TIP 1: STAY ON THE SPOT UNTILL THEY FEED delivers — BIG, BIGGER, BIGGEST!!!
Sometimes fishing days are really hard, and we write November 2018. We were fishing the Veluwemeer for three days straight: me and my bestie Fluppe Maerschalck. A top mate, with the right obsessive mindset, full of passion for the big pike and always available to work hard for a fish. His motto :
This is a tribute to my friend, as he passed away just a week before my daughter Lily was born in September 2021.
Dreadful cold November weather, and when it was already four o’clock in the afternoon nothing seemed to work: not a single bite. We were soaked. We didn’t move an inch all day. No sign of action at all.
But we had been prospecting the two previous days and we were pretty sure the big ones were there, on this very spot. And remembering the good old advice of my dear friend and big‑pike mentor Hilco van Nuil was the key to success:
And then suddenly — and to be honest, not expected anymore — we experienced something we couldn’t even imagine anymore on such a tough day: a little spell of sunshine through the rainy clouds and three meter‑plus pikes in less than an hour!
BIG, BIGGER, BIGGEST!!! — A Tribute to Friendship and the Hunt for Giants
Top tip, Hilco. Hunting for the big pike can be so beautiful. It forges the very deepest friendships.
Catch them up there in heaven, my friend.