Hobie World Championships 2014 (part 1)

Well this report is well overdue!, something to do with moving house and packing a ridiculous amount of boxes. I move next week week and I doubt I’ll not wet a line until late December… such is life.

I headed over to the Netherlands, via the Dover ferry, to stay with my fishing buddy Daniel south of Amsterdam. What should have been a relaxing journey was quite literally the journey from hell. I don't think that I’ve ever experienced such a prolonged period of torrential rain. Conditions were quite simply lethal, I guess I should have pulled over, though I pressed on arriving at Daniel’s late in the evening.

I think we probably enjoyed a few too many drinks, I can’t honestly recall, though I did have a rather baggy head the following morning!. The next day was spent rigging in anticipation of fishing the Hobie Worlds. Yup, I was disorganised and had reels to load, traces to make, etc, but I got there in the end. With the car loaded up we headed north to Vinkeveen Plassen, a large wetland area that evolved many centuries ago. Vinkeveen is located in the municipality of De Ronde Venen, in the province of Utrecht, the Netherlands just 20km south of Amsterdam. It’s an amazing location, consisting of areas of large open water as well as enclosed canal system and small lakes.

We were accommodated at VVP Verhuur Vinkeveen which was situated in between the two halves of the water that effectively made up Vinkeveen Plassen. My Great Britain team mate Ian Harris had managed to upgrade our accommodation to a house boat, and very nice it was to!. We shared it with the Italian team, a good bunch of house mates for sure!

The kayaks for the event were the Hobie Pro Angler 12. These were well kitted out with electronics from Lowrance, a Power Pole Micro as well as a multitude of Hobie accessories and an oversized measuring board produced by YakAttack. The crate was Hobie’s new H-Crate, it’s lightweight and collapsible. It uses the same 12-sided tubing around the top to attach Hobie’s line of accessories. Each corner has an integrated rod tube and bungee to keep rods secure without taking up more space in the tankwell. I might just have to invest in one myself!

I’d experienced the Pro Angler 12 two years previously when fishing the Hobie Worlds in Texas, however the kayak had since been upgraded. The biggest changes were an upgraded Mirage Drive and a drop down skeg, the latter certainly proved invaluable in the difficult conditions that were experienced at times during the event.

 

The first day was Navigation Day, this saw the competitors split into groups and guided around the water by local anglers. It gave the competitors a chance to discuss location, species and tactics, something that was most certainly beneficial to all, especially those who’d never fished for species such as Pike, Zander or Perch before.

One thing was for sure, the water in these lakes was gin clear!, you could easily discern bottom features in 2-3m of water. I have to say that the guiding was very useful and we were given a good tour of the water as well as being given some useful and detailed advice. That said, it was still a very daunting venue, a huge expanse of water that would need a definite plan of attack in order to fish with any confidence.

With the Navigation Day complete it was time to finalise any changes to tackle before … well, heading to the bar for a social with all the other anglers who’d travelled from around the world to fish this big event. Twenty countries and almost fifty anglers, it was going to be a tough and very competitive championship!

With twenty countries and almost fifty anglers, it was going to be a tough and very competitive championship!, Part 2 of this report will see me enter the Practice day and beyond.

Netherlands – a few days fishing

I’m really struggling to find time to fish this year and when I do it tends to be in blocks of several days at a time. This trip was to be no exception as I headed off to the Netherlands with Ian Harris for six days of freshwater fishing. This consisted of a few days fishing local waters before competing in the Hobie European Championships over the last two days of the trip.

So with the car loaded to bursting point with tackle, bedding, etc, etc, we headed of in the direction of Dover with a journey of a few hours ahead of us. I was using my Outback whilst Ian was using a Revolution11.

The journey went smoothly and we met up with Daniel who was to be our host for most of the week. We were going to be fishing local waters in the hunt for Pike, Zander and Perch, though expectations weren’t overly high as recent reports pointed towards somewhat patchy fishing as of late.

The mark is a rather secret!, so I wont apologise for the lack of photographs, though I have to say that the weather was quite spectacular for this time of year. I picked up a small pike very early on though pickings became quite hard after that. Though to be honest, I didn't really care as the scenery is superb. I saw several pairs of Kingfishers and watched a few flocks of geese fly overhead, brilliant stuff. At times I just relaxed in the warmth of the sun and let the current take me downstream.

Sometime later whilst trolling the lure was hit hard, though once hooked up it didn’t feel too big. A small Zander was quickly bought to the net, another species for the day.

Ian hooked into his first Zander ever, something worth recording!. I pedalled over and captured the moment, one very happy angler. The fish were there, it was just really hard work. I missed several bites, most frustrating.

We both managed a couple of Perch, no monsters.

The next day saw similar results, perhaps a few more fish. Pike, Zander and Perch made appearance again, though the big fish remained elusive!

I tied off to a pontoon and took a wander to stretch my legs. The grassed path was literally alive with tiny frogs, jumping just ahead of my feet as I walked along. Really nice to see, though rather difficult to catch on camera. Though after a little perseverance I managed to get one to pose for me.

Daniel decided to show us how it was done by catching a large Zander followed by an equally impressive Perch. Personally I find it really encouraging as it lets me know that they are down there waiting to be caught.

I took the opportunity to play with my Lowrance Elite 7 HDI, finding out which mode suited me the best for the day. I didn’t particularly require the charts so I found myself using the split screen mode displaying both broadband and down imaging sonar. I have to admit that I really do enjoy having such a large screen, I’d find it a real step back going back to a 5” display or less.

Broadband & Down Imaging in split screen mode

On a fairly featureless bottom the down imaging is not so useful so it’s best to use the broadband in full screen. Broadband can be displayed with Down Imaging Overlay which enhances the detail as it combines the broadband and DI in one display. It isn’t always ideal to display one overlaid on top of the other, though at times it can be most effective. The venue that I was fishing was featured lots of submerged structure, so the down imaging was constantly in use. The photo above clearly shows a large shoal of fish, quite probably Bream.

I hardly photographed any fish during the tree day period. Having being spoilt with some really good fish in the past it doesn’t seem worth the effort to photograph smaller specimens, spoilt I guess!.