Lake Oostvoorne (Rotterdam) 27-12-2011

[Marcel_Karssies]

Yesterday I visited Lake Oostvoorne near Rotterdam with my buddies from the flyfishingclub.
Lake Oostvoorne is a Brackish lake on the Northsea coast that is stocked with Rainbow, Brook and Brown trout.
Since we live on the other side of the country it takes quite some time to get there.
Combined with the fact that those trout most of the time only feed in the dark parts of the day
we opted to go there late in the morning.



On the road, not the most scenic part of the country.

At the lake we encountered two locals who where fly fishing the shore.
Our group consisted of six people, three of them jumped right away in their belly-boats and
Fished the deeper parts of the lake (a former sound).
The rest tried their luck from the shore.



Lake Oostvoorne.

The weather was pretty good, a nice nine degrees C, there was a light South-westerly wind that produced a nice ripple on the lake’s surface.
The lake had some problems in the past due to the fact that this former sound became a freshwater lake resulting in extensive algae growth and the disappearance of shrimp and other saltwater life forms where the trout fed on.
With the building of a pipeline that released saltwater from the nearby port of Rotterdam conditions obviously improved.
It was nice to see how clear the water had become now.
Fishing wise it looked pretty dead, I did not see cruising fish hunt the shallows for sticklebacks and shrimps nor did I see cruising fish in front of me.

I could try two things: A. walk along the complete shoreline hoping to run into fish.
B. concentrate on the passages along the small dams that protected the shores from wave damage.
I went for option B and fished a small streamer on a clear intermediate line through the passage and along the dams.
One of the belly-boat guys had a fish finder with him and reported fish at a depth of 5 meters.
So I switched to a sinking shooting head and fish a booby nymph slow across the bottom.
No luck though as I did not receive a single hit on the fly.




Clear water.

I spend quite some time fishing the lake but things where just not happening, nobody had spotted fish yet or felt takes.
At the end of the lake an exercise was taking place, a helicopter hauled in a diver from the lake.
At the northern shore of the lake the port of Rotterdam began, the whole area full of refineries.
Suddenly a huge plume of smoke arose from that area so my first thought was that there would be a fire at one of the refineries.
Later I heard from the locals that it was just a training by the local fire brigade, pretty impressive though.


Shit happens ?

It was common knowledge that the best time at the lake was either dawn or dusk thus in low light.
So expectations to catch fish during the bright daylight hours where low.
When it became dark though we where on edge.
The last remaining belly-boat captain however was the only guy that did it right.
Suddenly in the dark he caught a small rainbow trout and a brook trout in short order.
Then he lost one big fish because he was fishing with a light tippet.

He had switched to an intermediate line and caught his fish right near the dams.
Off course I quickly re-arranged my gear but I could net get a bite.
So like so many times before I left the lake empty handed.




The guy that did it right.

So I had once again achieved that Oostvoorne feeling, making a long trip – fishing all day – and blank.
For this year my dose of Oostvoorne was reached.
Still I had already planned a return trip for the start of next year so hopefully I have learned something from this trip and will fare better next time.


Some of the locals find this pretty, I just thank god that I am living at the other side of the
Country where we lack such attractions.

[Salmo trutta]

Wow. Fishing like that there? Great report. I'm also glad that is not my morning view.