Where are the days when this was really a blog and not just a safety net of memories in case all the social media platforms disappear? Anyhow, as a good old Millennial, let’s go through the past year and see how the time has flown by once again.

January started with the traditional New Year’s bike ride with Willem, a new phone (upgraded from the iPhone 11 Pro to iPhone 16 Pro, as the battery of the old one was really getting weak, and I was happy to move to the more advanced camera system of the most recent model too), and with that a slightly new workflow (using Lightroom Mobile to export non-HDR images for Instagram and my own memories, negating the need of using Instagram’s filters, and simply finding my own style in Lightroom instead). At work (Telraam) I became the CTO (although in practice not much has changed in the beginning). In the evenings I kept tying flies – now it was time for dry flies -, preparing to the new fly fishing season. On the 9th of January we got the first real snow of the year, of course exactly on the morning when I was leaving to Dubai to visit my brother, so getting to the airport was a bit more stressful than usual. This time I flew during the daytime which was much better than the overnight flights the first time (still before COVID), and we spent 3 full days together, eating nice food (the first morning’s salmon truffle egg toast was still the best), drinking bubble tea, visiting – among other – the architecturally and art wise also very cool Louvre (and of course the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, this time in the golden hour), the tallest ferris wheel of the world, and meeting his girlfriend.

We spent the weekend of January turning into February (and me 40 – ouch…) in the high Ardennes in a cute wooden house. We made two nice hikes through the snow covered (and otherwise very cold and sunny) landscape, enjoyed the open (pellet) fire, good food (charcuterie board from the hosts, lunch from Peak Beer, and a birthday cheesecake from the bakery), and tried to get over getting old :D A few days later after passing by the already flowering crocuses in the botanical garden, we discovered the “best find of 2025” in Leuven, the FIKA LAB, where we had Swedish meatballs, amazing salads, and also the best coffee many times during the following months. I had a local night flight in Charleroi to refresh my night flying skills, but other than that, not much out of the ordinary was happening. I rode ~3 times a week on Zwift and here and there also outside, and I kept tying more and more dry flies. On the 21st I already tried fishing the Ijse, but everything was still very very quiet (and so the net stayed dry).

In March the fly fishing season finally started in the Ardennes, but this month was still very unproductive. (Except for me getting a new Vision Nymphmaniac Twintip 11’3″ #3 rod, which became my primary Euro nymphing rod for the season.) My first day on the water was on the upper Vesdre: a beautiful section, but I have not encountered a single fish. So the following week I decided it was better to go for a flight (sightseeing above the Ardennes) and wait for warmer waters. On the 20th I went to the Amblève but all I managed was one single lost fish this time. (Still, the weather was beautiful, and I had fun discovering the river, plus this was the last time this year that I fished without success.) Then finally on the 22nd I caught the first fish of the year in the Ijse (a nice chub), and on the 27th the first fish in the Ardennes: two beautiful 40 and 45+ cm grayling from the Lesse (unfortunately the big one jumped from my net before I managed a photo…). Since the season was only open for trout at this time, I was a bit annoyed about bumping into grayling instead. (Of course I was also super happy with the beautiful fish, but still.) The more I went fishing the less I biked (or played the bass), but I was super happy being out in the nature, discovering new rivers and learning new things “on the fly”. Spending so much time outside, looking at my surroundings (in contrast to cycling where I was mostly looking at the road) I observed as winter slowly turned into spring, and more and more trees started showing signs of (new) life.

I started April by making the product renders (in Blender) of the fresh Outdoor version of our Telraam S2 sensor, and doing some in-house IP testing in our bath tub ;) My first visit to the area around the confluence of the Lesse and Lomme also delivered two big grayling (still no trout!) – one of each river -, then my return to the Amblève finally delivered the first brown and rainbow trout of the season (and even nice big ones, plus a smaller grayling, making my first salmonoid trifecta complete). In the afternoon I also fished a section of the Warche, where I caught my first fish using a dry fly in 2025 (al the other ones were caught Euro nymphing). We made a day trip to Brugge (it’s been long since the previous time), cheered on some friends running the Marathon between Brussels and Leuven, and I also fished the Ijse multiple times. We had a nice dinner in the Louvain d’Anvers, and of course coffee all across Leuven (Madmum, Soigneur, etc.). At the end of the month I flew to Midden Zeeland for Lunch, then on the evening of the very same day, Liverpool became Premier League Champions again (after 2020), for the 20th time (including league wins from the pre-Premier League era) in their history. So apparently Slot was indeed a good fit to take over the team from Klopp. The next day I caught two very nice rainbows and a small brown tout from the Amblève before discovering another section of the Warche (without success there). I also bought another new rod, this time mainly for dry fly fishing, although it became my main all around rod over the second half of the season (especially abroad, along with the Twintip): a Vision Rivermaniac 9′ #5 Medium rod.

