Weekend Danny’s Carplake

Danny’s Carplake is a pay water located near Veldhoven.

This water is located in a beautiful piece of nature where you can really enjoy this challenging fishing water.

The water depth varies from meters to about 6 meters, and along the sides there are a fair number of obstacles in the form of overhanging trees and aquatic plants such as waterweed and filamentous algae, which fish can swim into,

It is therefore advisable to bring a boat to pick up the fish or to cast your lines because there is no casting from all the swims, there is a boat on the water but if there are several swims for rent you would have to share them with the rest of the guests. And you can only use your own boat when you have the whole water to yourself.

When fishing close to the obstacles, it is wise to stay close to your rods so you can cash in a take without allowing the fish to swim into the obstacles.

The swims on this water are neat and spacious, there are 4 large swims present these lend themselves perfectly to static fishing in addition there are several small swims around the water to find these are ideal for example to go pen fishing or stalking fishing with a single rod.

(When fishing close to the obstacles, it’s wise to stay close to your rods so you can cash in a take without allowing the fish to swim into the obstacles).

Day 1.

Klaas and I had agreed on Friday morning to leave at 9 o’clock, this because we had to come from the north of the country and we wanted to be on time at the water, this in order to enjoy a nice fishing weekend to the maximum.

We arrived at the water at about 11:30 a.m. where we called the owner to open the gate for us, the owner had to drive a bit to get to us so we had to wait about 10 minutes, this was not a problem since we were right on time and the weather was nice.

After getting well acquainted we walked around the water with the owner to get to know the water a bit and discuss possible spots, if you took a good time you could see bait plots in the form of nice light sand flats, under the overhanging branches you could also see several fish chilling in the shade.

After rounding the water, we first inflated our boats and got our rods ready, then we took out the rods and landed the spots right away to get the fish near our bait.

After we finished sailing out we had a quick dinner before setting up our tents, during dinner several fish showed off their beautiful jumps as did the sturgeon that swim here, unfortunately we didn’t get to catch them.

After some deliberation we decided to use swim 2 and 4 so we could fish the whole water, we decided to make our “base camp” on swim 3 nicely in between the swim so we were close to our rods and of course cozy to sit.

The rest of the afternoon remained quiet except for a few loose squeaks.

For the evening, we decided to place our tents close to the rods so we could be on the spot quickly in case of a take.

After dinner we had a drink and went to bed on time, it could be a busy night, you never know how things could turn out.

At 2 o’clock at night it was a full whistle for Klaas, after a nice drill Klaas was able to pull a nice carp over the net and the first fish was in.

After weighing and photographing the fish, the fish was allowed to swim again. At 3:30 a.m. I was able to net a nice carp, during the drill I woke up Klaas, we had agreed on this so we could help each other catch the fish, this is very handy in the dark when you are fishing far apart.

After capturing the fish on film and weighing them, we let them swim again. After these 2 fish it remained quiet and we had a good sleep.

Day 2.

After a nice night with the catch of 2 fish we had a nice breakfast at 9 a.m. with sandwiches and fried eggs, this is a good time to discuss the tactics for the coming day and decided to walk around the water to locate any fish and find new spots.

We decided to move the rods that had done nothing during the night to other swims in order to catch another fish. We fed the active swims with new feed and new hook baits to give the fish an extra trigger to fall into our trap one more time. Unfortunately, the rest of the day remained quiet and we did get to enjoy the sun and the beautiful view of the water.

At the end of the day when we were eating there came a few redeeming squeaks ( yea they do say sometimes seeing food is making food.) the few squeaks turned into a full run and I had to make a dash for my rod to reel in the fish.

After a nice drill we were able to net a nice carp of 13 kg, this was a spotless fish just like the other fish we caught over the weekend.Late in the evening another rod went off this one was for Klaas as we fished run to run.

The catch was a nice old mirror carp, after immortalizing the fish with a few pictures we let the fish swim quietly again.After finishing the evening with a drink we went to sleep, the night remained quiet except for a few loose squeaks.

Nothing more was caught on day 2 unfortunately.

Day 3 ( the last full day)

Having slept in nicely, we first went for a hearty breakfast in hopes of turning in another top day.

After re-rigging the rods again on nice clean sand flats, we sat down quietly behind our rods but it still remained quiet at that point, I decided to take a break with the pen rod.

With rod in hand, I walked along the water to spot a fish if possible.

After walking halfway across the water I saw a few fish on Klaas’s spot, so I walked on to try in the other corner of the water, unfortunately without result.

When I was on the other side of the water Klaas called out that he had a fish on the rod and ran over to assist.

After a nice drill, another mirror carp was landed.

During the afternoon we were allowed to land 4 more fish in which there was a pb for Bart in the form of a 16.3 kilogram Grass Carp.

Then it fell silent and we went to enjoy BBQ’ing.

After dinner we had another drink and went to bed early, you never know what’s to come.

Unfortunately, it remained quiet and we were able to sleep soundly.

Day 4

A few more hours to go.
After breakfast we quietly started cleaning up, unfortunately it stayed quiet.
We left at about noon heading home.
And can look back on a very successful session with a total of 9 fish caught.

• Klaas thanks for the enjoyable weekend.
• Thank you Angling Escapes for offering this trip.
• Thanks Noud van Vleuten (owner of the water) for too tips.

Tips.

• Listen to tips from the water owner.
• Take your time looking for cuttings.
• Stay alert to every beep of the bite alarm.
• Try fishing different depths, we caught fish at depths of 1 meter but also 3 meters.
• Be quiet on the water; the fish quickly figure out that people are fishing.
• At night it is useful to use 2 people to drill and scoop the fish because of obstacles along the shore in the form of plants and branches. An extra pair of hands is always handy.

• Danny's Carplake
• fishing in veldhoven
• Fishing stories
• Pay water in the Netherlands

Bert Altena

Van kinds af aan ben ik te vinden aan de waterkant. Vanaf een jaar of 12 heb ik het karpervissen geleerd. Wat het karpervissen voor mij leuk maakt is de ontspanning en de voorbereiding op de karpersessie in combinatie met een manier van vissen wat constant vernieuwing nodig heeft om de karper weer te kunnen verrassen!