Tackle, Tactics and Experience
Lure Fishing in Holland
By Michel Huigevoort
After receiving email from Michel, I asked him for some information about fishing in Holland.
Here is his reply (spring 2000).
To answer your question, I will try to tell you something about lure
fishing in Holland. Sorry for my poor English, but when others spent their
time on English lessons, I was out fishing!
Lure fishing is really taking off nowadays in Holland. The main reason for
that is of course that live-baiting isn't allowed anymore. It isn't since
September or so last year. It was a very strange decision to say the
least. It is a little bit hard to explain for me here, but maybe you
already know all the ins and outs about it. If not, I'll try to explain it
to you later.
As a pike angler I wasn't really shocked about it. The last few years I
only fished with lures and deadbaits, using a static method. (I believe
you call it legering??) But most pikers here in Holland are "over the
hill" ( 60 years and older) and for them it is very hard to change their
tactics. They only know livebaiting and they are convinced that live baits
are much better than lures.(silly old fools!) Most of them stopped piking.
Too bad... The only thing I know is that since I am using lures, I
catch a lot more. Fact is of course that most waters in Holland are very
suitable for livebaiting. Livebaiting is also a whole lot cheaper, and
when I am reading Pikelines or Harris' Lures Magazine, I can see that
lures aren't quite cheap either over there! They sure know how to rip off
the anglers over there!!!! I buy a lot of lures in the USA via the
internet, and that saves me a lot of money. Since I haven't won the
lottery yet, it is the best way for me.
In Holland we have an organisation like the PAC. It is called the SNB,
which means Snoekstudiegroep Nederland en Belgie. It only cost 30 guilders
and then you get a magazine like Pikelines 4 times a year. (interested in
a membership??) Like the PAC we also have the Regions, meetings etc. The
SNB (try to) do a lot of good work in pike conservation etc.
A very popular method of lure fishing here right now is the fishing for
zander with the little rubber shads and twisters. This so called "vertical
fishing" is highly effective in winter, when the zander likes it to take
it slow. 20 or 30 zander a day isn't rare at all. I think it is a little
dull fishing method, but that is personal. Next Saturday we go out
for a "vertical session" because all other types of lure fishing are a
little bit slow at the moment. With vertical fishing it is best to
operate from a boat using an electro motor. You just jig your shad,
following the bottom structure as good as possible. We use a fast 6ft rod
and 6 or 8lbs dyneema. A good fishfinder is almost a must to do the job
properly.
Trolling lures is also very popular here at the moment. How about it in
the U.K.? So Dave I guess this is it for today, I think I used all the
English words I know!!
Thanks Michel. Your English is fine, somewhat better than my Dutch...
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