Holland Photographs

A Big Sky

We have just returned from another wonderful few days in Holland, and travelling around with the iPhone is quite fun when you look about you and find some strange, weird and wonderful sights to photograph.

Don't get me wrong, the device on the phone is merely adequate, but the availability of a camera, both still and movie, at all times is a very useful convenience and one I am getting used to having. It certainly means that in these technological times when everybody from the ages of thirteen to sixty have smart phones, iPads, laptops and home PCs, nothing will go unrecorded. George Orwell's Winston Smith would be even more dismayed to discover that everything is on display; all crimes are filmed, all activities photographed, shared and discussed, and there appear to be no taboos, everything is available on the net. 

..well, er...good.

As always, the availability of a camera can be misused as well as utilised  for good and there are many who believe that the advent of total exposure has sinister connotations for Human Rights. Be that as it may it's here to stay and we'll have to get used to seeing everybodys' lives displayed and open for discussion. If you don't want to be talked about or ridiculed, then don't publish it, don't open yourself up to scrutiny. That's why some choose Twitter over Facebook, why others choose neither and why both can be a minefield to the unwary. 

Autumn is here....

I love it because while out on walks I can capture anything that takes my fancy - whether it's scenery, people, a funny shot or a candid one topic for my next blog or a mushroom that's of interest - I can take a photograph with the minimum of fuss, unnoticed and unhampered by a big DSLR which is not easy to hide at the best of times.

Pretty and Still

The shots on this page are a mix of all that I found interesting, funny or picturesque on our recent trip to The Netherlands. The days go by, the seasons change - but I've got it all on my iPhone - ah, but I'm not going to show you all of them am I?

Hmmmm....

They're out to get me!

It was so nice to be back in Holland to see our friends, have a few drinks, some nice food and then get up early to go fishing! The journey across the channel was tiring, too for some reason, and I had a nasty, niggling headache as I carried the gear along the bank before first light. However, last night was pleasant, staying with Renita and having a nice meal just opposite her apartment. Unfortunately Patrick has to work all weekend, so we’ll only be seeing him in the early morning or late night.

This morning was damp, from heavy dew, although the mist was soon wafted around by the slight breeze as I set up in the same swim as last year. There was a significant difference this year, though, in that the reeds that edge the side of the river as it opens into a larger pool of probably 4 or 5 acres haven’t been cut down yet, so I placed the rod rests in the water to the right of the wooden platform.

I don’t like platforms much; I feel as if they’re just waiting to crumble beneath your feet, trip you up or send sufficient vibration into the water to scare the fish for a reasonable distance into skulking on the bottom in a non-feeding torpor. I’m probably wrong, but I do think that platforms are out to get you.

The first of the two rods was cast, without float, along the reed beds ahead of me as the river opened up. The bait was half a herring. The other rod was fitted with a float and cast as close as possible to the reeds, to the right of the other rod, into the river proper, this with smelt on. There seemed to be some flow on the river this morning, culminating in me lifting this latter rod high to lift as much line off the water as possible. At seven thirty, though, just half an hour after setting up, the herring rod was away, but after a brief sensation of head shaking weight, it was off. I cast out again, replacing the herring half with another, and on setting the rod down, the float from the second rod began its dance.

With the mist still swirling around me, I managed to quickly chin lift the 4 pound (or so) jack, quickly unhooking it and returning it, barely lifting it from the water, when the alarm from the first rod sounded again. I lifted into the fish which instantly went into overdrive, tearing line off the clutch and taking the rod into a serious curve. It was a good fish, but how good? It certainly fought well, barely giving up as it was swept into the net. I was fairly non-plussed to see that it was about 8 or 9 pounds, although on weighing it became a fat 10 and a half pounder, it was such a good fight, I was convinced it was an upper double, but the scales or the tape measure don’t lie, and neither did my eyes. Weird!

I stayed busy though. I had cast out the second rod and started on a brew, nursing my worsening headache, when the mackerel on the ledger rod was taken, the alarm emitting a series of bleeps, rather than a continuous, full throttle run. Again I lifted into the fish, and again it felt heavy, but not as hard fighting as the last. It weighed almost sixteen pounds! Just goes to show that some instincts in fishing can’t be trusted.

I then had a hiatus for an hour or so, which gave me time to arrange the photographing of the larger fish, the chance to have a complete cup of tea and the opportunity to clear up the swim, before landing the final two jacks, the largest eight pounds or so.

