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Frank Avezaat.

A rough Dutch season..... (part 1). Before I start: Writing an article in English is new for me, so if I wrote something that doesn't seem logical, I'm sorry for that. It was the beginning of February when Bob introduced me to Leigh, at a carp show in Leiden (the Netherlands). After a nice chat, Leigh offered me a place within his team. Without hesitating I decided to take the offer. At that moment I was angling for another bait company, but the conditions by Ocean Fresh were far better.My angling season started somewhere about April in Amsterdam, where I was living at that moment. I started fishing with the oily crab boilies on some of the canals in the city, almost every canal has is own population, but all the carps started swimming to the main lakes during the spawning season. Within a couple of days I caught a few little carps and my season officially started at that moment. “My first carp during the previous season!….“ Also in April, I passed the final exam and received my driver's license, a short month later I got my first car! A very nice station wagon, with lots of space for the rods and other stuff. I started driving through the country and located a few interesting lakes all over Holland. To be very honest, I really like the English carp scene, I absolutely like difficult lakes with their special carps. But here in Holland we've got so many lakes that it is possible to fish 500 years in a row, and you still wouldn't be able to catch all the carps, or see all the lakes. It's not easy to get a license for the known English lakes, so I'm focusing on the Dutch and French lakes, where it's a lot easier to get the licenses you need and you don't have to take the ferry to that bloody island : In the beginning of July, I started fishing on the lake where I ended last year. During my first night I received three takes. A nice little common took the bait and lost the fight, it was the second time I caught him in a year, but he was a little bigger this time. The second one came from the same right hand rod, somewhere about 03h15. This one was absolutely fantastic, a very magnificent mirror carp who looked a lot like a linear! Later that night I lost a fish in the weed, to bad but it was worth a shot. Both the carps I caught were twenties. “a very magnificent mirror carp who looked a lot like a linear!…“ During the day, I called a friend of mine and we looked at our chances on a very difficult lake, near the German borders. We decided to try it out and that same evening I arrived at the lake. Well, I hardly dare to say that it was a lake, 'cause it wasn't bigger than an acre! We both searched for a nice swim and ended sitting next to each other. Both sides of the lake had an island with a lot of bushes, branches and other interesting material. Kees decided to take the left island, and I took the right handed. I placed my left hand rod in the middle of the lake, where there were no branches and baited up both swims with a pound of 18mm Oily Crab boilies. The right hand rod was located near the island, underneath a nice snag. Somewhere about 02h00 I got a very aggressive take on my right hand rod, which was located underneath the snag. It took me a while to get out of the bivvy, but it was enough to get the rod on time. After five minutes I first saw the carp in the water, it looked like a small common. How wrong can you possibly be?! Kees told me he saw a big carp, instead of a small one and he was absolutely right! The weight scale told me it was a new personal record! I caught a 37lb 4oz common carp!!! “A new Personal Record!…“ “no words can express my feelings…“ Early that morning Kees took some photographs during the upcoming sun, and I released the carp into the green water of the lake. After the catch of this magnificent carp I drove home and had to go to work. I was not able to fish during the next few weeks, because of my work in Amsterdam, but later that season I started angling on one of the most difficult known Dutch lakes. My target was a big mirror carp called "the Painting", and I already knew that it wasn't going to be easy.   To be continued... Frank Avezaat