Who are you and where are you from? 

My name is Wim (Willem) Buschman, and I am from Amsterdam (born 1968 but feel 1988 and often 2005). 

In less than 10 words, what kind of fisherman are you? 

Tinkerer, experimenter, nifty solutions, ultralight, tongue in cheek, no bollocks. (10 words!!!! HAH!) 

Who taught you to fish? 

Gramps. Well, he taught me to tinker, because he was a cheapo that initially had me fishing with a bamboo stick and a pigeon feather as float. He sometimes used safety pins as a hook, used the metal from wine-bottle corks as lead, corks as dead bait floats and fed bream to his cat. 

When I started to out-fish him his dislike for me became apparent. I fished, almost daily, from my six years old until I got a girlfriend at 15…

Most of my fishing is self-taught, and having ‘every day is a school day’ as my credo, I am always curious. I love to learn from better fishermen.

Most memorable day on the water?

Two years ago: the day I caught a 51cm perch on a worm, having been fishing again for only three weeks after not having fished for 35 years. No net, no experience, a 3-metre bridge, and this lunker. It pushed a button that still is being pushed.

We all have a story about the one that got away. What’s yours?

Several. Starting fishing after such a long time, with gear that is so light and sensitive compared to the gear I had as a kid, made it difficult. 

Best story I think is fishing for sturgeon on a commercial, which means you catch 50-inch sturgeon effortlessly, so for that matter no fun at all. But! One of our mates got into a struggle with a sturgeon, and that fight took 15 minutes (at least), and the moment the fish surfaced we were in awe. Humongous! 90 inches? 100? We tried to land it with the four of us, eventually netted it, and were already high fiving. The Jurassic Sturgeon broke through the landing net. For the rest of the day we were quite silent. 

What’s your go-to set-up?

Depending on circumstances and target fish of course, several. My main set up for perch is my custom made Resilure rod, with a Matagi T-Russel Japanese blank, 6ft 8in’, 1.5-3.5g casting weight, with two small perch hard lures cast in resin in the handle (vanity!). This is my UL perch killer with which I feel as if I can cast a 2 gram jig in a mouse hole. Shimano Stradic 1000FJ at the back end. This Ultralight set up is not a wasp set up. I have landed >90cm pike, 60cm+ zander and 40+ perch with it.

Ned rigging is mostly my starting point, and for that I use Z-Man ned rigs, skirted or not, and Z-man Elaztech baits in different varieties.

When jigging my main jig heads are Spro/Gamakatsu and the Z-man HeadlockZ, dropshotting with Gamakatsu hooks, T and C-rigging with Decoy offset hooks (these are thin and hook up perfectly for weedless fishing).

As said I am a tinkerer, so I will always prepare in such a manner I can easily change tactics.

When fishing the set-up is only complete with an Anglers Only cap, pair of AO sunglasses etc. With a bad hair day, not fishing, the caps are perfect as well!

You’ve got one day left to go fishing. Where and why?

With Adam Jones aka @londonperchfinder (me abroad fishing mate), you and Brett Davies aka the @the.fishist, somewhere near a lock in London, wasping our arses off and having a blast. Why? No answer needed.

Maybe I will take my love Suzan as cheerleader, because it is my last day.

Species you’d most like to catch but haven’t yet?

 Zeebaars!

What do you do when you’re not fishing?

Work as a sales director in Amsterdam, have a really nice and loving life with Suzan, her kids (2 x 9 and one 15 years) and my kids (20 and 22 years), playing the bass in a BritPop-like band (‘Roles’), fantasizing about fishing and tinkering. Oh, and photography! My creative outlet.

Tell us something surprising about you.

I am shy. No, I learned to cover up my shyness. I could read at 4 like I read now so was a bit ‘different’, am ginger, had braces, freckles. This resulted in a big mouth and a brain filled with words. Advantage: I still know I am shy. The rude guys mostly do not know they are rude. And I can be rude. Wim-Wim situation.

And finally, where can we follow your fishing adventures? 

On Instagram @baarsbaaz and @gingerperchfindingbossez, on Facebook Baarsbaaz B Zaandam. I have TikTok because of the twins, but will not ever share that (thank me for that).