us who retired this year from his job as a fishing guide, Johan Caneel, is my guest for today. We have a great day on the water with lots of fun and nice fishes, for Johan is an excellent angler.
The last fishing day of January was ended in style. Our winner of the biggest catch of 2021-04, Tobias, came, not to collect his prize (that day is foreseen in March with Chris on the UFX River Waal Xperience), but to try out some real winter fishing. Although winter.... it was just perfect weather, hardly any wind, sun, a nice temperature. Heaven!
And I finish the month of Jarnuary with this short but fat pike 😜
