Four Rivers(-- VierStromen --)Fishing trips |
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Waal |
Maas |
Rijn |
IJssel
© VierStromen |
VierStromen (Four Rivers) organises fishing trips on the four major rivers in the Netherlands: Waal, Maas, IJssel and Rijn.
VierStromen is located in Nijmegen, a city on the bank of the Waal close to the German border.
Close to Nijmegen the four main rivers of The Netherlands meet. Two mighty canals connect them. One, the maas-waal canal actually runs through Nijmegen. The other, Pannerdens canal, runs close to the German border, about 15 kilometres to the east of Nijmegen. Pannerdens canal connects, or rather shortcuts, the Rhine to the Neder Rijn (Low Rhine) and the IJssel. These two rivers, the Neder Rijn and the IJssel, branch just before the city of Arnhem, about 15 Km to the north of Nijmegen.
So you see, four main waterways all within a 15 km radius.
We fish one of the rivers, the Maas, from a fast, comfortable boat with all the trimmings, and the Waal, IJssel and Rijn from the bank.
The boat, the VierStromen, takes up to four fishermen. This low number of anglers ensures that there is ample room to move, both on deck and in the cabin.
VierStromen fishes catch and release only and barbless hooks are used.
These two maps show the area that can be fished.
The big dark blue line in the middle of the smaller picture is the Rhine. The Rhine changes its name to Waal when it crosses the border from Germany. To the north lie the Neder Rijn and the IJssel, connected to the Waal by the Pannerdens Canal. To the south flows the Maas, connected to the Waal by the Maas-Waal Canal. This canal runs partly through the city of Nijmegen.
The WaalThe Waal is the busiest river is Europe and ... an excellent fishing water. While 24 hours a day big - and I do mean big - ships plough their way to Germany, the fish swim, eat and get bigger within reach of any fisherman who takes the trouble to fish for them. The main species or rather the species to hunt for are roofblei (Aspius aspius) and Winde (Leusiscus idus). Both excellent angling fish, both predators and both can grow quite large. They can be caught on bait or on a fly. (See also the chapter on fish below.) The Waal is a big river that flows with about 7km/h most of the time. Although this doesn't sound like much it is about three times faster than the average person can swim (as I discovered myself when I misjudged a wave last autumn...). The speed of the river combined with the size and number of the big cargo ships makes fishing the Waal something else. There is nothing like looking 3 stories up a pusher tug while an enraged winde tries to strip all line from your reel. On the other hand because the Waal is so big it never becomes crowded; it shows the wide open river landscape, that I love, at its best. In recent years concerns with floods has led to more and more land between the dikes and the river (uiterwaarden) to be returned to an uncultivated state, the idea being that wood and reedlands will hold the water much better than meadows. As a result long lost fauna is back. Even the beaver found a home (with a lot of help) near Nijmegen. |
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So there they are, the four rivers fished by VierStromen:
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The boat, the VierStromen, is a Rasz 750, build by Voscat. It is an aluminium boat designed for charter fishing on the rivers. It is powered by a JetPac: a combination of a waterjet and a 150 hp diesel engine in a housing. This JetPac is mounted behind the boat similar to an outboard. The 150 hp jet and a planing hull make the VierStromen a quick boat.
The VierStromen is designed for comfort and manoeuvrability.
The cabin is heated so even the best pike season, the winter, can be fished in comfort. |
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 The VierStromen; compact, nimble and well fitted out. |
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All species of fish that can be caught with a rod and line swimming in Dutch waters, can be fished for but the emphasise will be on fish of prey. Species like roofblei, snoekbaars, baars and to a lesser extend Snoek. I list their names in Dutch to ad a bit couleur locale, after all you are planning to fish in The Netherlands. But maybe a translation table is in order so here it goes. Fish names:
I think these are all the fish you are likely to encounter on one of our trips, however some will be rare. Like the bleak and dace. These species love clear easy flowing waters and although water quality is high that doesn't mean the rivers are clear or placid. Fish in the rivers tend to be on the heavy side. There is plenty of food and space. A lot of fish in enclosed waters like ponds stay small because of overcrowding. No such problems in the rivers. Fish also need to grow big to withstand the currents. This means that it is not difficult to catch a big fish on any of the rivers. A bit of experience, and this is where the skipper comes in, will help to reduce the time needed to experiment but it is not technical by any means. The takes, for instance, are never subtle: no light vibration of the rod tip but strong pulls that really bend the rod. If a fish comes knocking you will know about it. |
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Asp. To give you an idea of its size; the reel is about 14 cm from the top of the spool to the end of the drag knob. This one did like that 8 grams fluo spinner.
