End of October catch update from Morocco Carp

The last day of October dawned cold and clear and this fish screamed off at 8 am giving me a right workout. I was standing about 300 yards down the bank chatting to a French fisherman when the distant whine of an alarm finally reached my ear. After a flatout sprint (at 2400 feet of altitude your on your knees I assure you) I reached the rod just as the last 50 yards or so of backing were peeling off. The fish must have taken 150 yards in one long powerful continous run.
I jumped straight in the boat, wheezing and feeling sick from the sprint and tried to get the backing line, only 10lbs mono to get me extra distance, back on the spool. It wasnt till I hit the reliable green of 18lbs Nash bullet that I felt I could give the fish any stick.

Anyway it put up a hell of a fight considering it had already taken so much line and I happily slipped the net under a beautiful 34lbs common carp, built like a dustpan lid.

I think this is a German strain of common - can anyone enlighten me?

Ishmael Morocco Carps head boat man with a 28lbs fully scaled

This slightly deformed fish fell to 4 grains of maize fished over the back of the old river bed at around 350 meters from the bank. Its Ishmaels second fish this month and he is really getting the hang of Carp fishing. He won the fish of the month competition in August with a fine 32 lbs common and he is now experimenting with different baits and getting the hang of the sonar.

Ishmael pulled it out the bag when it was needed when we had the pleasure of a group of 40 school children and their hard working teachers from the Casablanca American international school. A local exchange with a school just down the road was made and many of the local bigwigs attended, I think it was a real eye opener for the children from both sides and they ended their day with a tree planting ceremony.

The children also got the chance to see how we fish for Carp and it was this fine 28lbs common that Ishmael managed to land just as the kids arrived at our camp.

The carp gods also shone for me with this beautiful 36lbs mirror

The students get up close with a big mirror

The best bit was that the kids got to see the Carp returned unharmed and with respect.

World Record Mirror Carp - Paul Meridith 89 lbs

Paul Meredith with Scarfish at the new world record weight of 89lbs

The New World record Mirror 89 lbs (40.45)

pictured here at a lesser weight of 38.02 (83.64lbs)

by Pete Simmons on the 3/11/2006 at La Gravier

Do you want to see the most popular World Record Carp Photo?


Paul Meredith from Birmingham has just landed the new World record Mirror Carp at 89 lbs from La Graviers fishery run by Luke Moffett. Paul was fishing on the swim known as the lawn and the huge Carp fell to a margin positioned bait. Paul and lake owner Luke had to take to the boat to land it after a hairy 30 minute battle.

Incredibly the same fish was caught 2 weeks ago by an un named angler who returned it without weighing, apparently he was content with his catch and didnt worry about the weight - a refreshing attitude.
Scarfish, as this fish is known, was also caught just over a month ago by UK angler Mike Cooper at 87 lbs, just 1.6 lbs short of the then current, now deceased Rainbow lakes record fish at 88.6lbs.

So it Scarfish that holds the record and with perhaps another month left of reasonable weather in France we might see her out again, and maybe we will see her break the 90 barrier.

Morocco Carp launch "La Aventura Espanola"

Aventura Espanola - Spanish week with Morocco Carp on Bin el Ouidane

Give Oliver a call to reserve your place 661 627 981

Morocco Carp are proud to announce the "Adventura Espanola" a Spanish fishing week in February/March 2008 on Bin el Ouidane lake in Morocco.

Oliver Alcon Angullo, our new Spanish agent, will be organising things from Spain and if you want more details pop along to the Ebro-carp show on the 10, 11, 12th of November at Mequinenza. Oliver will have mint tea, Moroccan cakes the latest catch reports and daily updates by SMS message from the banks of Bin el Ouidane. So why not pop along and enjoy some Morocco Carp hospitality and reserve your place on the Carp fishing trip of 2008.

Oliver with a mid 30 mirror from Bin el Ouidane

We wish you every success Oliver in your new position and everyone at Morocco Carp looks forward to welcoming our Spanish guests.

Mid 30's common - a typical Morocco Carp

Stealth and good terminal camouflage are the route to success at Bin el Ouidane

Bin el Ouidane is a hugh water supply reservoir situated at 800 m (2400 ft) in the middle Atlas mountains of Morocco. The lake is nearly 20kms long and around 5 km at its widest.
The crystal clear waters are fed by two high Atlas mountains rivers and the Carp feed by sight giving them an extremely developed sense of vision and are extremely spooky. The carp are large and plentiful if you can find them and in my experience a mobile and stealthy approach gives better results than sitting tight on a mound of corn.

