new world record carp at 91lb - Andy Komornicki

Andy Komornicki and his new world record carp at 91lb

Andy Komornicki lands new world record carp at 91lb from the French water known as The Graviers
Andy Komornicki, a cargo agent at London's Heathrow airport, has landed a new world record 91 lb mirror carp known as The Scar.

“I thought my pal was having me on when he looked into the landing net and told me what I'd caught,” said Andy. “Then when I shone a light in the net, there it was. I couldn't believe it - it was absolutely immense.”

Andy's triumph came during a week-long trip to France with three mates. They were north of Dijon fishing Luke Moffat's water, The Graviers on a clear, crisp night.

Despite its size, Andy took only 10 to15 minutes to land the fish. “It's hard to describe how I felt, I was just so elated,” the British Airways employee recalled.

It turned out quite a trip. In all Andy landed 11 fish totaling 508lb, including his world record and five others around 50lb or more. “We were fishing in a lovely spot and the big one really was the icing on the cake.”

For some time The Scar - so called because of body damage caused by tangling with wire - disputed the world record with another specimen in the renowned Rainbow Lake, also in France.

But that one died earlier this year, leaving The Scar as the undisputed heavyweight champion. Even after taking off four pounds for the weighing sling, Andy still beat the old record by two pounds.

He said. “It must have been about 17-18 years old but they can live to 25 and beyond.”

Back home, Andy was flooded with phone calls and e-mails from well-wishers, friends and the media, all excited about the one that didn't get away.


View the Scar at 89lbs by Paul Merideth

Great White love story

This is truly amazing! This aussie fisherman saved a 4 meter long shark from fishing nets and now she has a crush on him.

The Cats n Carp slideshow

This is a Picassa Blog albulm slide show, all the photos we have published in the last 3 years, enjoy.

Bin Fishing logo

Bin Fishing on Bin el Ouidane?

Bin Fishing on Lake Bin el Ouidane

Nice mixed bag of Zander and Blue Gill Perch

Fun weekend camping and fishing with Bin Fishing

Photo Mike and Guide Ishmael with some nice Roach from the net

Zander and big Blue gill perch on a midweek 2 night Berber Experience from Bin Fishing

Luxurt 2 Bed Apartment for Sale in Tangier, Morocco

Atlantic Magna 5 star luxury on the Kings beach Tangier

Atlantic Magna is located in the most prestigious and exclusive area of Tangier, close to Cape Spartel and the Caves of Hercules yet only 10 mins from the airport and 15 from Tangier Centre.
This large 2 bedroom 2 bathroom ground floor apartment sleeps 6 people and is finished with traditional Tadelakt walls and Travatino marble in the bathrooms. The finishing throughout is of exceptionally high qualities.
As a ground floor apartment you can walk out to the landscaped gardens and pools, yet still have magnificent views to the Atlantic.

Bathrooms are finished in wall to ceiling Travatino Marble

The apartment is available for rental short or long term from January 2009. The apartment is also offered for sale immediately.

Technical Specification:

2 bedrooms 2 Bathrooms (1 en suite)

Fitted kitchen, living room, dining area, tea room

Berber lounge - could be converted to 3rd bedroom with access to:

interior and exterior patios.

Build surface 120.60 m2

Terrace and interior patio 45.57 m2

24 hour gated security, underground parking, storage room.

Architects: Gonzales & Jacobson.

41,130 m2 site, 72 apartments of 2/3 bedrooms

Atlantic Magna is perched front line above the beach and only a pleasant stroll to the Caves of Hercules and the magnificent Mirage Hotel with a wonderful al fresco dining terrace and a colonial feel club house bar. The Mirage has 25 suites built into the cliff side and it really is a special place to enjoy a civilised lunch or sundowner or two.

Rental
The Apartment is managed by Jurgen and Farida the owners of La Tangerina Hotel in the Kasba of Tangier. La Tangerina handle all rental bookings and the day to day management of the apartment in the same profesional way they manage their excellent hotel.

The apartment will be furnished to the highest standards and available for rent from the 1st January 2009.

For bookings of less than & week a 2 night minimum applies.

Long Term Rental 2000/month min 6 month contract.

Prices in Euros

Per night/min 2 per week 2 Bed sleep 6: 220 night / 1400 week

Additional bed +20% taxes included

+20% High season (March April /July & August)

Offer: For Sale

This 2 bedroom ground floor apartment of 165 sq metres situated in the residential complex of Atlantic Magna, Tangier is due for completion in October 2008.

Price:

Reserve price range of 295,000 - 335,000+ depending on the progression from uncompleted property with private contract to furnished rental apartment with ongoing rental bookings. (Prior to completion developer guarenteed finance available up to 150k)

Please contact me through the reservations system if you are interested in purchasing the property for a price update and progress report.

