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Fishing in the Netherlands - What do I need?

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The Legal Requirements Disclaimer, this is not legal advice, you need to verify with the relevant authorities before fishing In the UK anglers need to have a Rod License, the same is true for The Netherlands, so here is my experience to help any anglers coming over the water to fish here. UK Rod Licence = VISpas A VISpas is required prior to fishing any waters in the Netherlands.  More information can be found here (English version) http://www.sportvisserijnederland.nl/vispas/vispas-english/ There is a very handy PDF guide to which type of VISpas you require, that can be found here: http://www.sportvisserijnederland.nl/files/11631-vispas-broch-eng-v03definitief_4885.pdf How to order your VISpas:  https://www.vispas.nl/?lang=en-GB Another useful guide that I found was one by blogger, MasterBlanker, here is a link to his blog, please note these pages are from 2010 and are centred mainly around Amsterdam. http://www.masterblanker.com/2010/12/10/fishing-in-holland-an-

Happy New Year, Happy New Country...

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Well it's been a few months since my last fishing trip and a lot has happened in that time.  Christmas and New Year have been and gone for another year and I moved to the Netherlands with work. I'll still be back in the UK for some of the festivals I fish with the Match Fishing Scene and Maggotdrowning lads and hopefully later this year I'll be experiencing some Dutch Lakes, polders, commericals and rivers. With this new country I'm luckily enough to live with a canal right outside my front door and of course the latest big thing in fishing is "dropshotting".  So my Christmas present to myself was a dropshotting set up. I'll keep you all up to date with my adventures here in the Netherlands and hopefully the capture of my first Zander! Happy New Year all, tight lines for 2016! Lewy

MFS - Munkees vs Shandies, The Glebe, 11th September 2015

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The final day and the Munkees have it all to do today in order to claim victory.  The night at the Longshoot was quiz night and one team named themselves, "Munkees Nil"... that was a Shandie team.  There was plenty of cheating going on with google and shazam but hey we'll ignore that.  The highlight of the night was definitely the quiz masters version of Bruce's Play Your Cards Right.  Poor guy had to content with very loud cries of "higher", "lower" and "you get nothing for a pair in this game"! Those leaving after the quiz were all given a warm, "Good byyyyeeee" by the lads! Again, Pool 1 was were most wanted to draw and weights yesterday on the other pools were still down. The Draw I drew for Sconey and managed to bag him a peg on Pool 1.  My home for the day would be pool 4, peg 73 which saw a low weight of 30lb yesterday.  My Shandie match up was with Andy Day.  It would be a tough ask but I'd give it my best s

MFS - Munkees vs Shandies, The Glebe, 10th September 2015

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Day 2 and a few sore heads after a long night at the Longshoot.  Pool 1 had fished very well yesterday with all but one angler getting a 100lb plus net.  Weights on the other pools were well down  with some top anglers catching low weights from know good pegs. Again, Sconey had the draw all ready and today would be the 2 vs 2 round.  Paired with Sconey against the ever lovable Pikey and Hathers. The Draw As expected everyone wanted to draw on Pool 1.  I drew for our 4 pegs and we were all really pleased to see Pool 1 on our peg numbers.  I was very pleased to be on Peg 12, the peg next to my previous days fishing. Set-Up The feeder rod was still clipped up and the right distance.  I decided to also set-up a bomb rod for bomb and pellet as Chris Martin caught well on it yesterday.  Again, 5 metre line and a lovely looking margin line to my right. All-In Taking a learning from yesterday and Neil's (NS69) great start from the 5 metre line.  I started there and bagged a fe

MFS - Munkees vs Shandies, The Glebe, 9th September 2015

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It was with great excitement when the alarm went off at 6am that is was time for the Munkees vs Shandies at the Glebe in Peckleton.  The journey up the M1 was a pain especially the 50mph "average" tax, sorry speed scamera's.  It was great to see so many of the lads at the draw and the competitive spirit was alive and well with plenty of banter. Calum had baked another Munkees / Shandies MFS carrot cake... top job matey! The Draw Sconey ran through the draw, already organised all the pegs with an 'M' on for Munkees and an 'S' on for Shandies... simples!  Today would be a 4 vs 4, section of 8 competition. The envelope that we drew was for Pool 1 and Peg 11 would be my home.  My neighbours for the day Neil and Chris Martin so there would be plenty of banter. Set-Up My match plan was going to be keeping it simple revolving around the 5 metre line, margin and feeder. The bait list was a little long but to cover the options.  Sweetcorn, hemp, dead

Sea Fishing, Isle of Wight, 8th August 2015

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The motley crew! A good friend and work colleague Dugald Henderson has just retired from working life at Shell so we all decided to descend upon Dugald and his family at their home in the Isle of Wight. So why is this on my fishing blog?  Well, Dugald being a great sport and agreeing to let 9 of the team including families stay at there magnificent Grade II listed property on the Isle of Wight had also organised a full weekend of activities for us which included a half day out on the water with Rob and Black Rock Charters . Now I'm a little bit prone to sea sickness so I was filled with joy and trepidation for the chance to catch some fish of the back of a boat.  All precautions where taken including a very early alarm call to take my pills two hours before the charter.  Believe me, after a night with the Henderson's, free flowing drinks, that was a very tough call! We all gathered in the harbour at 8am and were warmly greeted by Rob and permission was granted to boar

How End Fishery - 2 Dayer, 2nd August 2015

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Sunday morning and a few soar heads after a late night up drinking with the Lewy and Dean comedy duo!  No football this year, just plenty of burgers and sausages to go with plenty of salads, pasta and crisps... oh, I forgot beer and vino too... A few of us crashed on the couches in Pebs lounge which was appreciated.  It was definitely a race to get to sleep first as Dean's snoring was pretty much like a steam train! No comments about my snoring, I must not snore... ;-) The Draw At least today I knew I'd be on Yasi's lake, so what came out of the magical draw bag?  Yasi's Peg 6, an area I've not fished before. Set-Up No rods for Yasi's, only the pole required and again with plenty of time to set-up I plumbed up the following lines: Line to the far bank with around 12 inches of depth Line down the far and near shelf Line in the track, full depth and shallow Margin line on top 2 to my right I had 5 pints of casters left from yesterday after only