A good day on the Waal

[Paul Neate]

Had a good day on the Waal on Sunday -- four bites in 30 minutes, three fish landed, largest on going 77 cm (I don't carry weighing scales). All on hair-rigged halibut pellet and 4 mm pellets in a block-end feeder.

This was the last and largest of them. Put up one heck of a fight in the deep, fast water.

I fished on for another hour, but not a twitch -- maybe it was just a shoal moving through.

 

[thecrow]

Lovely fish, fin perfect.

 

[Andy M]

Nice fish Paul. As I sometimes both measure and weigh the fish I catch I would estimate about 7.5 lbs. Seems you've got you tactics spot on now!

 

[Paul Neate]

Thanks Andy, good to have an idea of the weight of the fish.

Not sure if I have the tactics right, as I fished on for more than an hour after the third fish and didn't get another bite -- is that common in your experience?

 

[Judas Priest]

Not sure about the Waal but on the bigger waters over here such as the Thames, lower Trent and lower Severn the fish come through in waves. One or two fish then a bit of a wait for the next lot.
Think this is down to depth of water as well as width. Depth as in the fish don't feel the need to hide under cover during daylight and width as in if you look at narrow shallow waters certain shoals follow defined routes within a swim, thus meaning in a wider waterway differing shoals will follow differing routes across that width.

Only a theory but seems to be right on the bigger waters I fish.

 

[Paul Neate]

Not sure about the Waal but on the bigger waters over here such as the Thames, lower Trent and lower Severn the fish come through in waves. One or two fish then a bit of a wait for the next lot.

Thanks JP, that's what I was thinking.

 

[Andy M]

Hi Paul, based on my very limited experience I would say that a) if you are not on the right Krib i.e. one with a hard/gravel bottom you will not get a bite to save your life - finding those is easier said than done without local knowledge . b) The fish I have caught have all been taken pretty much between 10am to 2pm, although I have only rarely fished on into dusk. c) and finally yes the bites do seem to come in batches with long periods of nothing - unfortunately, to date at least, usually only one batch per day.
Ade Kiddell, a UK based angler who wrote an article on a successful trip to the Waal a few years ago, advocated heavy feeding with pre-soaked pellets plus ground bait but frankly I don't have the sort of cash I reckon it would take to make much difference, let alone the uncertainty of getting it anyway near your bait. My intention is to make some pipe feeders with one end blocked like the Korum river feeders and fill them with sticky pellets.

 

[Paul Neate]

Andy, it seems there are two schools of thought on fishing the Waal (or the IJssel, for that matter) -- the Ade Kiddell approach (as favoured by the owner of my local fishing tackle shop, what a surprise!) of heavy feeding with groundbait and pellets, and the minimalist approach of feeding a constant trickle of attractors -- scents and small amounts of particles (also known as the Scottish -- or short arms, deep pockets -- approach). I've tried both, and so far I have had more (albeit limited) success with the latter (and kept more cash in my pockets).

But I guess I shall keep experimenting -- that's all part of the fun, isn't it?

 

[Paul Neate]

The fish I have caught have all been taken pretty much between 10am to 2pm, although I have only rarely fished on into dusk.

Hi Andy, just thought I would let you know that I fished in the evening on Sunday (I couldn't get away earlier) and caught three barbel (biggest 81 cm) between 6 p.m. and 7:15. (The bream I caught doesn't count.) Again, first bite came when I was still setting up my second rod. So it seems like it is worth fishing on into the evening.

I tried your approach of using just soaked pellets in the feeder, but I think I was cramming them in too hard, because they were still there when I wound in a couple of times -- but it didn't seem to bother the fish.