With the upcoming popularity of private lakes in France I left Holland in 1998 to go and work in the commercial carp lake sector. I used to work on these lakes being a bailiff and during winter I used to work at a carp farm. Until the end of 2004 when I started to miss having a good social life. I decided to stop working in France and left for a trip to Brazil with my mates that winter. Enjoying the beaches and the beautiful nature in Brazil I wondered if I ever wanted to go back to the stress full life in Europe but to all good things comes an end. My visa expired after 6 months and I had to go back to Holland. As soon as I came back to Holland (July) the carp bug hit me again and I started shopping around for a lake with some good fish. Easier said than done in the north of Holland where secret lakes still exist and carp anglers don't have loose lips!

The fishing scene had changed a bit since I left for France in '98, carp fishing has gained popularity big time in the north of Holland and some of the lakes are getting really hard. As usual the lakes with the big ones especially. Well where I had been spoiled in France for the last 6 years I couldn't just go out to catch doubles and twenties. I needed a bigger motivation. The goal would be to catch my first Dutch carp over 20kg.

The lake

My mates told me about a 50 acre sandpit that contains fish up to 55lbs about 30 a min. drive from my house. I couldn't believe my ears! 55lbs!!! Awesome stuff. They informed me there where plenty of back up fish too. Depending on the time of year there are half a dozen or so 40 lb+ fish in there and all together over 40 30lb+ fish. Most of these fish are commons. The anglers have stocked some mirrors a couple of years ago. These fish go op to 30 lb now. There are about 100 fish in the lake and tonnes of bream (quite a few double figures). I had been told that one fish a week is a result there(most people blank). After visiting the lake a couple of times(without rods) I decided this lake was going to need a good baiting campaign with a bait they hadn't seen before to improve my chances (side note, at the first visit to the lake I saw one of his biggest residents one the bank at a whopping 50lb 6oz).

The bait

What bait to use? Where there wasn’t a great selection of quality bait in Holland at the time and pre-baiting with ready mades full of preservative and chemical flavours doesn't bring the best results, I needed a different solution. I needed a good quality fishmeal based bait that would pull and keep the fish on the bait as fast as possible where I only had half a season to do some damage.

In august on the wedding of a friend of mine I had a chat with a Belgium friend and he said that he could sort me out with just the bait I needed. I had some earlier experiences with his bait by fishing with my friend Bob Davis at a French reservoir who gave me a load of these fishmeal freezer baits (I ended up using this bait for the rest of that year kindly supplied by Bob and James). That was the bait sorted!

Time to go to work

After a two week baiting period where I prebaited most of the lake's swims I did a first session of 48hrs which resulted in a blank. I wasn’t very worried because I hadn’t seen any activity and was confident that the fish had eaten the bait I had been pre-baiting with.

Fifteen kilo's of bait and three days later I was back for a 36hr session. When I arrived at the lake there was only one other carp angler on. He had only done one night that didn't see him any action. The swim I wanted to fish was vacant, this swim gives a great view of the lake and if there was any activity I would be able to see it.

When I was setting up my gear(loads of it!) a fish lumped out at the far margin and an other followed about 40yrds out. The wind was south westerly and was blowing a little ripple towards the other side of the lake (the fish don’t really follow the wind here because it’s quite deep and sees a lot of angling pressure). It seemed like I had a good change of catching a fish as they where pretty active.

I would find out later that these where the only two fish I would see jump that session and for a long time coming.

After setting up my rods with some 4” braided hook links, size 4 Drennan super specialists and some 6oz inline flat pears I boated out my rigs to the places where I saw the fish jump. Because I had mapped out the lake with an echo sounder on a previous visit I had a pretty good idea where to putt my rigs. The first rod went to the far margin on a drop off that goes from 16ft to 23ft of water right next to a big weed bed. The second rod went to the end of a big plateau that sticks out of the bank which goes from 3ft to 12 ft on the end and about 40yrds out. The only free offerings I’d putt where pva nettings with 6 boilies, one on each rod.

• 00.40 First take on the big plateau rod and the mainline snapped before I could pick up the rod(nice start on a new lake).
• 03.00 second take same rod which resulted in a lovely hard fighting 36lbs 12oz common. The first lump was a fact and I was more then pleased with a very fast result on a new lake.
• 02.15 Third take resulted in a 37lbs common that hardly put up a scrap but was an absolute stunner.
• 03.45 Fourth take fell to the far margin rod which after a 20 min fight from the boat resulted in a hook pull, most likely to be a 40lbs+. What a bummer (side note; I am fishing with 3,5lbs rods and am not afraid to put some pressure). Now I had two rods out of the game and 2 big fish in the sack. When I checked my rig on the rod which I had lost the big fish on I saw that my hook was bent out.

