Some fishing days start painfully slow, but end with a golden edge...
For this unique story, we go back to August 16th, 2021. Marc is a customer from the very beginning, and the backstory deserves to be told first: In 2018, when we were still testing our outdoor business, with no lodges yet and only guiding days to see how things suited us. During that period Marc came aboard for the first time with two friends. Although we were in a good period with many big pike, Marc and his friends were extremely unlucky. We fished the Haringvliet and it was particularly foggy that day, and the fish were completely OFF. The trio didn’t get a single bite, even though Marc bravely threw his shoulder out all day casting big lures. As we always do, we offered a free retry for this blank day. But even on the retry day things went wrong again: once more foggy, and once more no bites. Around noon I told the gentlemen that I wanted to avoid a second blank at all costs, and that the foggy weather might be favourable for zander. We moved to the Hollands Diep, set up the then just released Livescope, and in spectacular fashion with live bites the men each caught their big zanders! Since then, they became loyal customers. Back to August 16th, 2021. The day before, I had called Marc—by now a good friend—with the news:Marc, you need to come. The big pike are active and it’s the PERFECT moment to break your ancient PB of exactly 100 cm!
Marc had already caught five meter pike in his life, but every single one measured exactly 1 meter! A true curse!
Marc came, alone this time. He didn’t want to miss this opportunity. We went on the water early in the morning. And again he was unlucky. While I managed to catch several pike, Marc remained completely bite‑less.
It was now 18:00 in the afternoon. I started a drift on a new spot, handed Marc a sturdy W4 rod and a Miuras Mini Mouse—the Mini because it fishes a bit nicer and also catches the smaller pike more easily. In my favourite colour: SUNSET.
I gave him a short demonstration of how I fish it: a small weight in front (25 g because the slope was deep, down to 8 m), let it sink to the bottom, a few short jerks, then a pause with a tight line to get back to depth and follow the descending slope nicely. That fast diving action during the pause is irresistible to big pike.
And yes indeed, it didn’t take long before Marc landed his first pike of the day. The spell was broken. A second followed, and the third was immediately the right one!
104 cm! New PB and the curse of the 100 cm barrier was finally broken.
And the feeding frenzy continued—we caught pike after pike on this drift!
And it didn’t stop there. Suddenly Marc hooked into something much heavier!
Wow, the fight of his life. The drag screamed like crazy and his Westin W4 Powercast rod bent all the way into the handle.
It took quite a while before we could handle the landing net, but what a relief when we finally had the beautiful lady inside!
For the second time that day he broke his PB, and this lady weighed heavily: 117 cm of pure pike power!!!
Marc caught a total of 12 pike that evening, and from that day on our friendship only grew stronger.
Marc helped me with the lodges, with the boats, and we often rewarded him with an exceptional night session.
He later broke his PB again with us, but that’s a story for another time :-)
WHAT AN UNFORGETTABLE EVENING!!!
When friendships rule, and it gets rewarded with a top‑of‑the‑bill fishing day!
Unforgettable memories.