Sleattemer Gat - Sloten
Another canal-like venue joining some lakes together. The Deeper Pro came out again before we decided to fish here and we found around 1.8 m depth in the middle, going down to 1.3 m at the sides. A nice depth for the waggler :-)
We didn't have to carry the gear very far (about 20 m for me) and I landed on the right side end peg. I can't carry my gear too far with my bad back, and I don't want to aggravate it so early in the trip.
Today, I planned to fish just the waggler but also set up 2 pole rigs to fish at 10 m - in case the plan failed.
The waggler rig was a Drennan 4g Visi Wag 1, set to just trip along the bottom about 5m from the far bank.
The rigs for the pole were a Preston Chianti 4x14 for fishing on the drop, and a Preston Inter Carbon 4x16 for fishing down on the deck.
Expecting Skimmers, I mixed up a bag of Expo with a bag of Roach and Skimmers Natur and fed 10 balls across on the waggler line. I had a few casters, dead pinkies and hemp in the balls, and would loose feed hemp and casters over the top.
Short, on the 10m pole line, I just cupped-in 3 balls of groundbait - the same mix that I put in on the waggler line.
Starting on the pole, I was hoping I could put a few fish in the net really quickly - but I didn't get a single bite in the first 10 minutes. I switched over to the waggler and started catching straight away.
I started with a B711 size 15 hook but I was missing a few bites. Shotting changes made no difference and I bumped-off a few fish. I change to a size 13 B711 which cured the problem and I didn't lose any more fish.
Everyone else seemed to be catching a few fish on the pole, so things seemed to be looking good. I fed casters and hemp steadily through the day, and once, when a large boat came through and destroyed the swim I topped-up with another 4 balls of groundbait.
The wind was off our back, but very swirly and it was difficult to present the bait correctly at times. I think the waggler was the best method, and i proved to be good enough to take the money.
I had a reasonable day catching 57 fish for 6,200 g - just a little bit more than Roger :-)
Roger put together 6,050g on the pole, Nico and Marco both had 5,000g on the pole and Theo had 4,000g also on the pole. I was the only one who fished the waggler.
Sadly, no larger Bream showed up - I think you need to pre-bait this place as there is such a vast amount of water in Friesland and the fish can be concentrated together with some pre-baiting.
This area is definitely worth a try if you are ever up here - although not in the Summer - too many boats!
