The MasterBlanker

It is with a heavy heart that I make this post. Today I was told by a colleague that when she was horse riding through Amsterdamse Bos that she had seen a lot of dead carp,  so as I couldn’t get over to the water during the daylight I asked a friend of mine Marcel if he could pop by and see what was up. We knew that there were issues in the water in Amsterdamse bos but not to the extent that greeted Marcel.

Hundreds and hundreds of dead carp. When Marcel popped round to the other part of Bos to check the main pool he was greeted by an even more grizzly sight. What he thought were white birds popping up on the water were carp, bream and other fish dead as far as the eye can see.

All of the white spots you see on the water are a dead fish. It is hard to believe that this was once a prolific water producing my best pike of 2009 as well as numerous others. Many anglers got a great deal of pleasure from fishing these waters. I even had the honor of watching a grass snake hunting in the margins late last year the 1st time I had ever seen this in Holland.

Fish sizes ranged from an estimated 15-20 lbs ( Average size)  to at least three 30lb + mirrors and even a huge eel of 5-6lbs which is a rarity that will be caught no more.

Anyway I leave you with a pic of Amsterdamse Bos in happier times as the pic below will not be repeated for quite some time to come.

What do you think ? Should the Bos have been dredged earlier ? should it be restocked ? should it be left for a year to recover ? use the posting button below and make a comment.

If you have other pictures of the Bos that you would like to share please send them through or post me a link and I will include it here. For more pictures of the disaster click here

UPDATE 05/03/2010

I have just returned from the water and I can confirm that the forest authorities have removed most of the dead carp. Loads still remain however along with dead eels and pike, more of the grizzly pics can be found in the new gallery here.

Well back from the 1st pike trip for the winter season 2009, and what can I say… it went well. Arrived at the lake far later than I anticipated due to oversleeping and not wanting to get out of bed. Anyway at 08:30 I finally arrived at the lake to find perfect conditions. I set up 1 rod with a dead bait ( mackerel tail) and one on lure ( a Rapala fat rap ). The conditions looked perfect and setting up near a fallen tree I soon had the dead bait out. The lure was prepped and sent on its maiden voyage. With in 20 seconds of retrieving the lure there was a massive swirl and there was a very angry double figure pike makings its way to the snags with my lure in its mouth. The rod I was using was a Fox trek 4 piece lure rod that has been to and fished on several continents. Well the rod was just about coping and for the 1st time this year my lure reel was singing as it released line. After 3-4 severe runs I finally had the pike under control. Or so I thought… Have you ever had a pike tail walk away from you ? well at close range it is not only spectacular but also gets you soaked very fast.

After finally subduing the fish I then had the deep joy of removing the lure that the fish had quite literally engulfed but I am happy to say that after a small amount of very minor surgery the fish swam off strongly. No pics ( sadly) as the fish had put up a tremendous fight and had been out of the water for 10 mins as I got the lure out from 6 inches down its throat I didn’t want to press my luck.

Other than that 2 other jacks in the 5lb class rounded off what was quite a successful few hours on a brand new pike water.

Fished 24 Hrs on the Amsterdamse Bos on the weekend. Not a bad session fish wise considering it was my 1st night session on the water

Had a really bad experience with a bailiff this weekend, here is what happened

was fishing a new water that I had never night fished and it was only the 2nd time I had really fished it. There was one other angler ( that I heard from his bite alarms) about 250-350m further along the bank. The banks were very over grown with forest right up to the water. My swim was very tight to the water with only 1m between the entrance of my bivi and the butts of my rods with the back of my bivi against the tree line.

About 23:00 I saw car lights in the direction of the other angler which was strange as there are no roads on that side and I thought nothing of it. Suddenly I saw a car coming straight along the bank (note not on the path) with it headlights on. I thought that they were on full beam but it turned out that the car was an SUV and so they were just high. The car kept on coming (at speed) and eventually I had to run towards it waving my arms shouting as I was afraid that if he kept on driving he would run over my rods or my bivi, or indeed me.

The car stopped and a bloke got out, by this stage I thought that I was about to be robbed or that there were a load of drunken miscreants in the car intent on trouble. The man has a torch which he shines in my face. By this stage, to say I am a little concerned is an understatement. I am really worried that I am about to be attacked and I don’t do violence, you could say I am allergic to it.

I shouted “who are you” (in english my dutch had failed me) and he shouts back “controle” ie license check. Anyway turned out he was a park ranger checking licenses.

Whilst I am showing him my licenses he sees my shaking hands ( i am not embarrassed I was scared, I was alone a loooong way from help, a car had just driven up at speed and someone had just shone a torch in my face) and he had the audacity to say “you shouldn’t fish here at night if you are afraid of the dark”

What an idiot….. I know that the dutch have a strange sense of humor but he made no friends that night. I am not afraid of the dark. I am afraid of groups of blokes in cars and of being run over.

With that he then left driving his suv along another path 30 years behind me at an estimated 30-40 KPH ( it is a foot path), if he had met a dog walker….

oh well on only the 2nd time I have ever seen a bailiff in 4 years so I suppose I would be greatful that someone is checking licenses.

If you are a bailif and you are reading this, think before you approach people late at night. You might cause them a lot of stress as they have no idea who you are and will think the worse.