Atomic Morocco Carp leads, rubber and clips

This stealth approach has brought me some cracking fish over the last two months and Ive refined my rigs and traps based on my experience on the banks. Here's how I approached a new swim with quiet spectacular results.:

Available in 3-6oz and 5 models

French Ramp swim is situated on the west side of the hotel and its a 3 man swim with the river gulley, old river bed and sunken island to fish to, it makes for an interesting and exciting swim.

Diagram of French ramp and hotel bay

I planned to fish 2 long range rods out to the old river gulley at around 250 m and beyond that on the slope off coming from sunken island at around 380m. these rods would be fished solo, without a great deal of bait, perhaps 1 kg of maize scattered in the area. The bait, a floro green Opal 18mm and 12mm pukka pineapple popups anchored by a shot on the hair.

Carp fishing for records demands the best tackle and technology

I was fishing a rig that Paul Russell from Essex Angling holidays had shown me. Basically the shot is placed on the hair just under the popups and the hook is tied with a knotless complicated knot. This is basically your standard knotless knot with the hair passed over the first 5 turns of the knotless knot and a further 5 turns laid down, then finished in the standard way. It allows the hair to pop straight off the middle of the hook shank and I like the hooking capabilities of this rig.

A size 6 Atomic Claw and a 6 inch stealth skin link, a 5 oz Atomic Morocco carp lead, 1 meter of brown lead core and 7 metres of brown 45lbs quicksilver snag leader to finish off the set up.

I boated my 2 long range rods out till I hit the 45 foot mark dropped 1 kg of maize off the back and followed it with the rig.
The third rod was fished beyond the river gulley on the long sloping drop off from the sunken island at around 400m.

The carp in Bin el Ouidane don't often really feed at night, which is a relief in some ways as I was absolutely knackered. Im still getting used to this life as a guide and the high altitude of the lake makes everything physical seem so much harder than normal. So with the rods out I made up my bed and pretty soon I was out, confident, very confident of a run at first light.

6AM like an alarm clock, off went my inside long range rod, I jumped in the boat straight away to avoid snagging the lead and was soon in deep water and out of danger. The fish made some impressive runs stripping 30-40 yards of line at a time and putting up a dogged resistance all the way through. After about 20 minutes I managed to slip the net under an absolutely mint common carp. I unclipped the landing net from its pole and wedged it off the back of the boat and made the slow pull back to shore, confident that I had a new PB common.
The scales confirmed it, 45lbs and also my biggest fish to date from Bin el Ouidane.




Fish were moving on the 200 metre line and I soon had the rod out again on the spot. The sonar showed a fairly typical bottom, about 4 inches of brown silt over a fairly hard clay and rock base. A small weed bed showed and I new it was more or less in the same spot as the night before so I dropped the bait and scattered some maize then rowed to shore with the line spooling out behind. A fish crashed twice right over my bait and I was sure it would go, and sure enough off it screamed. A fine 32lbs comon to give me my PB brace and an unforgetable morning.

I am sure the use of red/brown snag leaders, brown leadcore to keep it down in the silt, lead core hook links and camouflaged Atomic Moroccan leads and clips gave me the edge and caused these two fine fish to make a mistake, and that's what we are talking about, 1 mistake, just 1 mistake by a carp in Bin el Ouidane and it could be your PB, your fish of a lifetime, or even the new World Record.



Many people wrongly assume that because the lake has been lightly fished the carp will be stupid, this is not the case. The carp in Bin el Ouidane are extremely sensitive to noise of any kind and particularly tight lines in the water. These fish have been pursued since birth by the local fishermen using crude long line tactics and more commonly, seine nets. The fish are crafty, resourceful and very very sure that a tight line, net or tense cord spells danger.
The road to success on Bin el Ouidane is not easy but a big step down the path is using good camouflaged terminal tackle.

Radcarper 2007.

Check out our September Vlog catch report

Morocco Carp luanch UK marketing campaign with Essex Angling Holidays

A sneek preview of our new advert due to launch in the UK next week.
Give Paul at Essex Angling Holidays a ring and secure your place at Carp fishing's hottest venue.