The portrait shows one of the asp's distinguishing marks; the corner of its mouth is situated below the eye. This means that the asp has a very large gob indeed. © VierStromen |
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The other extreme: a very small asp caught on a fly. This portrait shows the other distinguishing mark of the asp quite well: the inverted V shape of its lips. © VierStromen
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A massive ide. Fishing mate Roland hooked it on an ugly but effective fluo spinner #4, 8 gr.
Note the bulldog like head a sure sign of a big ide. This one was 56 cm. © VierStromen |
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Because it is a beautiful fish a couple of portraits extra. Ide, 56 cm and 1,5 kg, caught in the Maas. © VierStromen
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Pike, 116 cm. Caught while trolling a Super Shad Rap. It was storming that day and nothing much was happening until we decided to troll the lee of a small island. Suddenly the screen of the fishfinder lit up: we had found the fish. This lady apparently knew all along. © VierStromen
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To paraphrase a quote from the film Jaws: "We need a bigger net", 64 cm of potbelly barbel caught in the Waal.
This one is caught on a fixed lead set-up with cheese (Old Gouda) for bait. © VierStromen |
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The shape of a barbel's head helps it to stay in one spot in the current. A bit like a wing on a formula one car. © VierStromen
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A zander fell for a spinner. The place, a subsurface dam. The time, 15.00 in full sun... © VierStromen
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If you know nothing of sportfishing a fishing technique is basicaly a way to present a certain bait to a certain fish in a certain way (yes, that is very clear.) Because different fish eat different food not all fish can be caught the same way. In fact a whole host of techniques has been developed to present the bait to the fish. These techniques are a source of never ending joy to fishermen and the main reason for the existence of sportfishing magazines.  A beautiful perch makes for a beautiful picture. © VierStromen There are four main techniques of fishing with artificial lures:
CastingCasting can bring a lure within striking range of the fish while the boat stays in open water. And because we fish the lures from the shore towards open water they seem to be more effective.It is usually only in the first meter that we are able to fool the fish into believing that our lure is a somewhat stupid baitfish, so you really need to park your lure within 10 cm from the shore. Takes are ferocious. Because we need to fish so close to the shore it is inevitable that lures will hit the rocks sometime. Because of this it is best to use metal lures for this kind of fishing. Quick starting spinners work well. TrollingTrolling on the other hand is very much effective on large open water. It is the technique to use when searching for fish. In the Netherlands every fishermen is allowed to use two rods at the same time. This means that we can use 10 rods, with 10 different lures to search the waters. The main ingredients while trolling are, diving depth of the lure used and trolling speed. These two are connected. When lures with a swim lip are trolled the pressure on the swim lip determines the diving depth: the more speed, the more pressure, the deeper the lure will dive. More or less the same goes for sinking lures only here the speed prevents the lure from sinking. I do not recommend using sinking lures because when one fisherman has a strike all lines must be taken out of the water. This means that four people need to reel in nine lines, which takes time. Enough time to let at least one lure sink to the bottom and entangle itself in an old mattress. With floating lures all lures will come to the surface and wait patiently to be retrieved.VerticalVertical fishing or verticalen is the way forward when hunting deep swimming zander. It is a technique developed for deep slow flowing waters. Shads or twisters with hefty jigheads are used. These are lowered straight down to the bottom. They are fished by lifting them about 20 cm and letting them down. There are different flavours in lifting the jig: fast in one go, in two goes, a fast lift followed by a slow one etc. What is important is that movement is controlled at all times and that the lift is short. Takes range from savage to very gentle. Gel spun lines are recommended.This is the only fishing technique in which less is more. The lure does the fishing, not the angler. It can do so because shads and twisters are designed to move in the slightest current. All the angler has to do is move it gently through the current. In all other techniques the