Fishing Holland April 2026

Initial Preparation Having spent 3 weeks in Holland last May, I had booked with a friend (Garry) to go back in late August this year. However when the deep, dark winter was upon us, I got the urge to visit sooner so booked a trip for the beginning of April. As there are 2 of us this year, the AirBnB I used last year was not big enough so we have booked into Molecaten De-Koerberg for both trips. This was on the advice of one of the many helpful people that made contact with me after last year's blog. The accommodation is close to Hattem, Zwolle and Zalk so should be ideal. Before we set off for Hull I had a chat with Bertie. He told me that the Roach fishing was great on certain sections of the Ijssel at the moment and that the river Vechte was flowing nicely and fishing well. I really hoped to fish a flowing Vechte on my last visit but it was static for the whole 3 weeks. The journey The drive to Hull (about 90 minutes) and the ferry crossing were easy and uneventful. At Rotterdam ...

Wed 1st April Looks warmer than it was Bertie was there when we arrived so we had a good chat with him. We decided on pegs 6 & 7 and, as usual, would draw pegs to keep it fair. I drew peg 6 so Garry fished peg 7 near (nearest the bridge). It took a while to get setup on the first day as none of our rods were made up plus we needed to mix bait and setup platforms (or Octbox in my case). We also wanted to check depths and distance that we would fish. Consequently fishing began around 11am. Finally, fishing begins I had a small Roach of about 4oz on my first cast. I then continued to get bites in almost every 2 minute cast. I was introducing lots of particles in the feeder each cast. This was a mix of hemp, caster, dead maggots and mashed corn. I popped to see if Garry was having the same quick response from the fish. Initially he was struggling to hold bottom even with a heavier (100g) legged feeder. I was using 70g and holding bottom ok. He was also getting quick bites but was unabl...

Thu 2nd April Mad German Stretch A quicker start? As planned we arrived at Mad German stretch a bit earlier today and hoped to get fishing much earlier as we were now setup and better prepared. This was our first time fishing in the Groynes on this trip. We hoped to locate some Bream today. The shore line is much more comfortable here as there are small stones rather than boulders and they form a gentle slope. I got my gear setup and was about to have my first cast about an hour earlier than day 1 when a police car arrived with 2 policemen to check our Vispass licences and our ID (drivers licence in my case). They were very friendly and chatty and it wasn't long before another 30 minutes had passed. One of them saw my keepnet and said that he needed to check that we were allowed to use them because he had heard of a keepnet ban. He then called someone in Kampen who said that the keepnet ban only applies to Kampen waters so we were ok. They then went over to Garry and I followed the...

Sat 4th April Nicer weather today We fished the same 2 pegs as our previous trip. Hopefully I could hit more bites today. I fished at 7 x 3M wraps today (21M) whereas I had fished at 27M three days earlier. I got bites straight away and, yet again, I missed a few. I now decided to hit every movement of the tip, however slight, whereas I had previously waited for a definite pull. To facilitate this I lifted the butt of my rod onto a raised rod rest (behind me and inline with my elbow) so that I could rest my forearm on the rod and be ready like a coiled spring (I previously had my rod butt on my knee).This upped my hit rate noticeably. I was able to use a 60g legged feeder and it just held. I stuck to 2 minute casts loaded with the usual hemp, caster, mashed corn and chopped worm. The bites came in bursts with long periods between them.  Today we both decided to introduce 5 to 10 large bait-up feeders to attempt to lay a bed of particle (if that is even possible in that flow). It di...

Sun 5th April Stormy waters Almost like being at sea! Still not sure where to go It had been blowing a hoolie through the night and the trees around our chalet were bent over while we had breakfast so we were on the lookout for somewhere to go with a bit of shelter. We had 3 locations in mind. The 1st was the Power Station stretch on the Ijssel, the 2nd was Zalk lakes and the 3rd was the Ijssel behind the lakes. I had never been to the Power Station stretch so wasn't sure if there was any cover from trees etc. As the Power Station stretch was en-route to Zalk we had a drive there to check it out. It turned out to be quite exposed so off we headed for Zalk. There had been a Hattem match on that stretch of the river the day before and it had been won with 37kg with some good backup weights. On arrival the match winner was fishing so we had a chat with him. The wind was blowing upstream so from left to right and there were white-caps on the river. However he already had a few fish and...

Mon 6th April A brigher day with a cold breeze A cold start It was a cold morning (frost on the car). However the clear blue skies and much reduced wind hinted at a better day weather wise. When we arrived there was one car in the car park (he was fishing). Also, the river had more flow than when we had a look 2 days ago. I drew the peg near the no. 9 navigation sign and Garry drew 2 pegs up from me (towards the weir). Steady away The bites were sporadic but that's fine as I was hoping to build the swim. I fished with 2 rods initially, one down the middle at about 23M and the other closer in and downstream at 15M. I had a couple of Roach early on and then a Bream of about 3lb. As I was netting the Bream, the other rod went and resulted in an Ide of about 2lb (both in the landing net together). I then had a couple of really sharp bites that pulled the tip round but missed them both - I suspect Ide. I then had a couple more Roach before Garry came to see me. He'd had lots of bite...

Tue 7th April A very still morning Change of plan As stated on yesterday's blog, we had intended to fish Mad German today. We got up extra early as we need to load everything into the cars so we could head straight for the ferry afterwards. However, on arrival we found most of the Mad German pegs taken by people that had obviously night fished. Many (if not all) were German as they had bells on the end of their rods. We drove down as far as the cars will go and were met by a discgraceful scene; there were discarded black bin bags full of burned cooking equipment (grills etc) and what looked like a complete tent discarded in a heap in the field. There were also several metal tent spikes half in the gound over a wide area - glad I didn't drive over those! I had not fished Copse before so we decided to try that as it is close to Mad German and also allows the cars behind your peg - essential today as we would need to re-pack once we had finished fishing. As previously, I sent the ...

Bye - for now Our overall performance Final tally was 3 wins each and one day where neither of us caught. It is noticeable that Garry won all of the sessions where we had better weights and by a decent margin. I won those where we were struggling to catch. This is evidenced by our total catches of 104lb 3oz for me and 140lb 9oz for Garry. The fishing The weights are not as high as I was hoping. When we arrived to look around Zalk, we didn't see any Bream in the shallows and that made me think we were perhaps too early. The cold weather was also a bit of an issue. Consquently we failed to find Bream in numbers and the lakes seemed very slow. That's enough of the negatives.  The Roach fishing was excellent and I did far better on the Ijssel than I did last year. The quantity, size and quality of those Roach is amazing. We also got to fish the Vechte when it was flowing and fishing well. Garry got 2 PBs (Ide and Roach) and I equalled my Roach PB. Without a doubt we were a bit too ...