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Land of Ghow, Halebeke Belgium my first 40

25/06/2006

25th June Land of Ghow, Halebeke Belgium.

The memory of this day night is still fresh in my mind, what a mix up bag of emotions both happy and sad.

After a nasty row with the misses I drove at a consistent high speed of 180km down through Holland and into Belgium. Normally to get to my first destination Zelzate the journey would take 2 hours but thanks to a new style range rover I raced with all the way there in just over a hour. I didn’t care I was too angry and upset. The fishing trip was totally last minute as a way of escaping reality. The dreaded break up!

I arrived at Nicky Helsen house just after 9pm for dinner which his girlfriend prepared. Nicky is my best field tester and his remarkable skill has a awesome result. He only use a limited amount of bait and rarely fishes nights. He always wants to fish 15mm sweet baits in the early hours of the morning. Then packs up after he’s just landed another 20kg carp and then he’s off to work. Early bird gets the worm and he has mastered short session carp angling.

“20.4kg caught on our Chocolate boilie“

After a fantastic dinner and great conversation my body was more relaxed but my mind was confused and I didn’t feel like fishing at all. But it was too late I had a plan and another rendezvous with another field tester Sven at midnight. I left Nicky and travelled at normal European speed to Gent where I met up with Sven approx another hour later, we had a beer and talked strategy. This lake is strictly no night fishing. Our plan, was to set up at night, in complete silence with no lights and recast our rods out at first light. Why, well the night fishing patrols’ are actually the Belgium armed police force and after hearing a nasty story the last thing in the world is to be caught by one of these guys. Flash light and gun in your face while you put down and then escorted off the lake to the local jail. Risky business just to fish this water after dark, but the rewards for anglers become worth it. For Sven this was his backyard and he had a few tricks up his sleeve to out smart them.

“Sven with a19kg carp caught on GLM“

We striped our fishing gear down to the bear minimum and used carp porters to quickly run across roads and through tracks in the dark. We needed to travel 4km before we got to our fishing spot through the woods watching the police patrols pass by whilst we are camouflaged in the bushes and then running across into the next section. Finally we came to our spot only to find another carp angler in our place. Sven was livid with this and said the angler in question disrespected the lakes code never to fish day and night, it always brings to much attention to that part of the lake and patrols become to regular. All I could see was him arguing to a bush. The unwelcome carp angler was so cleverly hidden away in the bush and bank vegetation there was no way you would ever know he was there especially from the path a few metres behind. But Sven new the hot spots well and this particular swim was the closest point to an island at about 80 yards out, a long chuck but with the help of a throwing stick he could get a line out to each side and bait up.

In the end we settled for a swim about 50 yards down the right hand side, my bivvi was about 3 meters to the right of his. Sven was the quickest to set up and retire early. Me on the other hand cursed and sweated trying to erect my bivvi in the dark and sort my tackle out in pitch blackness. I’d never done this before and I was stressing out big time. I was so tired, I looked at my watch to see it was 3.30am jeez once the tent was up, I was in my bag and a sleep in no time, I’ll will get the rods out at first light so I thought.

Sven was up at first light around 6am, he said before that the lake stops fishing at 9.30 never has a 20kg carp been caught later than that. Only the 30’s come out during the day. So he was up and casting both rods out to the left towards the island. I had approx 1400 acres of open water in front of me and a weed bed of 15 metres in the margins before you could get to open water.

My rigs of choice were both designed for toughness and perfect presentation on landing after a heavy cast. The long distant leadcore popup rig is a size 6 barbed hook with in turned eye. The leadcore hook length is coated in clear tubing so it doesn’t damage the carp on fight and lays flat every time its cast out. I run a semi fixed set up, bolt action rig that was strong enough to put pressure on angry carp. As for bait I soon realized I had no way of getting my free offerings out, we came so bare of tackle and I have never had much success with a stick.

One thing I have a huge amount of confidence in is fishing singles. So I opted for a Tutti Megafish popup and I personally prefer to use the Amino Liquid Food as a dip for my hook bait, clip, lead and leadcore. Using a 3oz rough coated lead I can dip my whole rig into this bottle and drain it off. Once I have removed the rig, I sling my rod over my shoulder and cast out. Simple but WOW, have I caught so many great carp on this method.

