Hi all , For the ones who don’t know me I am Sebastiaan Schuurman 36 years old and I started with carp fishing at the age of 8 . I am an all-round carp angler and I fish for carp on a regular base all year. I love to fish a private venue now and then and I get the most vibe out of big public lakes especially weeded crystal clear lakes . I write for a few International magazines and the last years I also am producing a lot of Carp fishing video’s and I offer Special Carp Fishing Guiding tours in Holland where I will fish with you 24 hours a day. With me it is the full package we talk thru tactics , rigs , approach etc. and to make it complete I will film our session in a special Seb way to make this a unique experience of a life time . I am more than happy with my return to the Catch and Release team and to get you in the mood I would like to kick off with this article called :
The Season where dreams became reality .
It’s half way through April and I just came back from a fantastic session in France and I decided to focus on my favourite Dutch lake alias Mirror Lake .
Mirror lake is a big lake of 125 acre with an average depth of 1.70 meter and with many weeds in it . The benefit of the weeds is that the water is Crystal clear early in the year and you can find proper swimming routs of the carp between them especially because it is so shallow . It’s has zones with many reeds and zones with houses in different bays . The first thing I look at is where the sun shines the most of the day especially on the reed zones . I do this as in these areas the water temperatures will rise between the reeds much faster and shellfish species and bloodworms will come out in this spots first . The combination of these species has all food sources in them the carp will need after the winter so count on it you will find them on these first before they start to group together for spawning (( searching is knowing , knowing means catching ) . Last year I started 3 weeks earlier and found one of my target carp between the reeds,The Painting and caught it 3 days later to give an example .
The Painting
I am searching in the same places and I couldn’t find any carp this year so I knew for sure the carp where already on the move in groups to the out bays of this lake as they all do that before spawning .
It’s the last week of April and I located a proper group of carp and spotted my target fish between them called The Queen in one of the bays .
This carp is of absolute fully scaled Dutch perfection and I had caught it 7 years ago for the last time . I decide to bait up 3 areas with a combination of hemp , corn , stickmix and a combination of fishmeal and nut based boilies in different sizes and dumbbells between several swimming routs in this bay so I knew for sure they couldn’t miss it . 
After 3 days of baiting up in the evening I checked every morning if the baits where taken and all baits where gone so it was time to get the rods in position . I decide to fish with a 26 mm fishmeal boilie topped with a halve matching pop-up . I made a semi blow back rig with a DX-curve shank size 6 hook and made it 15 cm long .
To assure my rig is presented on the best way possible I always use a M size pva bag filled with stickmix and crunched boilies . With this set up you know your rig is presented on the best way , has extra attraction and also your hook will be camouflaged and is in the position you want it to be so a win win situation in my eyes .
I place my rods in position with my RT4 and after 2 days of silence on my rods 11:00 my Delkim screamed of and I had to fight and land this stunner out of my dinghy as this fish know where the obstacles where and swum right to it . After a proper fight in the storm I could finally land this carp and know direct it was a 20 kg + . After weighing this incredible looking long massive carp the scale pointed 20,5 kg .
After making pictures and some video shots I released this stunner and decide to give the baited area some rest for a couple of days to let the weary carp get confidence again and 2 days later I spot on 2 baited areas several carp included The Queen .
The same eve I get my rods in position again and I get a take in the morning and my Delkim screamed of again . I have landed this stunner on a weight of 10,9 kg and this male is ready for spawning and with this colours the Future of Mirror lake is in good hands for sure . In the day time I spot the same group still in the area and again I place everything in position with my RT4 again . I get a take around 04:30 and after an incredible fight I can land this carp from the bank . I lift the net and place the Carp in my unhooking mat and on that moment I realise I just landed The Queen . I am shaking of the adrenaline especially after realising I got my target fish of 2015 . I wait till the day light arrives and it’s time to make pictures and to weigh this stunner . After weighing it on a fantastic weight of 18,5 kg it’s time to make pictures of this carp of a life time .
Absolute Dutch scale perfection and while I am writing this article I am still after dreaming of this incredible catch . What a start of the season and after I caught the Painting last year now after 7 long years I finally managed to hold the Queen in my hands . I have to stop with the fishing on mirror lake as we got some fishing and filming trips to the UK and France and after France I return to mirror lake again and after 3 days of pre baiting with the same tactic I decide to get the rods in position again with my RT4 . The whole night my Delkims stayed quiet and just before I want to pack up my delkim screams of and I have to get in my dinghy to fight the carp and after at least 20 minutes I can land the carp . While I net it I direct notice it is the Painting and a big shout of happiness follows . Returned on the bank I directly give my mate a call to make some pictures .
THE QUEEN
I realise on this moment my dream became reality and I managed to catch all 3 of my target carp in less than a year after years of searching , spotting , blanking and finally it all came together . So what I am trying to say in this article is that with the wright tactic and especially investing in locating the carp early in the year you have a bigger change to Catch much faster the carp with less pre baiting especially when you make advantage of the swimming routs between the weeds in this type of lakes . Of course I fish this lake for years and it was all a big learning experience and if you use that experience in your fishing and adjust your tactics to it you can achieve the goals you have. I hope you can put this article in your own advantage and wish you all Tight lines .
Sebastiaan Schuurman