angler can improve the movement of the lures by jerking or varying the retrieve speed, all that only ruins the action while verticaling. A special branch of vertical fishing is diagonal fishing. This is more or less the same technique only now the lure is cast downstream and retrieved along a diagonal. It all starts with a cast down stream. Let the lure sink to the bottom with the rod pointing towards it. Then sharply lift the rod to the 11 o'clock position and hold it there until you feel the lure touch the bottom again. What happened is that the lure jumped up from the bottom and sank back all the while flaunting its tail. Weight of the lure and current speed determine how fast the lure will sink back. The big drawback of both these techniques is that they work best -or only- with a stationary boat, which means that searching a water may be a tedious affair. Having said that, they are effective and can bring a lot of fish in the boat when things are slow.  A nice bream from the river Waal. This one is 57 cm and caught using a swimfeeder. © VierStromen FlyfishingThe last technique is flyfishing. In flyfishing an artificial fly is fished with a special flyline and rod. A fly can be an imitation of an insect but on our waters it is mostly a lure or attractor. This means that it doesn't represent anything except from maybe a little fish. It has a lot of colour and movement and will suggest to the fish that it is edible. What is special about flyfishing is of course that the line itself is used as casting weight. A casting technique developed to optimise the use of the flyline's inertia and weight delivers the fly on target.The good news is that it is very well possible to flyfish the Dutch rivers, the bad news is that it has almost nothing to do with, let's say flyfishing a chalk stream. Water conditionsThe normal water condition here is in clarity and current equal to a chalkstream in full spate and then some. Sight fishing may be possible, especially on asp and on summer evenings on zander, but usually it is not. Most of the time it is 'chuck and duck' with heavy nymphs and sinktips. Having said that the fishing experience is unique. A pusher combination is about 6 meters high, 12 with containers and at times you will get to within 15 meters from them utilising their wake as the fishy predators do.It is possible to flyfish from the boat and from the shore but it must be said that four flyfishermen is a bit much on the boat. Wading is possible and probably the best option. On summer nights wading can be very effective because the fly can be placed right in front of the fish that then show themselves. WadingWading is a very exciting way to fish because of the suction created by the boats. The mentioned pusher combinations displace so much water that at times the level will drop with as much as a meter. This means that you will be standing up to your chest in water one second and 15 seconds later it will be around your knees or lower. All this water will come back at twice the speed after the combination has passed. This sounds pretty daunting but actually it provides an excellent opportunity every time a ship passes. The strong currents are were it's at. So what we do is chuck our streamer in as far as we can get it when the water recedes, leave plenty of loose line out and run back to shore when the water comes back, then strip like a maniac. Especially asp loves the turbulence.It is possible to tie my favourite flies on board and then fish them. If you have never tied a fly before, a flytying workshop is also possible. This kind of workshop is always included in the price, just let me know so I can take enough tying material. Course-fishingLast but not least a totally different technique, one I haven't mentioned before: course fishing.Since the seventies water quality in all rivers has gone up and toxic silt deposits have been covered with fresh progressively less toxic deposits. The result is that barbel is back. As you might know barbel is a truly formidable fish that has only one shortcoming, a shortcoming that it shares with bream and roach and small ide, it doesn't hunt lures. This means that we use different techniques to catch these fish: course-fishing techniques. The main technique will be swimfeeder fishing. A swimfeeder is used to deliver hook, bait and groundbait to the swim. Takes are indicated by a movement of the rod tip. Although an effective technique it requires the rod to stay absolutely still. If it moves takes will not be registered. This means that this technique cannot be used from the boat, it is a bankfishing technique. One of the most exciting ways to fish with a float is while wading. By throwing out groundbait in a steady rhythm a food trail is created. The bait is fished in this trail. More: |
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My name is Ewout Ossewold and I will be your skipper and guide.
