Starting the year 2000 I will be visiting the Belgian waters some more. Together with a friend of mine I fished a Belgian lake which caught my interest a lot, because of its size, environment and possibilities. The water is surrounded by reeds, and has three lakes which are connected to eachother. For me, it's a two hours drive, but I think it's worth while driving it. I can really say : I'm off fishing!
The possibiities are huge: floater fishing as well as static fishing is possible, and the lakes also seem to have some good large pike, meaning I think I will have lots of nice fishing hours. The first time I fished there makes me want to taste some more of it, so without a doubt I will be fishing and researching much more waters. Maybe even the well known canals.
Rules
I am not known yet with the current regulations in Belgium, but I already know that there are some venues which may be fished during the whole year. Also, some waters are from fishing clubs and they may have allowed nightfishing during the entire year. This amount is very small. It is good to take a good map and find out which area has lots of lakes or canals. After that you visit the areas in Belgium and find out where you are allowed to fish at night, and where it isn't. Most of the time it is not possible, but without a doubt, you will be finding something nice, a lake with some good possibilities.
The large well known canals are checked by the police very often, so always be sure that your licenses are ok. Do not fish at night, you'll risk very high fines or even worse: you're gear may be confisquated!! The so called Rijkswacht will hardly give you any room for something else than high fines.... Normally, you're allowed to fish in many waters only during the summerperiod: June, July and August.
Not only in Holland, but also in Belgium the environmental movements try to forbid the fishing by putting the Belgian Parliament under pressure. They want to forbid fishing within ten years from now.
Flanders (Dutch speaking part) and Wallony (french speaking part)
I spoke some fisherman from Flanders who told that in the French speaking part of Belgium it appears to be allowed to fish at night all year in the french part since january 1999. Through interactive discussions via the website "Intercarp" I heard this appeared to be true. The Dutch part only has few places where nightfishing is allowed during the entire year. If anything changes, you'll hear from me.
CarpPhoto Belgium
