New, Dutch Ocean Fresheeeeee
Leigh O'Keeffe.
25th July Chantecoq Du Der, France
We arrived at our reserved space in the campsite on the Southern basin. After we finished unloading the car and setting up base camp I went to the guarde le peche office for a day ticket licence so I may fish the day section banks in the designated areas on my map. We picked this site because you can fish close to our tent. The spot for our base camp was pre-booked 3 months in advance. We did a tour of the area a few months before and booked the space there and then for this date. The lake was about 30m away from our tent, through a gate a down a gravel path to the water. Location was perfect and so was weather with a strong south west wind pushing the fish into the dam wall. Armed with Ocean Fresh shelf life Tutti Megafish & Green Lipped Mussel boilies I thought I was invincible after last months forty and would be in the fish very quickly.





“ (To the left the café bar), to the right our new home.“




Follow the path down to the waters edge. This is where I placed my three rods. I used a 2m blow up boat to row my baits out at three different lengths away from the bank in order to find the carp moving across my swim.






The best place to fish was unfortunately taken. The swim was about 30m to my right, where you could get your baits close to the dam wall and supports for the bridge. These Dutch anglers were well prepared with zodiac and battery motors, they used a bicycle with a back rack to swap out their batteries each night so they had maximum charge for the baiting up and constant landing of carp caught in that area. The largest fishing along side them was 18kg, they caught a lot of carp from that spot. The conditions were perfect with a string south westerly warm breeze in to a solid wall. The bridge is a walkway to the island and under it is the dam. Its wall is approx 1ft below surface water. That holds the southern basin carp population from venturing into the main lake. The supports are covered in mussels and are razor sharp, they use the boat to get the carp away from the dam as quickly as possible and net rather than hauling the carp to the bank. The biggest known fish is the “Big Common” at 30kg and was caught a couple of months earlier to our arrival, from the same spot I was fishing.

After trying absolutely everything and starting to feel a bit desperate I decided to row my baits out as far as my main line braid would allow and fish the far bank beach in attempt to catch the carp which moved along the far bank to get to the dam wall known as the beach area, they were defiantly not moving in between my lines it just wasn’t possible. No line bites nothing, that must be the only way the carp were getting to the dam. On two occasions I was back to the backing on the spool and had to drag the lead and line back to the bank, not good. So I tied a leader not and spooled up another 50m of braid on the already heavily loaded real.

Darkness on day 5 had arrived and out of no where and in complete silence my alarm sang a single beep, then another one shortly later. This is what happens when you catch a carp a great distance you just get bleeps like bream no ripping off of line or screaming takes just knocks and single beeps, due to the distance of the braid that’s a good sign. With mono I doubt you would get any registration at all there was a fish on and the carp would have to be self hooked and move 50m to the side before the alarm sang a tune.

I picked up the rod and started winding the 200m missing line back on my empty spool. By the time the fish was netted both of us we very tired, it was already pitch black and now we could not see anything. Trying to take a digital in complete darkness is hard work and with the high summer temperatures I was sweating buckets to hold the fish whilst we desperately tried to get the whole fish and my head into the picture frame. We did this by placing a headlamp as light indication to centre the photo. My first Du Der carp weighed 32lbs and I was ecstatic to get off the blank with a good sized fish.



" Caught on a Tutti Megafish 18mm bottom bait and a 15mm popup fished snowman style soaked in amino."

The next morning I was up at 5am I reposition the same rod back on the same position. My other rod was 20m to the right of the first rod that caught the carp, 30m away from the far beach shallows, approx 230m away from my bank. Between the first rod and the second I scattered around 2kg of mixed GLM and TM boilies and both hook baits had PVA bags of method and pellet mix. At 11am I received two single beeps on the far out rod and I knew instantly that I was into another fish. I picked the rod up, tighten the line and then ran backwards about 3m to make sure I had strike the hook home and was in contact with the fish. Its takes around 20 minutes just to get the line back on your spool and I had to constantly change hands due to dead aching arms. Eventually the fish came to the bank and my neighbour immediately recognised it as a fish over 20kg that’s why my arms ached.



" Caught with a Snowman Green Lipped Mussel boilie, weighing 44lb. My second fish over 40lb in one month from two different waters in two different countries, I was on cloud 9."

The day ticket to fish one week cost 90 Euro and you need three passport photos for the road licence and day permit. The camp site was 20 Euro per night + 10 electricity a week but we had our own power packs from the car and gas cookers. The toilets and hot showers were very nice, there was washing facilities for clothes and washing up and ice box for freezing items (not boilies). The nearest super market and large town was ten minutes drive, there were plenty of attractions and things to do with the family. The journey took from Amsterdam 7½ hours drive each way and a good navigation system will get you door to door.


Carp Paradise and a family adventure another fantastic place I recommend anyone trying, what an experience and at such a low cost. Try the day fishing its well worth it.

Leigh O’Keeffe