Flyfishing Netherlands, jan. 13th.

[Marcel_Karssies]

My last four flyfishing outing where fishless so every chance to break the skunk sessions was welcome.
My buddy told he he had done extremely good business with the pike at the ponds of the local University and asked me if I wanted to join him on a short afternoon trip.
So off we went to the University, at egde of the pond we could see hunting pike so we quickly rigged the rods.

My buddy was yelling he had a following fish, after a few casts it was fish on.
I tried my luck on the opposite side of the small pond and soon was in contact with my first fish of the year.
I know I was fishing a small streamer but I had expected something larger at the end of the line.


First fish of the year.

Off course the pike could only get bigger from now on was my thought.
Fish nr. 2 was soon found and to my surprise it was yet another mini version of the terror of the pond.
The water was really alive on this beautifull day and hunting pike seemed to be everywhere.
Fish nr. 3 betrayed its presence by hunting close to the shore.
On the first pass of the streamer I felt a light tug so I decided to probe the stretch for a second time and was immediately in to a fish.
This time the fish was a bit larger, we where going in the right direction.


Pike nr. 3

In the mean time my buddy was hooking fish nr. 3, curiously his fish where considerably larger than the ones I caught.
We fished the same lure with only one difference, I fished a brown version while he fished the black one.
My buddy told me that he had felt some lite takes on a spot he visited earlier, that location might yield some more fish.
So off I went and fished close to the bank, the streamer did not travel long before being attacked by yet another pike.


Pike nr. 4

A few more cast yielded pike nr. 5, the last fish of the day.
As the sun went under and darkness fell over the pond we saw lots
of activity of the shiners in the pond.
It was pretty amazing to see so much life at this time of year.


Pike nr. 5

When it was dark we called it a day.
Allthough we fished only for a short period on this day time was well spend.
So finally a day where I did not get skunked []

[spilunkr]

Marcel,

Thanks for the report and pictures, it's good to see someone catching fish. Sounds like it was a pretty good outing.

Everything here in Northern Colorado is pretty much frozen over and has been that way for about a month. We are mid-way through a five day stretch of warmer weather that I am hoping will open up a bit of water. If that does not work I will be joining several friends in heading over to fish the Green River in Utah in a couple of weeks

There are a number of lakes in this area with pike. I did not target them last spring. But I hope to change that this year once ice out begins.

Guy

[Jon Pund]

Nice stuff. What kind of fly were you using? I can't make it out in any of the pics.

[Marcel_Karssies]

Since I was fishing with the light out (an Orvis Trout Bum) I used
my regular trout streamer, a small zonker streamer (size 10).
In conjunction with the lightest wire trace available these zonkers are
deadly on the pike in the local ponds

[Kyle241]

Very nice Marcel! Thanks for posting the fly. I haven't targeted Pike yet but my brother has reported 3-4ft'ers just off the shore around the marina where my mum lives outside Montreal, Canada. I used to drive by there all the time and never thought to wet a fly there...instead my head was dreaming of either Cohoes in British Columbia, Rainbows in Vermont or Stripers off the Maine coast - stupid me. Hopefully this year I will go out with my brother and see whether we can get a few of the monsters on a fly.

Kyle

[Barefoot]

That first fish has some interesting verticle bars, almost like he has some muskie genes in him.