After making some new rigs with stronger hooks I caught a 25lb common and a 19 lb mirror on the next night and then it was time to call it a day. As usual I packed everything away and left my rods for last, just before I reeled in the first one, one of the reels started ticking very slowly I picked the rod up and I was in to an other fish! I couldn't believe it! What I also couldn't believe was that it snagged up after 10 seconds and I couldn't free the line. What a session! Loads of takes but losing too many. The pre-baiting was really paying off and I was having more action then any one else on the lake.

Second session

After baiting up one more week I went down for a four day session which resulted in a 36lbs 4oz common and 32 bream, nice. Because the carp weren't very active that session I had spent a lot of time on the lake with the boat and had found some new interesting area's which I started baiting up immediately. One of the places I’d found was the corner of a deep shelf that is 22ft deep and runs down to 30 ft of water to the right of it and 39 ft to the back of it. These deeper parts ran of to the middle of the lake where I had seen a lot of fish hanging on half water on the echo sounder most parts of the day. I know you can't tell which type of fish they are by seeing them on the echo sounder but it reminded me of a thing Bob Davis told me once. He said that fish on heavily pressured waters like to sit in the middle of the lake on half water away from the pressure of the anglers where they feel safe. So if the fish where coming out for a feed this was an area they where going to pass with there noseses close to the bottom.

The self itself about a 100 yards wide and 60 yards long, connecting to shallower area's and then to the bank. On the left side of the shelf is a big bump which comes up to 11 ft and is covered with weed.

The following five days I baited up the whole of the shelf with 8 kilo of boilies every other day and I was spreading an other 2 to 3 kilo at other interesting spots of the lake to make the fish find my bait everywhere.

The following session was planned from Monday to Friday and as the Monday approached a high pressure area moved in over Holland. The predicted wind was far from ideal and was going to start from a north west on the Monday to an east on the Friday.

The conditions weren’t great but I had bait going in now for over a month and I was confident that he carp where eating my bait.

When I arrived on the lake I saw that two other anglers where setting up to the right of where I wanted to fish. After a quick chat I went of to my swim and started to set up al my gear. Then in to the boat to mark off the corner of the shelf and the “bump” and to spread out 3 kilo of freebees over the shelf.

After hook pulling to many fish previous sessions I changed my rigs to 5 inch combi links being 4 inch stiff and 1 inch braid with a bent in line aligner and a size 6 talon tip gardner hook and a long hair ½ inch between the bottom of the hook and top of the bait. Experience from past taught me that this was the rig to go with when you fish for carp with soft mouths. I also dropped the lead weight from 6oz to 2 ½ oz to prevent that that weight of that lead was banging out the hook while I was playing a fish. My fishing had to be tuned again to the Dutch waters.

• 18.00 hrs everything was ready and set to go. I had slackened off my lines and used tiny little bobbins to avoid spooking the fish and previously attached a yard of lead core at the end for the same purpose. After the wind died some fish rolled on the back of the shelf and boosted my confidence for the night to come.
• 23.45 First take on my left hand rod (next to the bump) which resulted in a weird looking 13 lbs mirror .
• 02.00 Second take on my left hand rod which resulted in a 25lbs common.
• 06.00 Third take on the same rod again and the rod pulled in to a firm bent but before I could jump in to the boat the hook pulled. After inspecting the rig I couldn’t find anything that would have caused the hook to pull and accepted that you can’t make a rig that hooks every carp. After the take I stayed up and made myself a cuppa and a small breakfast. At first light I took my cobra and baited up both spots with some fresh boilies. Within half an hour of that my right hand rod screamed off and I was in to another carp. I jumped into the boat and went on a ride! The fish fought like his life was depending on it and kept me busy for a good 10 minutes before I could put my round boat net under neat it. Coming back to the bank my neighbour was already awaiting me in my swim.

He helped me weighing the fish and said it weighed 28lbs. The fish had a deformed tail but this didn’t make him fight less hard! It was a cracker and I was well chuffed with it.

