Going Dutch – August 2012

by David Proudfoot

Peet Bogaard from Steenbergen, in the south of Holland established a new Netherlands record when he boated a rough shark, tope in the UK, from the Oosterschelde. Peet hooked the 1.6 metre long shark while fishing for bass. The fish was returned after being weighed at 20kg.

tope

We have had tropical weather at the start of August with temperatures reaching 31 centigrade, accordingly the beaches have been invaded by sunbathers, swimmers, kite surfers, wave surfers and sail surfers, even in the evenings the beaches are still full making life difficult for the anglers.

A few sole have been landed from the old Maas river recently, particularly at night with a rising tide. These flatfish give an initial knock and then keeps still on the bottom so if you miss the first bite you get a surprise when you reel in to change your bait.

The rivers near the estuary are giving us a few fish at the moment, only bass are along the open beaches being found in the breakers, sometimes in a foot of water.

The first of the competitions start in September; one of the first being organised by Delta Fishing from Stellendam which takes place on the first of September at Cadzand. This is on the Oosteschelde the first delta south from Europoort, competitors can expect, bass, whiting, flatfish, mackerel and small cod.

Work has recently been completed on Maasvlaachte 2, a reclamation project which has added around 4km of coast line. The new beaches are shallow with channels up to five metres deep, this will be interesting for bass in the summer months and cod in the winter.

Above the new Maasvlaachte you can see the mouth of the river heading for Rotterdam, on the north bank is Hoek van Holland and on the south bank is Europoort.
dyke

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