Our first trip to Brielle, Holland
I know your all dying to know how we got on so here a day-by-day account. ;D
Saturday 20th May:Get picked up at home around 4:30PM and head off to meet the other lads before a quick drive down the M62 to Hull. Really easy drive (much better than the long haul to Holyhead). The crossing was really good and relaxing, went for something to eat then hit the bar with a deck of cards until the early hours before bunking up for the night.
Sunday 21st May:Rolled off the ferry around 8:30am and with a very short journey to Brielle we were at the Bastion Hotel for just after 9:00am. Cant check in until 12:00pm so just collected out license from the reception and headed off fishing. The most talked about place seemed to be the Voorne canal only about 10mins away so off we went. As we reached the top of the canal and headed down the road we noticed a couple of lads fishing ahead, then a few more, and more and crikey, there were hundreds of them which is no joke, the canal is pegged about every 5m’s and we must have covered a ¾ of a mile before seeing a few vacant pegs, one thing was very apparent though, all the poles were very still and horizontal with not much action being seen, oh dear. We landed in pegs 360-365 with it absolutely heaving on both sides of us, we soon found out there was a number of local matches on the canal which are every weekend. Full of expectation we were straight out with the poles to plumb up around 15ft of water and it must have been a good hour before one of us had a fish, a reasonable size bream around 3lb, the same lad picked up a couple more then the other lads soon hit fish, EXCEPT FOR ME….
Couldn’t buy a bite, nothing doing at all, I even got up to compare my rig against the other lads but they were as good as the same. I set myself up for a blank on the first day, tried everything, pole, feeder, waggler but it just wasn’t happening. With a shout for an hour to go I slumped onto my box in a sulk, one of the lads came up for a natter and started telling me that I had a duff peg to cheer me up, just as he did the float dipped ever so slightly and I hit the fish which I was desperate to bring to the bank and I did a bream around the 3lb mark. Plugging away I managed another 2 in the final hour, well below expecation but at least I caught. Its very tricky fishing on the canal as the tow is constantly changing and the depth can be up and down by a goof 1ft in a very short period so a heavy float and bulk shot are needed laid over depth, adding to the fish are extremely hook shy the bites are very finicky it makes for some hard fishing. The day finished at weigh in with me below 9lb, two of the lads in the late 20’s and one of us with 50 odd lb so just under the tonne between us and not each as we had built our selves up for. I don’t particularly rate the Voorne regardless of the fish in it simply because of the roads the run parallel both sides and the heavy traffic, not quite what I am looking for from a days relaxing fishing.
Monday 22nd May:We had a late start, as we needed to collect the bait from the local suppliers in the centre of Brielle that didn’t open until 9:00pm so we decided to fish the moats around the town. Again, very easy parking and good grass banks to fish from. We had heard mixed reports about the moat so wasn’t expecting too much. Out with the pole and plumbed around 5ft, one of the lads to my left was into roach straight away, which appeared a good sign. It wasn’t long before I was into fish and started a steady flow of roach, bream and ide. One of the lads had mentioned the large number of roach that were in the beck behind me, all of 2-3ft wide and 1 ft deep, I headed to the car for some pop and had a glance in as I passed, watching the little fish dart around I nearly fell in when I saw a huge Crucian Carp cruising along. I rushed back for my pole to try and tempt it on pellet but this fish just wasn’t interested, by now the lads were wondering what I was up to and had followed me down, determined not to be beat I decided I would trick the fish and catch it in my landing net and laid it across the beck well in front of the carp, to my amazement it swam straight into the net and I was victorious, well apart from the fact the lads wouldn’t let me weigh it in as apparently I ‘technically’ never caught it, anyway it weighed at 3lb 14oz and was by far the biggest Crucian I have ever seen. Back to the fishing I was catching steady but it was much harder for the other lads so we decided to cut it short and pack up.
After dinner we went for a drive around to look for potential fishing spots and after wasting a few hours driving up and down the same spot we stumbled back onto the Voorne Canal. This section however was completely different with busy roads and was only 5ft deep. We started fishing around 5:30pm and was soon into the bream and plenty of them, two of the lads also found a some good tench the best going 7lb 8oz. Packed up around 9:00pm and weighed up with me leading the pack at around 72lb, closely followed with a late 60, and the others in the 40’s, certainly not a bad nights fishing.