I always liked to fish in the Netherlands, even with a fly although there are no salmonids in Dutch waters. (Well, when I say there are none I mean hardly any. My personal bests and only salmonids are a 15 cm grayling on the fly taken in the Roer river and a 30 cm brown trout. There are attempts to re-introduce salmon in the Rhine but don't hold your breath.) However there are plenty of other species.
The Netherlands is, as you know, one big estuary. Basically there are two main river systems: the Rhine and the Maas. The Maas comes up from France and is a pure rain fed river. The Rhine flows east to west and enters the Netherlands close to Nijmegen, the location of VierStromen. The Rhine depends for its water partly on rain and partly on melting water from the Alps. The scenery aside the rivers make for excellent fishing. They are, after terrible pollution in the seventies, cleaning up rapidly. Nowadays barbel, a bottom feeder, can be caught in the Waal; they are back in large numbers and healthy. With them all fish seem to enjoy a revival. More and more pike and perch appear and a new species roofblei (Aspius Aspius) is definitely booming. This is good news for us anglers because it can be caught on spinners and other light artificials, on bait and on the fly. It grows to around 100 cm and has an appetite to match. An abundance of fish doesn't however mean that they are easy to catch. The rivers are big and deep and knowing where the fish is a must. But even then it is never easy. I don't know about you but I think this is the way it should be. For me fishing is a thinking game, I love to solve the puzzle fish + fishing technique + angler's ability = a take. I find it most satisfying to get an angler to catch a fish and it doesn't matter whether that angler is a total beginner or a crack.
I am passionate about fishing and the Dutch river landscape. I organise fishing trips to share that passion. |
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The boat, the VierStromen, with the skipper /guide can be rented for 300,- euro a day. The hour of boarding can be arranged. For instance in summer it might be better to start late so the often very productive dusk can be fished. The location of boarding can also be arranged (within reason) and will depend on the river you want to fish or on the fishing technique you want to use. Included in the rent are:
Please note: fishing licence not included. 1: Included is the use of fishing gear present on board. There are two sets for every angler each for a specific fishing technique. The licence allows two rods per angler fished at the same time. However, the risk of loosing lures while verticaling or diagonaling are such that I must charge cost price for every lost item. 2: The included meal is simple but good. Something like a stew or pasta with a salad. But as far as the catering is concerned everything is possible (both to eat and to drink). I will gladly provide you with a quote. 3: included are coffee/tea, soft drinks, beer and wine. Links: |
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VierStromen is located near Nijmegen. Nijmegen is an old (roman) city close to the German border. Nijmegen is a modern city well aware of its history. This is most profoundly expressed in its main museum Het Valkhof, where roman finds rub shoulder with modern art.
Nijmegen sits on an outcrop of dunes formed in the last ice age overlooking the sharpest bend in the Rhine. This bend is so sharp in fact that you are not allowed to stay there for any length of time, you must pass it as fast as you can. So, no fishing there but it makes for a nice view on shipping. 15 kilometres to the north where the IJssel branches off from the Rhine lies the city of Arnhem. This city, or at least its heart, is only 60 years old. As you might know it was heavily bombed during operation Market garden (WWII). You might have seen the film 'A bridge too far' about this operation. That film, bye the way, was filmed in Deventer, another picturesque city this time on the banks of the IJssel. Several of my schoolmates starred as extras in 'A bridge too far', I alas looked too healthy or too Dutch (apple cheeks, perhaps?) to be picked: my 15 minutes of fame out the window. Back to Arnhem. It is a nice city and I would have liked to post a link to their tourist information web site but in all their wisdom they have decided that only people able to read Dutch are worthy of their attention. Instead try one of the links below to get more info. If you are looking for a place to stay try this site for a B&B: B&B in the province of Gelderland Or travel on electrons and sample the sites before you leave: Virtual tourist: the province of Gelderland. Links: |