Hi all,
This is the translated version of my article in the vbk magazine nr 50
It is about the biggest mirror alive in the benelux.
Enjoy!
Poeli and the giant mirror.
It was in 2001 that I finally got my driving licence and my mother was no longer obliged to drive her crazy little son to the local canal to throw in a couple pounds of his home made boilies. That driving licence opened the door to fishing a lot of new venues. During that same year, a friend of mine caught a giant common at one of those new lakes. Just looking at the pictures of that immaculate common carp, I immediately felt in love with this fish. Its heart-shaped tail, its dark colour and the enormous shoulders behind his cute little head made this fish all an angler could wish for. Over the following years this specific carp was all I could think of. Not so long after I found out about its existence, I started to fish the lake but it wasn’t going to turn out to be an easy job. The lake held only 10 to 15 carp, and except the giant common they were all small ones. Also the massive amount of weed and a ridiculous amount of natural food in there, made the assignment difficult. Extremely to the bone! From 2001 until the present time the common only visited the bank 3 times. Many anglers came to give it a try, but many left the lake as quick as they came. During all these years I’d tried many, many nights and weekends to bank the lovely common. But I only managed to catch almost the whole population, off course except that specific common. And how longer it takes me to catch that target, how more difficult it became for me to find the motivation to go. I suppose my name was just not written on there… during all those years I fished off course on lakes, canals and rivers elsewhere, and caught lots of others nice lumps, but they could all stand in the shadow of that massive, beautiful common. A common called “the eburoon”
Moving
In 2007 I left from underneath the safe wings of my mother and found a place for myself. And that move also meant that the lake with “the eburoon” was further away. Too far away! In fact the distance made it that I’d have to give up. I lost the thought of ever holding the eburoon in my arms…
But it was also in that year it came to my ears that there was also a giant mirror close to my new home. This offered the possibility to fish during the week and combine it with my work. By seeing a picture of that mirror with no name, its existence was confirmed. I had a new target. The mirror was possibly even bigger as the eburoon, but the lake was again not for pussy’s. This venue was about 25ha big and holds only15 carp. Memories of the quest for the eburoon rose up. Just like the eburoon, this carp was so mysterious, so unknown and so difficult. And it’s just that what I like about targetfish. The new adventure started here. The least I could do was give it a try. The main plan was to hit it hard in the spring of 2008.
Spring
Already in February I was visiting the lake quite often. Sometimes I went there alone, sometimes with my girlfriend and her dog. Always when I start on a new lake, I try to be there as often as possible. I want to feel it, want to get a grip on the surroundings, get familiar with everything in and around the water. On sunny days I also baited up a large area which featured a couple shallow bars. The amounts of bait that were put in, were kept limited because the water temperature was still under 10 centigrade. With this small stock of carp you got to be very careful no to overfeed them.
The chosen boilie was my favourite pink secret boilie from the Solar stable. But to be a couple steps ahead on the other few anglers I added a couple things as an extra. I like to add belachan powder to any mix I use and also pre digested green lipped mussel. When my baits are defrosted I also pour liquid L-zero-30 on my baits and let them soak in it for a night.
To make the finishing touch, I tend to cast my rig with a stick made from up and down mix. Lots of attraction and it also prevents tangles.
The first two nights were a blank. I was fishing nearby a parking where were lots of expatriate. Because the place was not quit safe for my car and myself, I always arrived around 11 o’clock in the evening and stopped fishing at 6 o’clock in the morning. Just 7 hours fishing does not seem a lot, does it? Those first 2 nights the main difficulties were the youngsters there and they didn’t motivate me the hit the sack for a good night sleep. I only dared to rest my head with one eye open. The 3rd night I decided to move a little further. Because I was feeding a large area, I supposed it wouldn’t make a difference. From this point it was even easier to fish the shallow margins.
