TIP 2: FIND THE SPOT WITHIN THE SPOT — HOTSPOT!!!
It’s October 2021. At the slipway, I have an appointment with Jan and Jean-Pierre for our famous Father’s Day Action. Jan had booked the discounted guided day by phone and told me that Jean-Pierre had been fishing for pike for 50 years but had never caught a meter pike, even though it was his ultimate dream. He mentioned he had heard that if you wanted that dream to come true, you had to come to us :-) But I was in for a surprise when I met Jean-Pierre… together with his daughter‑in‑law Marieke. Jean-Pierre immediately told me that Jan was stuck in bed with a fever and that his wife had come along instead. He added:
Everyone who has ever been on board with us, or rented a boat from us, knows our system. We’re not fans of the old-school method of simply drifting straight with a drift bag in the wind. We drift our own custom-made routes. All our boats are automated with a networked front motor and can follow the pre-programmed routes completely hands-free. An inhuman amount of work went into this, but no matter how irregular the structure, the drop-off or the depth line is, everything has been mapped and programmed with precision. Each route has a name, allowing us to put customers on the right routes depending on the season. Several waypoints on each route indicate the “hotspots”, leaving nothing to chance.
That day, too, we made long programmed drifts. This time on the Hollands Diep, where we also have routes with hotspots thanks to our fieldwork. The day started slowly, and it was Marieke who opened the score with a beautiful 90+. Jean-Pierre caught a nice perch, but we had to move because there was too much wind on that side of the lake. On the other, wind-sheltered side, the drifting conditions were calmer, and we chose a “competition route”. Jean-Pierre caught another perch, and Marieke quickly lost a pike. Shortly after, Jean-Pierre caught his first pike — a nice fish, but not the monster he was hoping for. Then things went quiet. And that’s exactly what I like: when a good drift suddenly stops producing bites. It usually means we’ve reached “the hotspot”. You’ll read more about that in one of our next “BIG PIKE” tips. And yes, at the best moment of the day, around 4 PM, we reached the hotspot — and then the long-awaited moment happened… Jean-Pierre’s rod bent all the way over under the weight of a true beast, and after a very tense fight, the landing net slid under the fish of his life: a beautiful lady pike of 105 cm!!!
But the celebration wasn’t over — after catching our breath, we switched the electric motor back on and continued drifting. And within half an hour, on that same route, at the next hotspot, it happened again — this time it was Marieke’s turn. She landed an equally beautiful, even thicker lady pike. The measuring board stopped at 103 cm. Each of them a meter pike — in less than an hour! The next day, Jan called me to thank me and to tell me how sad he was that the fever had kept him from witnessing this unique and joyful moment.
THE SPOT WITHIN THE SPOT!!! (during the Father’s Day Action!)
A fantastic day with a golden edge.
Unforgettable memories.