The world is upside down at the moment and it impacts us all. Luckily, we are still able to fish in the Netherlands. We are not in a complete lockdown and hopefully it will not come to that. Not just because of fishing, though that will hurt too… Let’s just hope everything will return to normal as soon as possible.

Social distancing doesn’t prevent you from feeding the locals…

End of February we already found a decent amount of pike on the shallows. Unfortunately, the wind kinda screwed us over and it kept mixing the cold water from the deep with the warmer water on the shallows. As a result, the big push towards the shallow water never really took off. We had one day when the wind died down and the sun was heating up our target area’s and we found the pike racing towards the shallows like there was no tomorrow!

Slowly fished, jerkbaits these can be killers! This fish fell for the good old Jerkster!

Jerkbaits were high on the menu. As the water temperature was low, the ability to pause your lure and let it hover… Man, that was the way to get them biting. Steady retrieve or very erradic didn’t work, you had to make a bit of noise and then give them opportunity to strike it whilst they are not that fast due to the colder water where they came from. Giving them enough time really helps. If they do chase it, speed it up to force them to make a decision. 

Parking the boat on the dropoff to fish the edge towards the deeper water.

During this first warm and calm day, the pike went crazy. The days after the wind picked up more and more but the pike started to become less active. This is usually the other way around during most of the warmer months, but in Spring it makes sense. Water gets colder and the shallows are far from comfortable. Plus, spawning doesn’t make sense when the water is that rough.

Stunning tank by buddy Patrick! 

Most productive where, as written in my previous update, spots with old vegetation. Find those and you will have a good shot to find the pike. These spots are good for spawning and a place where baitfish will likely spawn… A good location to start feeding after a long period of… having different things on your mind ;)

To all anglers out there, enjoy the outdoors if you can, stay safe and hang in there… Hopefully we can return to our normal lifes soon!