By Eugene Kruger
One of the most interesting things for me is to see how people in other countries catch carp and to possibly catch one in the Netherlands was high on my bucket list. While in Europe last year i managed to sneak away to Holland for a few days to visit my good friend Marco Tetteroo. I had met Marco in 2016 while shooting for the SA team in France where we shared a few laughs, we then had the privilege working together in 2017 again and had the best time behind the cameras…but it was time to do what we both love very much… Catch Carp!
I set out from Paris to Eindhoven by bus and after a long night’s drive finally made it to my destination in one piece. Marco picked me up in his panel van and we shot through to the nearest tackle shop for a few bits and pieces before we get cracking. I’ve been to Amsterdam and other small coastal towns in Holland before but this part of the country was extremely beautiful and modern. As an Afrikaans speaking South African being in Holland makes you feel a bit nostalgic and it feels like home away from home.
Our first fishing spot was a local club lake that Marco often fishes and what a cool looking place. It had small built out jettys on each swim and a carpy island on the one side. We managed to land a few beautiful leathery mirrors and I even had a nice tench which was a first for me. Unfortunately the cameras weren’t rolling on this occasion but we did snap a few pics. Our 2nd venue was a quarry like dam with blue water and tall trees all around. This venue was a lot harder than the previous venue but Marco assured me that the fish in there were well worth the effort. But as luck would have it we hit a blank on that session and returned home empty handed.
Then on my 2nd last day we headed out to De VisVijer Park lake for the day. This lake was like a picture perfect dutch park lake complete with Windmill in the background and neat little bridge. Loads of birdlife and had neatly cut lush green grass. It was a proper dutch rainy day and we hoped that the weather would get the fish feeding. After a quick set up we saw the angler across the lake landing a chunk of a common and we were pumped to say the least. Marco opted for the zigs and quickly chucked a few sloppy spombs out onto his chosen spot close to a fountain in the middle of the lake. I had my rods to the right of the fountain in open water with a few Candy Crush boilies thrown over the spot by hand. The lake was about 2m in depth and water pretty murky colour.
After a few hours we decided to move across to a narrow section of the lake against some reed bushes just in case the fish were hiding from the weather. We enjoyed some real dutch delicacies and about 1 hour before closing time I had a take on my right hand rod. I could feel that this was not a monster but I really enjoyed playing this fish. We were just hoping for a bite and this was it. It turned out to be a very small but beautiful mirror carp. This was to be my last fish in Holland and we managed to capture everything on camera.
Marco promised to visit SA next year so my next post with Marco will be on local South African soil.
Enjoy the video!
