Final thoughts

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 early. It will be interesting to see how the festival goes. Good luck to everyone. I hope the Roach stick around and the Bream start to show for you.

Future?

I will not come again this early in the year but do plan more springtime trips in the future. Also, we are both back here in late August. The weather will be very different then. I just hope it does not negatively affect the fishing. I would love to hear from anyone that fishes in the Zwolle area at that time of year and how the Ijssel, Vechte and lakes fish and compare. I am already looking forward to it.

Until next time...