Soon, the sun had risen high enough in the sky to cast its full warmth upon me, making my brain boil even more, so it was time to clear up and clear off for a well deserved catch up on sleep and a quiet afternoon reading a couple of good books.

First Twenty (Going Dutch)

Well, here we are back in Rotterdam as Franc is working with our good friends in the city for two days. I decided to fish the River Keen just outside Strijen in a spot I found in May. I wasn’t sure if I could fish with three rods or not, so, setting up in the dark, I put out two rods with deadbaits which had been carefully transported across the channel, France, Belgium and Holland. These included some lovely fresh Herrings I bought in Deal and froze immediately. They were the freshest herrings I had ever seen, still pink and bright eyed.

Nothing actually happened until about 9 o’clock when I had a take on a half mackerel float legered against the reed bed opposite my swim. The fish fought well and was soon hand landed. I weighed her at 15.12 and was chuffed to bits with her. She was my second largest fish to date after all and so I was very pleased. I had a couple more takes from the same place over the next hour or so and lost one fish, but the bites do seem to be quite twitchy, not exactly screaming runs.

In the meantime, the other, legered bait had also been receiving attention of a twitchy nature, but at about 2.15pm I leaned into one such take and hooked a fish. The bait was half herring fished as far as I could cast (not far in the wind) up along the reed bed toward, but not reaching, the overhanging trees. She fought well and stayed quite deep and as I netted her I felt she could be a twenty pounder. At 21.03 I was so pleased I could have done a Gord Burton and yelled Yeeee-Haaah at the top of my lungs - but I didn't! I sacked her and carefully to allow both her and me to recover for half an hour or so. A nice Dutch couple came along at about that time and took the photographs for me before I gently slipped her back. She had been nicely hooked in the front of the mouth but I also removed another treble from her gill rakers, so obviously others fish here for the pike.I had no more takes at all in the afternoon, so I packed up to drive back to the hotel, very pleased with my day’s fishing.

The next morning saw me back at the swim before first light, setting up in the dark again. Remember though, that in Holland as the closks don't go back in the winter, it doesn't really get light until about 8am at this time of year. This early start was made all the harder due to a late night out in Rotterdam with René in a lovely cigar bar. I was suffering a bit. The wind had switched overnight and was blowing a lot stronger into the reed bed where I caught the fish yesterday. As yesterday, nothing happened at all until after 9am, when I had a run on float legered sardine against the reedbed, right on the corner. These fish do seem to switch on at a set time here. It was another double at 12.03, a long lean fish and completely different to the next I was to catch an hour or so later.

After no activity for a while I cast the legered half herring into a small depression in the reed bed to my right and almost immediately had a run which resulted in a short stocky pike of 11.12.So in a day and a half’s fishing I had four doubles totalling some 61 pounds in weight, an average of 15 pounds per fish. Not bad, Mikey, not bad at all.

Dutch Intermission

Franc is doing a couple of workshops over here in Holland for the weekend with a friend. Whilst here we are staying with Renita in her flat in the middle of a delightful little village called Strijen. This morning I ferried the girls into Rotterdam and then drove back to the village to do a little fishing.

There is water everywhere in Holland, but right outside Renita’s flat there is a river called the Keen, which flows towards the Holland Diep, but back up stream there are some delightful stretches, with lily pads, bends and a deep bay which I’m looking forward to fishing later in the year.

I had my new sneaker rod from Dave Lumb and was chatting to a Dutch guy who fishes this part of the river in the village itself. While we were talking about the fishing, I had a take, just after changing from a Rapala to a Storm Wildeye Perch soft plastic. The fish fought well on the new rod, and it was good for several firsts.

First Pike in Holland, first pike on a soft plastic, first on a multiplier and first on Lumby’s new rod. Excellent! I would say it was around 8 pounds, but I didn’t weight it. Ramone, the Dutch guy did the honours with the photo’s. She slipped quietly back seemingly none the worse for her brief encounter with the outside world and I continued to stroll upstream.

Once you're through the town part of the river, the reed beds are more extensive and I tried casting along most of these as well as alongside the lily pads that were beginning to show ready for the summer.

Although I fished on for some time, trying out a lot of new lures and fishing in the big bay, I caught nothing else. The sun has come out, though and the day was bright and clear, it would have been nice to start a little earlier but there you are.