Summer Fishing Trips - with Ade Kiddell

For various reasons, it has been a little while since I last wrote a blog. Since my last blog entry, I have been very busy, with a trip to the UK and a couple of trips with the campervan here in The Netherlands. Read Ade’s last blog here.

Just a few days after I last wrote I travelled to the UK with a full week itinerary to keep me busy. Firstly, a trip to my home city of Norwich and a chance to see the family for the first time in ages the covid restrictions now lifted at last travel is easier again.

Visiting Angling Direct Norwich Branch

No trip to Norwich for me is complete without a visit to see the team at Angling Direct Norwich. I can remember the day AD first moved into this store and have seen it develop and been part of that development over the years. I must say the store looks amazing with a fresh layout and well-stocked shop and of course plenty of banter. The bad news is after my visit my bank account is now considerably lighter!

Ade’s Top Sonubait Baits

Anglo-Dutch River Ijssel Masters

I was only back in the Netherlands for a few hours and I was on my way up to the Zwolle area of Holland to meet up with a couple of “Good old Norwich Boys” who were out in Holland for a week for a match fishing festival. Norwich AD shop legends, Glenn Hubbard and Kevin Humphrey travel to Holland twice every year to fish in the Anglo-Dutch River Ijssel Masters, fished around the Zwolle area on the River Ijssel a very popular match festival.

The Ijssel in this area is not unlike Norfolk’s own River Yare so Glenn and Kevin as well as the other Norfolk and Suffolk-based anglers that fish the festival often come away with plenty of prizes from the week-long event. I spent a few days watching the match and drinking a beer or 2 in the evenings, a great few days in good company topped off with some great fishing.

The festival had been sponsored by Cresta a company whose products are becoming more and more popular among coarse anglers, part of the tackle brand SPRO is they have some very well thought out products. I see more anglers using Cresta products all the time and the few items I have, I have to say I am very impressed with. I will certainly be looking at more of the Cresta range in the future, for example, the Identity Protect Rod and Reel case look perfect for the travelling angler, a great way to protect made-up rods and reels from damage between fishing sessions ideal for my campervan trips.

Summer Carp Fishing in Holland

After my trip to the Ijssel, a couple of days of work and then the carp rods were out for a session on my favourite carp venue, always a few fish to be caught and with the carp already spawned, they were certain to be feeding and so it proved. Eleven runs resulted in nine carp with most of them around 15lb but 2 did go over twenty so no complaints from me. Simple bottom baits over a bed of freebie boilies and a PVA bag of chopped boilie each cast, simple but effective.

I think far too many anglers make fishing far too complicated, I can assure you I never use any complicated rigs in any of my fishing, the more complicated a rig the more chance of a failed knot or a tangle, just remember K.I.S.S. Keep It Simple, Stupid!

Barbel Fishing in June

As you know from previous blogs, I try to catch a barbel every month. It's something I have managed to do for 64 consecutive but with only 1 day of June left, I hadn’t for various reasons had a chance to fish for barbel. It was last chance saloon. I decided as the river was very clear to fish with a block end feeder, feeding dead maggots and hemp with a bunch of dead maggots on the hook.

Using a bait dropper, I fed 2 litres of the maggot hemp mix and left the swim for an hour to get the fish confident over the bait. On the first cast, I hooked a monster, will never know what it was but a slow steady bite resulted in a hooked fish that just slowly and determined moved off downstream and I couldn’t stop it. Eventually, the hook hold gave and the monster was gone, my guess was catfish but it will remain a mystery.

I thought it may have unsettled the fish but how wrong. I had a steady stream of quality fish come to the net, including my June barbel. However, the most rewarding was the Sneep or Common Nase. I ended up with 7 nice Sneep all over 4lb, with a few smaller ones as well.

I have written about Nase before essentially an algae eater but can be tricked into feeding on bread and in this case maggots. With a distinctive cartilage nose, they are shy feeders and hard fighters, hook pulls are common because of their hard mouths, but today they were ravenous and the result was my best single bag of Nase and a couple of fish close to my PB.

Unfortunately, I ran out of bait in total 6 litres of dead maggot and hemp mixture had kept them in a feeding frenzy but the game was up once I was out of bait. A switch to pellet didn’t result in a single bite, I think they were so hooked on the maggot hemp mix that they just weren’t interested in anything else.

No complaints from me though, a nice bag of Nase some good barbel even a decent size. The lost monster of the deep made for a memorable day. Again simple fishing, free-running rig, block end feeder, strong size 12 hook and plenty of bait.

Enjoy your fishing and remember to keep it simple!