We went to spend the first two days of May in the german speaking region of Belgium, and while unfortunately we were a bit late to see the flowering narcissuses, I could fish two half days on the beautiful meandering small Warche upstream of the Lake of Butgenbach, which was definitely one of the most fun (and beautiful) places in Belgium that I fished in 2025. There was a mix of small wild, and larger stocked brown trout in the river, and the surrounding nature was also very scenic. It was actually really really hot in my old PVC waders, which made me finally commit to buying a set of proper waders and wading boots (both Vision Koski – still happy with the waders, the shoes were not very durable). I also started making fishing videos around this time, and created a whole new YouTube channel for them. It is really nice rewatching these in the off-season. My next visit to the Amblève was once again a great success, I caught many beautiful and large fish (including a 40 cm rainbow trout), but even though I saw the largest insect hatch of the spring so far, they were still all caught with a nymph. A few days later I had my last flight (taking an acquaintance for a sightseeing tour around Charleroi). I know it is a very fist world problem, but I kind of lost motivation for flying (which was in a big contrast to the motivation and fun I had fly fishing), even though I still think flying is cool and all, but it just costs too much and without flying farther to new destinations or doing a new rating (both of which would mean spending even more money) it does not give me the satisfaction as it used to. Flying was the biggest hobby in my life (except for the crazy cycling period in 2021) from mid 2019 until now, and I loved every moment of getting my PPL and doing various flights afterwards, making videos, and taking my friends and family flying, but it was not giving me enough new experiences lately. I am not saying I will never fly in the future, but I will not fly in the near future for sure. My next fishing outing took me back to the upper Warche, this time I took another fly fisher with me (whom I met at the Ijse the previous autumn), and we fished the river together: he was dry fly fishing, and I was nymphing. It was a fun day with nice conversations and of course a lot of pretty fish. A few days later I went back to the Vesdrewhere I started the season in March, but this time the river was full of (small) trout: I caught 27 of them (and lost/missed another 23), including – finally – some on the dry fly. This section quickly became one of my favourites, and I would return here also without the GoPro a few times. Another few days later I caught the first trout of the year in the Ijse too (after already seeing it eat from the surface a few weeks earlier) – it was unexpectedly beautiful for this tiny stream.

For the last days of the month we drove to France (this time even Clio drove for a bit) to spend some time with friends near the Lake of Annecy (with our home base villa literally overlooking the lake – top location for sure). While cycling was the main goal for the friend group (and of course nice dinners on the terrace), I had other plans. Fishing plans. We arrived a bit earlier to the area, so I started by fishing a few hours on the Fillière near Thorens-Glières. This was my first experience on a crystal clear small mountain stream, and that showed. Even though there was a beautiful mayfly hatch going on (before the arrival of the storm that cut the fishing short and got me completely soaked), all I managed was spooking a few fish. With the knowledge I have now I would have approached the fishing differently, but I still think this was a very technical section. Then on the first full day I spent the morning on the Fier just 10 minutes North of our villa, but again, all I managed was one spooked (big) fish. The river was (again) beautiful, but it was nothing like anything I had fished before, so I was feeling very lost at times, not knowing where I should look for the fish. Where I casted I found nothing, and – with my current knowledge I realise – I also probably walked past some actually good sections without trying them… The fact that the temperature was also very high and it was sunny with blue skies probably did not help. After my usual sandwich lunch I went back to a more downstream section of the Fillière, but all I found was amazing scenery devoid of any fish. At this point I was getting really glad that I had decided to book a guide for our upcoming trip to Slovenia (but more on this later), because all the confidence that I had built in the Ardennes over the past few outings was suddenly gone. The next day I went cycling with Hao and Steven so I also biked at least once, but I was definitely the weakest link this time. Still, it was a rather pretty ride. In the evening (or maybe it was another day, who knows) I went back to the Fier with Willem, but we had no luck. I was so puzzled by the fact that nothing was working, that I even tried fishing with a streamer, which I never do… Unsurprisingly with no success. On the last day I decided to get up very early to see if the morning hours might turn out to be more productive, and I finally found a nice mediterranean trout in a much higher, steeper section of the Fier. I was extremely happy with that fish, since I worked so much to find it (and I even lost the first fish on that morning, so the excitement/anxiety levels were high). I still don’t exactly understand why I did not find more fish in these rivers, was it the weather, was it my lack of knowledge, or was it just bad luck…