Morocco
While most house buyers are initially drawn to Morocco for its cheap property prices and its low cost of living, it does not take them long for them to become enamoured by the country, which has since the Romans, charmed and fascinatedthose that land on its shores. In 1999, the new King Mohammed VI came into power vowing to modernize Morocco, strengthen civil libertiesand democratise the country. Foreigners are warmly welcomed and their are no restrictions on foreign investment.

Investment bullet points:
Tangier superport, Europe's biggest port managed by Maersk opens 2008.

The straits of Gibraltar tunnel from Tangier to Tarifa (Spain)

20 Bn USD Direct foreign investment into Tangier mainly from the Gulf countries.

Spain only 14 km and 35 minutes on the fast ferry.

Unspoilt Atlantic beach coast with glorious 300 days of sunshine

The region still in infancy.

Prices significantly cheaper than Spain.

Favourable tax regime. e.g no tax on rental income for 5 years. No IHT if passed on to a family
70% mortgage available subject to usual requirements

Only three hours flight from major UK airports

Open sky agreement signed therefore low cost airlines fly and cheaper fares

High Quality and Prices still affordable Property hot spot Fabulous Sports facilities, Golf Courses, Yachting, Tennis Clubs, Water skiing, Sailing, Scuba diving and Camel treks etc.

Luxurious life style at low cost For more information leave a comment with your email on this post and I will get back to you:

Nice Black Bass and Zander from Bin el Ouidane

Good catches of Black Bass, Zander, Pike and Perch from Bin el Ouidane in Morocco. A little bit of colour in the water really brings the fish on and a great days fishing was enjoyed by all.

Lowest water level at Bin el Ouidane for many years

Twin waddies left hand waddi, ther right hand bend on the waterline is last years hot spot

twin waddies both waddies visable

snake spit and the island plus small island/bar visable in the gap


Bottom waddi or as its know to the locals Arranbow


Arranbow viewed from my house you can clearly see the bar running from the centre of Arranbow, roughly inline between the two groups of trees. This bar continues and eventually ends at Hotel island.





Snake spit in the distance and hotel island


hotel island

World Record Carp post and photo still most popular with catsncarp readership

Dieter Markus Stein and Mary at 38.15 the most popular photo on flickr

I was just looking through some traffic figures for catsncarp blog and for our on line photo album on flickr and thought you might like to see the most popular items during the first 6 months of 2008.

click the image to read the most popular post on the blog

The most popular blog post from December 07 till June 08 with 5431 views was the post on Mary the big German common that came out at 38.15 on the 17th December 2006.

and from flickr....


it was the same fish that took the credit - a great photo and logging an impressive 9,990 views.

An interesting bit of History on Raduta

The big fully scaled from Bin el Ouidane - another venue capable of a record

Austrians Kurt Grabmayer with the same fish at 25.3 kg

I was surfing around when I dug up this old article, I think I posted a similar story about my session on Raduta but Im not convinced all my details regarding the lakes history are as accurate as this piece from ESPN. Read the whole story here

Lake Raduta, Romania

An 82-pound carp was caught in the man-made lake in 1998 by an Austrian, and that remains the world record for common carp. (Although, the International Game Fish Association recognizes a 75-pound, 11-inch specimen taken from France's Lac de St. Cassien in 1987 as the all-tackle record.)

This carp haven was a collection of four villages 28 miles from Bucharest until the 1980s. Then former communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu dammed the Danube River to flood the area in a misguided attempt to expand waterborne shipping.

Residents were given 72 hours' notice that their homes would be submerged.

In 1990, former tennis coach Robert Raduta leased the lake and land from the state and chased away poachers. He then built a hotel and stocked the lake with fish, building it into "the carp angler's Everest," according to the June edition of British Carpworld. He held his first World Cup in 1999.

Read the original post

Carpacast release Moroccan Carping: Real Pioneers Part IV

Carpcast one of the best personal Carp fishing blogs on the internet released part 4 of the great series of articles covering a trip with Morocco Carp to Bin el Ouidane lake in Morocco. Its been a great read and even though I knew the outcome it has kept me glued to my screen.

Big water Carp fishing is never easy and no mater how well you prepare or how good an angler you are the possibility of a blank is always on the cards.

Why do we do it? its a question I've often asked myself over the years after another expensive and frustrating blank on the hunt for a monster, but I think its the adventurer in me, going where few have tread, pushing the limits physically, financially and mentally, I never seem to tire of it.

So to Will and the guys - I salute your efforts and I hope this little video I put together at Christmas will whet your appetite to come back and have a go when we open again.

Carpcast releases part III of Bin el Ouidane

Will James of the excellent blog Carpcast and the French fishing holiday company Exclusive Angling Holidays has just released part III of his excellent personal story on his recent trip to Bin el Ouidane Lake in Morocco.

don't miss it.

