Fishing A Storm– With Ade Kiddell

This entry was posted on 28th July, 2021 by Anna Cooper

The last few weeks have seen some real highs and lows in my fishing, but I always try to find an opportunity to fish, despite any conditions or lack of spotting species. In this month’s post, I am going to cover some good stuff (best catches) and the more unfortunate news of the poor climate seen across the Netherlands of late.

Barbel Angling in the Grensmass

The barbel fishing on my local river in the Netherlands has continued to improve but only slowly. The Grensmaas or otherwise referred to as Border Maas has most of its length forming the border between The Netherlands and Belgium. Whilst the river does hold barbel the numbers fall every year and it becomes increasingly difficult to catch them.

Sadly, the river has seen major work on its banks. After the huge floods of 1995, many banks have been straightened and thousands of tons of soil, sand and gravel removed as part of a Europe wide flood prevention programme. Unfortunately, large areas of gravel have been removed from the river bed, and as many specialist anglers will know, the lifeblood of a barbel is gravel. Barbel both feed and breed on clean gravel. Add to the lack of gravel a water level that can rise as much as three metres in just a few minutes, and the whole natural cycle of the river is disturbed in a major way.

As I am always one for a challenge, I have stuck to the task of barbel fishing on the Grensmass and been rewarded. I could have moved to the easier rivers of the Rhine system but instead stuck at it, making the rewards that much sweeter.

 It was only a couple of weeks ago that I managed my first double-figure barbel from the river, a stunning fish, fighting fit and an absolute battle to finally net, that’s why I go fishing the adrenaline-filled rush of the bite and the heart-stopping battle between Ade and Barbel.

How to Succeed when Fishing Challenging Rivers

Method:

I am a big believer if you have a method that you know works then stick with it. I have not altered my approach to barbel fishing for many years, there is no need. I catch plenty as those of you that follow my blog will be aware I have caught barbel for the last consecutive 54 months, why fix something that’s not broken.

See Ade’s previous blog pieces, here. 

Confidence:

As I have always said in the past confidence is key, I don’t go fishing thinking will I catch today I go thinking how many I will catch today. My approach to the Grensmaas is no different and it certainly paid off. My best day on the river so far has accounted for 3 nice barbel so no complaints from me.

Bait:

I have found the best bait on the river to be either maggot or Sonubaits Robin Red 8mm pellets. 2 of these spicy red pellets on a hair rig fished over a bed of mashed pellet and hemp have accounted for most of my fish.

Fishing in Flooded Conditions

A good friend, Peter Buschmann and I were discussing how because of the wet spring in the Netherland, some of the best areas to fish along the river are still not reachable due to the high water levels. Little did we know what was to come…

A couple of weeks ago, Peter and I fished together. Peter as always, gave me a choice of swims and I had a decent day with 3 barbels. Peter didn’t fear so well with a blank, but not surprising as he picked a swim for comfort rather than fish.

On this particular fishing session, the rain never stopped all day. At times it was torrential, Peter picked a swim where he could at least get shelter from the rain under his umbrella and boy did we need it! I am certainly thankful I have a decent umbrella and waterproofs for fishing in these conditions.

During the day I had a couple of messages from my wife just making sure I was ok as she had heard we were on a red weather alert and parts of the Limburg area and the Maas in Belgium had been hit by record rainfall. By the sound of it, we had been on the edge of the storm and had luckily missed the worst of it. Sadly reports of deaths due to flooding in parts of Belgium and Germany make you realise how precious life is.

Two days later, the Grensmaas was 7 metres higher than the day I fished with Peter. This was a new record level and the flow rate of the river was incredible, but, many villages and towns were evacuated and several homes flooded. Having suffered a flood many years ago, my heart goes out to anyone whose property was flooded and my deepest sympathy for the families who lost loved ones in the floods.

Image A	Image B

In Image A you can see a fish from the last session and then in Image B is the scene 2 days later. In Image B you can see the trees which now I was fishing 7 metres underwater. The good news is that in the last few days as the river has dropped, however, it has become clear that a huge amount of damage has been caused due to flooding. There are lots of damage to the banks of the river and lots of the fishing spots are gone, washed away in the flood. I am sure as the river drops further, we will be able to get out and fish and hopefully locate some spots and find some fish.

Fishing Carp Lakes in the Netherlands

With the river in poor shape, I am lucky that a few weeks ago I also joined a small local carp lake to get my fishing fix from. This venue is an old school water where bivvies and bite alarms are banned but thankfully it has loads of fish to catch, with some decent sized fish amongst them.

To date, my biggest carp from the venue has been 27lb with plenty of other twenty pounds plus fish. I even got a new P.B. grass carp of 22lb (see in the image below). Unfortunately, this lake has also been affected by the flooding of the last few days and is currently closed until the water returns to a safe level.

Canal Fishing in the Netherlands

With the river still difficult and the lake closed, I got out the pole and decided to fish for roach on the local canal. UK anglers should note that this was not a canal in the standards of how many of the English canals are structured as it is closer to a massive ship canal, with ships up to 5000 tonnes regularly passing by.

Deciding on a simple approach of fishing over a bed of feed, I balled in 5 big balls of ground bait around the size of an orange that was laced with dead maggots and hemp. This was then fished with maggots over the top. In just a few hours of fishing the canal, I had a bite on almost every run through, along with some nice net roach to report.

The continual search for fish across three styles of venue is for me, what sums up fishing. Fishing does not have to be complicated and when things are not always going to plan, there will always be somewhere to catch a few fish, aught it be a boat canal, carp lake or your local river.

Hopefully better news next time and a barbel or two to report from the river. As anglers we must remember that nature has a great way of repairing itself, so let’s hope the river can bounce back from a record flood.

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