Tuesday 23rd MayBased on the day before we headed back to the top of the Voorne with very high expectations seeing as we had done so well in such a short session with no pre-baiting, today we thought we would hit the tonne… How wrong could we have been, it was hard all day long with the only highlight for me being landing my PB tench at 7lb 1oz, did manage a few bream and a smaller tench and weighed up around 20lb at the end of the day, a real bump back to earth especially with one of the lads drawing a blank.
Wednesday 24th MayHaving chatted to a few guys the night before they told us that the Voorne was the best place to be in the 300 pegs so we decided to give it another go regardless of the traffic. Set up a new rig with the bulk low down as sensitive as I could manage bearing in mind the conditions. The far bank reeds where stuffed with bream spawning and splashing around with a few rolling midway. Anyway, I aint going to waste to much time writing about this as it turned into antoher dire day for me, the fish were there but just weren’t feeding, I managed to land 4 and lost 6 foul hooked fish with just the scales on the hook as a reward. 2 of the other lads did slightly better than me with just one of us hitting a decent shoal for over 50lb of fish. We decided to pack up slightly early and head off in pursuit of another tip I had been given.
Thursday 25th MayMade our way down to a different canal, the Bernisse which was a bit more river like than the Voorne, and definitely not as heavily fished, it was again much more peaceful with no busy roads. We dropped in our pegs and started setting up, I also decided to set a feeder rod up to try later in the day if the pole proved difficult. The first lad in was straight into roach on the pole, it was a lot shallower at only 5’ deep. By the time I got my pole in the tow was phenomenal and I knew I was going to struggle with presentation again if the fish were as finicky so immediately put the pole away and threw out the feeder, within seconds the tip wrapped round and a nice looking hybrid came home, and another, and another, things were looking good. The lad to my right had persisted on pole but as I was having a steady flow of fish ho also opted for the feeder however as soon as he had put a few cages of his crumb in it went completely dead for me and he was hitting all the fish. No matter how much I put in they seemed to prefer his and whatever additive he had put in it. I decided not to compete on the crumb and switched to a maggot feeder and soon got the fish back although my pal was still catching 2 to my one. It was steady throughout the day for all of us with bream, roach and hybrids and I eventually upped my catch rate later in the day. At the weigh in I managed 74lb, with my mates in the 60’s, 50’s and 20’s.
A very good days fishing which was to be the last for me in Brielle as I received news of an accident back home and made my way up to Amsterdam in the early hours to catch a flight home.
I got news back from the lads that they went back to the Bernise and fished the same pegs as the day before but again it failed to produce the consistency as it had the day before for two of the lads although one of them did land on them and weighed in 97lb odd. Although he had a great day he was actually quite disappointed, as he knew he was one fish away from the magical tonne up.
The Saturday saw them try another spot on the Bernise which although it didn’t produce the same quantity of fish but a much better stamp of fish with bream pushing up to just below 5lb’s
So the BIG question, is Holland better than Ireland, well I love Ireland and the irish folk, the whole culture and lifestyle appeals to me and was a big part of the holiday, however I must admit that Holland is just as wonderful, the town of Brielle is absolutely beautiful and a great night out for a food and a drink. In our opinion you are more likely to have better days fishing than in Ireland with plenty of water to go at and as we found out, you don’t have to stick too the ‘talked about’ spots and will do well going off and finding your own places which adds to the experience. So were will we be going next year, HOLLAND without a shadow of a doubt….
I do have some pictures which I will add into the above as soon as I can and look forward to reporting a trip to you in 2008..
Couldn’t buy a bite, nothing doing at all, I even got up to compare my rig against the other lads but they were as good as the same. I set myself up for a blank on the first day, tried everything, pole, feeder, waggler but it just wasn’t happening. With a shout for an hour to go I slumped onto my box in a sulk, one of the lads came up for a natter and started telling me that I had a duff peg to cheer me up, just as he did the float dipped ever so slightly and I hit the fish which I was desperate to bring to the bank and I did a bream around the 3lb mark. Plugging away I managed another 2 in the final hour, well below expecation but at least I caught. Its very tricky fishing on the canal as the tow is constantly changing and the depth can be up and down by a goof 1ft in a very short period so a heavy float and bulk shot are needed laid over depth, adding to the fish are extremely hook shy the bites are very finicky it makes for some hard fishing. The day finished at weigh in with me below 9lb, two of the lads in the late 20’s and one of us with 50 odd lb so just under the tonne between us and not each as we had built our selves up for. I don’t particularly rate the Voorne regardless of the fish in it simply because of the roads the run parallel both sides and the heavy traffic, not quite what I am looking for from a days relaxing fishing.
