The MasterBlanker

A wise man once said, “bait is unimportant compared to watercraft, any bait if palatable will be eaten *if* the carp can find it”. These words have been the foundation of my carp fishing, however that is not to say that quality bait does not matter, it does matter and matter a great deal. My philosophy behind bait choice is that the bait must possess one of two qualities,
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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.

Just back from a successful session at the bosbaan, was meant to be a 2 day session but after catching 7 carp through the night topped by a 21lb mirror I decided to cut it short. For a weekend the baan was very quiet and even the rowers were strangely absent.

Anyway all fish were on CCmoore Meteor with a small stick of meteor and milkimin pellet complimenting the presentation,

trust me it did weigh 21, but sometimes it is the way you hold them