Water knowledge - Hotel Bay and French ramp

I had a fantastic brace of carp from the French ramp swim towards the end of September. I also got blown off the point and destroyed a bivvy one night so decided that the next time I fish it I would place the bivvy further round in the bay and not sitting up on the higher ground and easily hit by the winds.

20.5 kg (45lbs) from French ramp

After a couple of days relaxing and blanking on twin waddies I felt it was time to revisit the French Ramp and Hotel bay and discover some of the features in this interesting area. It is also the closest area to our hotel with very easy to access for anglers and hotel guests - perfect really.

a stunning morning brace of 45lbs and 32lbs from French ramp


Diagram of hotel river to french ramp

Looking to the diagram you can see the hotel river and at around 400 m directly out is the sunken island. There is currently around 5 meters of water over the island and as the lake fills up during the winter many of these areas will become to far from the bank to fish. But for now its an exciting swim with many opportunities and some excellent features.
The river bends round to the right and runs parallel to the bank at around 250m, from the right bend until the river bed becomes one with the lake bottom is around 150m.

I think the best swim to fish to the sunken island is from the right side of the river, its around 350m to the front and this is where most of the fish have come from in depths of 12-18 m rather than rods fished ontop or on the sides of the island.

The right hand side of this 3 man swim, towards the French boat ramp offers opportunities to fish to the river gulley and long range beyond the river on the slope running from the sunken island along gradually getting deeper as the river bed fades out.

Henrik from Catch it baits in Denmark and his fishing buddy Peter are fishing the swim as I write so watch the blog for the latest catch reports.

Watch our first video - Morocco Carp the story so far...

Its gotta be a good day

...when it starts like this

and ends like this...

1st week of October Catch report - Bin el Ouidane, Morocco Carp

October - spectacular storms and sunsets

October started with storms and more rain, the water level continued to drop and the surface water temperature is now 72 degrees, thats 8 degrees cooler than at the end of September. Autumn has arrived and arrived in force and I've personally never fished through such a series of storms. I hope that it calms down a bit as Ive managed to destroy 2 Nash double tops in two weeks - an expensive pastime.

A beautiful 40 lbs common 2 days after the storm

The fishing has followed the weather and its been fairly difficult with many blank days when the weather was bad. Equally Ive had a couple of fantastic days with 6 fish banked. The fish seem to come on the feed, and come closer in to the dried river waddies around 36-48 hours after a big storm, so when weve had a 2-3 day break between storms Ive managed to pull out a few.

Danny with his first Bin el Ouidane fish, 29.04 lbs

Beachcomber John and Ebro Danny had been fishing the twin waddies swim at the end of September during some of the roughest storms. Danny managed a beautiful 29.02 fish on their last evening and I felt I just had to jump into the dead mens shoes, as the swim just had to come on.

Sunday afternoon I got the rods out on twin waddies, 1 rod to the right gulley on a lovely rock and weed mark at 32 feet, 1 rod to the left gulley in 42 feet of water at the end of the river bed and 1 rod between the two at long range, around 350 metres.

Just a 40 and a great fight

Fatima with her first Morocco Carp

Monday morning I had 1 small fish and lost a decent 1 after a hook slip.
Tuesday morning I had a nice 26 lbs common on the 42 foot rod

Wednesday was a great day with 6 fish banked

23lbs common as the fished moved into the dried river bed

25lbs common from the left river gulley

40.4 lbs common right river gulley

Another storm was to blow in on Thursday and the swim died a death, but not a bad week, 10 fish the biggest 40.4 lbs and 4 small fish from 10-20 lbs.

Check out our Video catch report from September

September Catch report

It was a great month, we had the pleasure of welcoming 12 great anglers who caught a total of 59 Carp the biggest going 20.5 kg (45 lbs) Two special mentions to Tony Bartram for his PB common and Peter Kent for another.
I am also proud to announce that everyone of our clients caught fish, that gives me a 100 percent guiding record. Which Im bound to mess up for just having mentioned it!
Every one of Morocco Carp clients has caught fish, and anyone who has fished the lake this last few months will know that it is not an easy proposition.

Stay tuned to the blog for more catch reports and updates, October is looking a little quiet but we have still had over 15 fish from 3 anglers in the first week of the month.

We have availability still for late October and November but we are getting booked up quickly for spring 2008. Dont delay give us a ring, drop us an email or contact our uk agents, Essex Angling Holidays for reservation details.