Carpcast - excellent blog and a good report

Moroccan Carping: Real Pioneers Part I

It is Wednesday, day five of our week-long break, and our host, Fraser, guides the small inflatable boat around the furthermost point of another apparently innocuous little bay to reveal, for the umpteenth time, a winding, vast expanse of water. At this point it truly dawns on me that to catch a carp from this monstrous lake requires something more…epic, than simply ‘baiting and waiting’.

The lake is Bin El Ouidane, 7500 acres of clear blue water set 800m altitude in the mid-atlas mountains of Morocco, and it is here that two friends and I undertook the challenge of tempting one of the lake’s stunningly conditioned and enormous carp. We were booked with Morocco Carp, a new company in its first year of operating, for a week’s worth of fishing along with evening and breakfast meals as part of the ‘Bankside Package’.

Upon arrival at the quaint and comfortable ‘Hotel Bin El Ouidane’ we were greeted by warm smiles and a stunning view of the lake. Though weary from our travels, it was hard not to feel energised by the sight of the turquoise oasis, and over a welcome beer and sandwich we listened to and questioned Fraser to find out exactly what sort of a trip we were in for.

Perhaps now is the time to explain that, although a modestly experienced fisherman, the scale of Bin El Ouidane was something entirely new to me. ‘Big water fishing’ was something that had long played upon my sense of what true carp fishing really is, yet i had never been quite bold enough to take the plunge and give it a try. Until now of course.

I knew what I was expecting to gain from our trip: more knowledge that trophy shots (yet there was no doubt that i wanted dearly to catch). So then, when Fraser began by describing how tough the lake was fishing, it came as little surprise and, if anything, firmed my resolve. In my eyes, raising the difficulty simply raises the level of potential reward.

Our first night was to be spent in ‘Twin Waddies’ a well fished swim on the same bank as the hotel, and one that has produced a lot of fish over the last 6 months. However, our host had grander plans for the remainder of our trip suggesting a relatively untested swim on the opposite bank, where the fishing is harder and the isolation more extreme. The stakes continued to escalate.

to read the rest of this excellent article and Part II click here.

gone for more gas back on June 9th

New Spanish Carp Record 34.5kg Common

Do you want to see the World Record?

A new Spanish Carp record was set this weekend with a huge common of 34.5kg from in Zujara in the Extramadura region of Spain; famous for its big fish.

Andy Mac from the excellent Spanish Language Carp fishing magazine Carp Diem sent me the pictures but I dont have the fishermans name, perhaps you could add a comment on this post Andy with any other info you feel happy to give.





Another excellent capture from Spain was this fine 24kg Mirror caught by Raul whilst fishing with the Carp Diem team, these mirrors are rumoured to have been stocked into certain lakes by Franco, a keen fisherman, and its not often that one of these fine specimens grace the banks. A fantastic effort Raul and everyone here at Morocco Carp salutes your achievment, having fished many waters in Spain for many years I know just what a cracking fish that mirror is. Looking forward to fishing with the Carp Diem team during the Semana Espanola which we are planning for the third week of June...watch this space and give Oliver Alcon a ring for further information and bookings. Spaces are limited so if you would like to fish with some of the best Carp anglers in Spain on one of the hottest big fish venues in the world, dont delay.

Oliver Alcon - Morocco Carp Spanish Agent Tel 0034 661627981

Life in Bin el Ouidane

Mike Johansson from 360 factory with his second instalment called "Life - Bin el Ouidane"

Kurt Grabmayer shows how it is done on Bin el Ouidane

Our Austrian friends Kurt Grabmayer and Richard Rishald had an excellent couple of weeks on Bin el Ouidane at the end of january and were actually the first fisherman to bridge the gap between Morocco Carp and the incumbent Morocco Carp fishing.

Kurt and Richard fished hard on one of Morocco Carp's top swims, Twin waddies and were rewarded with 8 fish the biggest going 25.3 kg

Thank you Kurt for an entertaining and enlightening week and I look forward to seeing you guys on the banks again;

Check out this excellent report on Kurts web site.

Morocco Carp - January Vlog

A great January with 38 fish from 8 anglers with 9 over 20kg and 3 over 25kg.
February looks even better so why not subscribe to our blog and receive the latest catch reports by email?

66lbs asian big head carp

66lbs asian big head carp, originally uploaded by radcarper.

Sam Jeffreys, Morocco Carps newest skills transfer water bailiff with a 30kg 66lbs Asian Big head Carp caught by a local fisherman in his nets. These fish feed on plankton so Im not sure we could catch them on rod and line but Im going to try these must be the hardest fighting fresh water fishes anywhere and I want one!