Anyway, about five o’clock I’ve got a couple bleeps and saw my dangler drop back a little. First thing I could think off was that I got one of the few breams on my hook. I guess you can imagine how I felt. But when I picked up the rod I saw my line was heading to the left and that was the confirmation that it certainly was not a bream! Quickly I gained line until I got direct contact with the carp. The fish had decided to swim towards me, just above the bottom. He was not quite strong and quickly I could scoop my net underneath it. I was pleased with the first carp on the new lake and his weight made it even better. With 17,8kg common I could pack up my gear with a smile. I quickly made a couple pictures using the remote, witch I’ve been thankful for who’s ever invented that! ( I guess also my mates who normally get a wake up call to come over and do the honours are pretty pleased by this invention)
The following 3 nights were blanked, and resulted in some more problems with lazy younsters. There was one evening some people found it funny to play with a gun. Once I was safe at the water, I could lay back and enjoy the silence, but arriving without being noticed is always the hardest part. The question is: are they going to aim their guns at you, thash your car or just hit you in the face? What are they going to do or say? Scary that is. Even the police do not interfere in this area. For the law, this is a battle lost.
At the start of the 7th night I made it to the bank without strange encounters so around 23 o’clock my rods were casted out on the spots, precisely where I wanted them. About 01 o’clock again a couple bleeps announced action on the rod with the single secret pop up. Again the dangler was backdroppin’ and this time I was prepared. Yep, carp it was! This boy was not that lame as his friend last week, and he was determined to go left, no matter what. I got in some serious trouble with the other rod and switched off the delkim. To lower the risk, I waded with trousers and socks in the water. Because I forgot my headlight in the car and it was very clouded, I could see nothing in the pitch black. The first 2 occasions I failed to land the strong common. Luckily the Solar longshank did not let me down. The 3th time I tried to get it in, I succeeded. He finally came with his full length in the mazes. Again this was a good one. The long common brought 18,5kilo’s on the scales. It was still pretty early in the night and so I recasted the 2 rods back on the spots. But nothing else happened until 6 o’clock when time had come to pack up and leave for work. While setting up the gear to make some pictures on my own, I could admire this fish now in the daylight. This particular common is a beautiful banana shaped carp. Nice yellow colours and a pretty long length. Nice!
2 days later I’m back. This time it was raining a little and the result of that was that there was nobody on the parking lot but also no carp in the neighbourhood I guess. So I blanked.
I ‘d let the weekend go by, but on saturdaynight I went after midnight to the water for baiting up a little again. On the following Monday I went back with my gear. It was already after 23 o’clock because I went baiting up another lake in the meanwhile. But even it was late, there still were lots of “gangsters” near the lake when I arrived. No signs of fish, but enough active thugs right on my swim! I decided to wait for 30minutes and smoke some cigarettes. But after 15 minutes I got irritated and gave it one more cigarette before I would head back to the lake I just went baiting to go sleep some needed hours. Just at the time I finished my cigarette one of the bloke’s received a phone call and was clearly pissed off about something that was told on the other side of the line. I heard him say that he’d come over to settle things himself. Okay, just what I wanted to hear! The last ones to hit the road were a couple, they got in the last car on the parking and drove off. As quickly as I could I baited up a little and cast out my rods. I drank my traditional single beer and immediately after that I fell in a deep sleep. Somewhere in the middle of the night I received a hard run on the bottom bait rod. I jumped out of my coma and grabbed the rod with the spinning reel. The carp didn’t care and just kept swimming. When I set the drag heavier and heavier, the strong beast realized something was terribly wrong and headed towards the other direction. From then on it looked like he had enough of playing it hard and tried to work just with his weight. For me it felt just like I was pumping a dead weight towards the surface. The carp moved very slowly from the left to the right for several minutes. I was already until my knees in the water, because this was with no doubt again a good carp. After several nervous minutes, I pumped a lumpy weight on the surface and saw a big mouth break through the surface.
I put the net underneath it, pulled it up, and fitted the rest of the fish in the net. On first sight the massive carp laid straight up in the water and I saw scales on his back so I thought this was a common, but a very good one. A bit disappointed it wasn’t the giant mirror I pulled the arms out of the landing net but then the fish rolled over on his side, and damn, it was a mirror! My god, this could only mean one thing, this is the giant target I was fishing for!
