Went for a morning’s fishing on the river Linge, near Arkel. Cpt Toine was unavoidably unavailable, so had previously arranged a replacement fishing guide for us, who was excellent, having fished those waters for many years. All equipment was provided, we were fishing on lures for pike / perch and landed a Zander, which was quite a rarity. Frans was very attentive to my son, checking his lure, changing out for alternatives, checking the depth setting was right etc. Both Frans and Toine were very friendly and put my son at ease. This is a beautiful stretch of river - we came back a few days later and rented a boat from Toine for the day to cruise up to Leerdam and back. Highly recommended. Thanks for a lovely couple of days in our holiday!

The predator fishing season in the Netherlands starts on the last Saturday of May. Now what is more beautiful than to start it on of the Dutch rivers with a guide that knows his way around.
So this year I went with Toine to a coffee with cream colored fast flowing river, this massive stream on steroids does not hold many secrets for my guide of the day. With the ease of a experienced captain he maneuvered the fully equipped Starweld through the waves. As soon as we arrived on the first spot, I managed to hook two zanders in less than 10 minutes and missed number three right after that. What kick to start the day like this! After some dropshot and jigfishing, Toine suggested to try some spin fishing. We caught quite a few asp up to 65 centimeters which is not so common early in season. Lures and high quality rods are available on this boat by the way!
To top it off we had some fiercely active perch at the end of the trip, I caught an old warrior on just 50 centimeters of water very close to the shore.
It was an amazing opening for me and plans to make another trip with Toine are already made. Thanks Toine I really enjoyed our little adventure!

Last week I spent a day with Toine Aarts on his boat on the river De Waal. It is clear that this is a river with a lot of zander and Toine knows his way around very well. Right on the first cast I already caught a big zander. Toine has a lot of knowledge and his boat is perfectly fine with several fish finders and a live scope. It is great fun to see that there is fish where Toine brings you and to see the fish attack live. I had a great day and we caught about 14 nice zanders, one asp and… almost a catfish. But we lost it on the surface.