Sven woke me up just as day light broke but my eyes were at the back of my head and didn’t give a sod about waking up and doing anything. Using great skill and pin point accuracy he placed both rods where he wanted them and then used his stick to fire about half a kilo of Red Shrimp & Garlic boilies around his hook baits.

When my alarm went off on snooze again it was close to 8am and now I was up ready to get started. The left hand rod on first cast only found weed and after two further casts I ended up leaving it not wanting to thrash the water with splashes. The right I used a house on the far side along with tops of trees as a bearing and cast out as hard as I could, first time the lead hit the bed with aloud clonk. I pulled back a foot and felt my lead over clear gravel and watch the rod tip knocking. Perfect!! Then I quickly slipped back into my warm sleeping bag with confidence that one rod was fishing well.

The take came at 9.28am on the gravel spot rod, she ripped off line and my sounder box screamed in my ear.
I immediately jumped out of my bag put on my waders and waded out to my two rods perched up high out of the water on bank sticks. The margins here were too high to have your rods on the bank and the vegetation was too thick so we had a communal entrance to the lake down a slope and about 2 metres from the bank where our rods were. I picked up the rod and wound into a solid force of weight, but there was no fight I was dragging what felt like a dead fish or the biggest bream I had ever caught in my life. Sven was now at the edge of the lake with a big smile on his face. He shouted “is she fighting” and I replied no and then he said, “oh its defiantly a 20kg fish then” This I didn’t want to hear, now my legs were shaking with the idea I was going to catch my first 40lb carp. I asked how he knew that and his reply was that all the old forties that were regularly seeing the bank know what the procedure is. They wise up to fighting come in and know that they will be on there way back in a short and painless time. The younger and less experience carp fight like dogs with fear and death lurching in their minds. It was an interesting theory and I was playing a dead weight happily realing back line on to my spool. The carp hit the margin weed bed and everything locked up. The fish rolled on the surface and Sven was right she was a monster, but stuck and there was no way I could pull her through the thick weed and into my net. As any decent carp angling buddy would do, he grabbed the landing net, stripped and swam out to the stranded carp. After a few heart pumping seconds the carp was safely in the landing net and Sven was swimming back to shore.

My first Belgium 40lb 20.01kg Leather Carp 44lb British weight, what I realised was that this fish was damn heavy and the bank was not flat to sit still holding a long slippery bar of moving soap. The fact I broke my second finger on my right hand a few days before and didn’t find out until a week later also didn’t help, Jeez she was heavy, awkward and I was in pain.

Time to get back in the water, so my feet can sit on a flat bottom and my legs and back can take the weight, but that wasn’t as easy as I thought.

Struggling to get my footing and my balance right, at least if I drop her its in water and not on the bank and the carp being weight free in the water helps you get set up for a great picture quickly and with minimal effort.

"The Perfect picture of my 1st 40lb Belgium Carp known as the Long One, top weight of 23kg down in weight, at 20.3kg 44lb UK one I’ll keep and cherish till the day I die."

Still struggling, at this point I was on a knife edge and felt that I was about to fall backwards tippling over off balance.

As you can see it’s a beautiful lake, Sven estimates there to be 200 carp over 20kg and week later him and his fishing buddy caught 3 carp over 20kg and another 2 fish close to 25kg on the baited island swim uisng Red Shrimp and Garlic boilies, all baited in a scattering with the use of a boilie stick. All these fish are swimming around in a 1400 acre lake with a boating sanctuary closing off part of the lake, this is where the large residents live safe away from us carp anglers. Getting them to swim half the lake to feed requires a huge amount of effort pre-baiting and feeding regularly. This is achieved by baiting buddies, people not working and baiting whilst you’re away and you bait on there behalf together done correctly saves half the cost, time and effort. The rewards are truly awesome if you can get the carp to come out of safety to feed on your bait.

Maybe I on the other hand I was extremely lucky, as this was my first ever time to fish at this water and pull out a known carp in 1 ½ hours or I am a good carp angler who knows what right to do in each situation. My colleague said there was a gravel bar out in the lake that links the sanctuary to the island, was that where my heavy flavoured popup sat (first cast) waiting for a carp to pass by and have it. The sanctuary is over 200m away from where my rods were casted out. I like to think that the carp was pulled into my bait from the natural food source oozing into the lake and was happy to pick up the bait off a clean gravel plate. What ever happened I’m just very happy the biggest fish of my career came on the morning after a sad moment in my life.

Until next time good angling

Leigh O' Keeffe

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