In an adrenaline rush I carried the carp on the unhooking mat, but with all this adrenaline it looked like the massive mirror already had spawned and his weight would be a little on the low side. But when I hung him with the weigh sling on the scales which were hung on a tripod, he brought 34,1kg on it!
I just could not believe this was happening and I stared a few seconds in ecstasy to the scale!
Quickly I put the beautiful creature in a sack and rang Mark and Mario, 2 of my best friends. When I rang them they knew immediately what was going on but were also amazed with this weight. It had been over 2 years the mirror reached the bank and his weight then was 29,1kg. I could never think he would be as big as he is now.
Also I send a text message to Geert Ooms: “Job done: 34,1kg”. but unfortunately, his mobile was switched off so he missed out on the photo shoot.
After packing up my gear while waiting for Mark and Mario I smoked the most enjoyable cigarette ever.
When my mates arrived, hands were shaken. Everything was set up to film and take pictures. Everything looked perfect this morning. There was nobody to been seen, just me, 2 of my best friends and this beautiful, mysterious and enormous creature which came right out of my dreams. The red glowing sun came up and made the beautiful mirror look even prettier than he already looked. Everything is sweet this morning, the drops that fell down on the unhooking mat looked like sugar. Between the flashes of the camera I looked into the sun, thinking about “the eburoon”. I finally caught my dream , with a couple kilo’s of intrest.
I’m overwhelmed of luck; this carp has all the heeling medicine which I search for in a carp…
Magic, mysterious, and difficult. In my life I’m always in search for those things.
Things that move me, things that make me cry.
May be, I’m going back to look for that mystery, magic and difficulty…
In search for “the eburoon”…
There always has to be “something” in my pursuits of carps…
I don’t need to catch many massive carp on slutty lakes… it’s like sleeping with a girl just for the sex. Fun at the moment, but you can do nothing with it for the rest of your goddamn life.
Give me some unknown, hard to get lumpy’s… only then I prove myself, only then I can be really happy for all the work done… only then I can die happy…
But it’s a feeling many anglers just can’t (or will not) understand…
Gunther Poelmans aka Poeli
There’s times when I just go fishing whatever the weather, but I must say that between the end of December and the end of February, I‘m getting more and more selective. Without question, the one kind of weather which really gets me ’up’ for a trip out between these dates is the arrival of a low front following a prolonged bout of high. Usually you’ll see an increase in temperature from sub-zero or even 3s and 4s, to almost double figures. This is a great window period, and you’ll usually witness strong wind blowing from the south or south west at the same time. The wind is likely to be quite high in the trees rather than low to the water, but there’ll still be a good ripple on the surface which will stir the fish up.
Whilst warmer winds are certainly much better, I’m also confident fishing into any really strong wind in January, especially if I’ve not been able to get out much and one arrives when I have a few days free. Even those from the north and east which usually have a very cold feel to them at this time of the year can be productive, especially when they are blustery and almost gale-like. It’s usually a case of ‘batten down the hatches’ and get hidden in the bivvy when they arrive, but they are most certainly much better to be out in than a really still windless bout of high pressure. Prolonged periods of sub-zero temperatures usually sees the lakes with a lid on (depending on how early or late into winter we are). When they eventually start to defrost, I also like to go at least a couple of days following the complete defrosting. It always takes a day or two for the ice to completely mix in the water and I suspect this is one of the reasons why during a defrost I’ve never really had much success. 
Another weather condition which has been kind to me in the winter months is when it’s raining. I’ve had some lovely fish during rain storms in January and February, even those which have come with biting cold winds from the east and north. Shallow water spots have always been the areas that I’ve caught from during these periods, perhaps the reason for this being that the fish have come up from the deeper water to investigate what the noise on the surface is, or possibly the rain brings with it an attractive taste or feeling to the water which is better realised by the fish when they visit the shallower areas where it is likely to be mixed quicker.
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