Charley (my neighbour) told my his mate had lost one and he didn’t catch anything. After photographing the fish I had sacked up and a cuppa he left for his swim.

Not bad four takes the first night! I had a feeling that this could turn out in to a good session with maybe a lump! And a session it would be, the following two nights I had three more takes and fish being 24, 25 and 27lbs commons.

Where were the bigger fish? I was happy with the fish I was catching and especially because I was the only one on the lake that was getting regular action but I was here fore catching some bigger fish. I decided to put out a 50mm hook bait on a running rig with a 20 inch hook length on my left hand rod to see what would happen.

The night fell and I was enjoying a cuppa went my left hand rod gave a single beep. I wondered if the 50mm hook bait would work over here, I had had some great result on them in France but I had never tried them in Holland and also never tried them on pressured waters.

22.00 A single beep on my left hand rod again but this time a steady but slow run followed, it took a while before it hit me. You’ve got a take!!! I picked up the rod and felt a strong and heavy movement on the other end of the line. Quickly in to the boat and forward 5 on my electric outboard towards the fish. Arrived at the place where the fish was I saw that it had only moved a couple of yards away from the marker. The fight began as it moved steadily towards the deeper part of the lake pulling me after him. The fish stayed close to the bottom of the lake and there was nothing I could do about it. I went for a ride with him if I wanted or not. After 30 min or so the fish surfaced for the first time and by reflex I stuck my round boat net underneath it. The first kipper was in the net. Coming back to the bank my other Delkim gave a beep and another take started to develop.

As fast as I could I sacked up the fish and picked up my rod. This felt like another good fish and I jumped in to the boat again. As fast as I jumped in to the boat I could jump out of it again because I had forgotten my net . Back in to the boat and the fish was still stripping line of my Shimano LC. Fast forward 5 again and within 2 min I was above the fish. After 10 long minutes (my arms were sill hurting from the first fish) the fish surfaced next to the boat and looked even bigger then the first one in the beam of my petzel . 5 min later he gave up and I drew it into my net.

Back on the bank I weight the fish and the needle stopped at a whopping 41 lbs 6oz . I was over the moon and decided that I wouldn’t put my rods out again. Next morning at the photo shoot I found out that the first fish was a 35lbs 12oz common and after returning both fish I baited up the shelf with all that bait I had left (about 10 kilo) and had to leave for home but would come back as soon a possible. Saturdays were shit on this lake anyway. A night's work and would return.

The icing on the cake or carp

That weekend passed very slowly and I couldn’t wait to get back on the lake. Monday morning at 7 my alarm clock sounded butt I was already in the shower getting ready to leave. I was at the lake at 8.30 and the conditions looked unchanged.

After spreading a couple of kilo’s of boilies over the shelf and setting up my tackle I was ready for the first fish but nothing happened. Where I had a lot of fish previous session I seemed to have lost my patience a bit and started to worry that the fish weren’t in front of me.

After reeling in the rods I went for a tour around the lake to talk to the other anglers. I had plenty of choice because there where 7 other anglers on. It looked like it was a Saturday and after talking to the anglers I found out that news had travelled fast and most of them had a rough idea what I had been catching the week previous.

I returned to my swim just before dark and boated out the lines with a kilo of boilies on each rig. I decided to do this because I noticed that the other angler where only spreading 20 to 30 freebies a rod.

That night I woke up nearly every hour to see on my clock an other hour had passed and I still was without action. I wasn’t even picking up bream on my 20mm balanced baits. Then at 5.45 the rod on the corner of the shelf roared off and after a good scrap from the boat another big common was on the mat. After setting up the tripod I weighed the fish in on 43lb 8oz. Incredible.

I had just boated out my rig and the “bump” rod gave a couple of bleeps and the reel started to give off line. Twenty minutes later I returned to the bank with a fat 35lb 5oz common and my neighbour angler was already waiting on my swim. After a couple of photos of both fish he told me that nobody had seen any action last night. Why no fish were caught by any of the other I can only guess but I in my opinion they just weren’t putting in enough bait or the fish would only accept my bait because it was well introduced. The next night the long a waited prize came in the form of a 45lb 12oz my first 20kg+ in Holland........

With this fish I said goodbye to the lake for that year with the wish to return one day to chase my first Dutch 50? The motivation for then had gone and my money as well where putting in these quantities of boilies isn’t cheap. I don’t always use these quantities of boilies but in this situation on this lake it worked really well for me.