Record Breaker Cuderman makes it a 50lb+ carp from 11 nations

1 May, 2015 | Carp | Articles | News

3 Comments

Kristof Cuderman has broken his own record yet again with the capture of a 25.4kg Romanian carp – The 11th nation where he has caught fish over that weight. The huge specimen was caught on a  Marine Halibut 15mm bottom bait with 10mm Butyric-C pop-up. Read on to find out more about his session….

 

 

By Kristof Cuderman…

 

In the end of April my father Slavko and I left for Romania for a fishing session at Monster Carp Lake. I went there with a goal set in my mind – to catch a carp over 50 lb (22,7 kg) and add the 11th country to my record.

Monster Carp Lake

The lake is located close to the Hungarian border in a village called Siclau which is 50 km north from the city Arad, surrounded by many agricultural fields. It is 6 ha big with 3 modern fishing positions. Each of them is suitable for 2 anglers with 3 fishing rods each. You have to make reservations beforehand with the owner of the lake. Wi-fi, electricity, fridge and potable water are available directly on the position so the comfort is well taken care of. You can use the boat and bait boat, other rules are similar to other private lakes. One week of fishing is 250 eur per angler and there are also unhooking mat’s and weight sling’s waiting for you there which helps save you some space when packing. Security is really high as the lake is fully fenced and under video surveillance. There are also lake employee’s present at all times to take care of comfort, security and tidiness of the lake. All further information about the lake and reservations are available at the website: http://www.monstercarplake.com

Origin of the lake

The lake was bought by today’s owner Ioan Vida »Saky« five years ago. His goal was to create a small lake with big fish that would be far from easy to fish. Considering he is one of the most renowned anglers in Romania, he had lots of experience and knowledge to start with and knew how to approach the challenge. He focused on breeding carp which was a very risky path he decided to take. Carp fishing has been well known for years in Romania, especially on lake Raduta, but people still carp fish mostly for food. In 2010 when he bought the lake he put in 300 carp from 10 to 16 kg with a goal to achieve a big growth in a short time. The results after four years were amazing as in spring 2014 first carp over 30 kg was caught. Not all the carp are able to grow up 20 or 30 kg due to their DNA so Saky decided to sell all the carp without the growth potential. He emptied the lake last autumn and excluded all none potential carp which now results in 180 carp being in the lake. They make a challenge for every angler to fish there as they don’t give in to the bait easily.

Monster Carp lake is from 1.6 to 2.5 metres deep. In spring months the whole lake is covered in grass, offering another food source to carp. It then rises to the surface in the summer. The owner of the lake comes for a few hours every day to make sure everything is okay and that the fisherman are treating the fish nicely. I was surprised to see Saky every day doing water tests to analyse specific values. I have visited numerous private lakes in the past but have never come across such enthusiasm and knowledge on the side of the owner.

 

Fishing the lake

Despite its size the fishing is a challenge there. The carp are big and very careful. Another advantage of theirs is the clear water as you can actually see to the bottom of the lake when the water is still. Until now maximum of the fish caught in one week by two fisherman was 18 carp which shows the difficulty of the lake. It often happened that all 6 fisherman on the lake only managed to catch 5 fish or one of the teams went home with zero catch. The positions are very equal in year-round catch due to minimal difference in depth.

Extremely small locations

I followed the lake’s Facebook page for about a year before I actually went there to fish. I knew I needed to give my maximum best, use all my knowledge and experience in order to succeed. A few anglers I know fished there before and they all agreed it was a difficult lake.

As we came to the lake the employee took all of our equipment to the position. Anglers before us were just packing up their last stuff so I quickly tried to get some information from them. The stuff they told me were not very promising as all 6 fisherman only managed to catch 5 carp in one week.

I didn’t want to waste any time so I quickly sat in the boat and went to search the lake. I was surprised how clear the water was and how much grass there was in the lake. It was mostly low grass about 30 cm high, grass high enough to reach the surface was only on some areas of the lake. It became clear to me I have to find clean areas. After detailed examination I found four clean spots that were about 1 x 1,5 metres big. Unfortunately there was still food left from previous anglers on those spots which meant that those spots were dead and carp were simply not feeding there in the past few days. I was constantly on the look for a carp but despite the clear water I haven’t seen one. I admit, I was very confused at that moment as I couldn’t compare it to any of the lakes I’ve been to before. At first sight it seemed as if the lake was empty and the carp were in fact ghosts. Nothing seemed as if they were there. I decided to take another thorough look at my fishing spot to find the path to success. I’ve let the wind slowly carry me in my boat over the area while I searched and examined the bottom. I came across the first ”hole” in the grass very soon. It was about 20 x 30 cm big and it was a spot that was not covered in grass. I could tell it was made a day or two ago by a carp looking for his natural food. I was very happy to have found an active spot. I needed about 2 hours to find six suitable locations. Each of our rigs was placed on its own spot as those were really really small. The biggest of them was 50×50 cm big. It is not only important to find a clear spot but to also determine whether or not the spot is active – if the carp were feeding on it recently. They are going to be less cautious coming to feed to those spots as they made them themselves when searching for food.

Bait and rigs

The boilies I took with me were Dynamite Baits Robin Red, Squid Liver & Black Pepper and Marine Halibut. I decided to take Robin Red because they always showed to be a good choice when fishing in the spring. Other two kinds of boilies are two of my all-time favourites so there was no doubt I was going to bring them. Along with the boilies I used my standard mix of pellets: Red Krill, The Source, Robin Red, Amino original, Betaine Green and Marine Halibut and a mix of particles: Frenzied Hempseed Spicy Chilli, Frenzied Mixed Particles and Frenzied Maize.

Fluro Pop-up Squid & Octopus, Pineapple & Banana, Secret Slammer and The Source all showed to be excellent.

The rigs were made of Fox components: Pear 112g lead, Arma Point SSBP and SR Hook 4, Coretex Matt in 35 lb. Despite clear water I didn’t use fluro carbon as I think the hooklink is the last thing that could scare the carp away from the feeding spot.

To place the rigs precisely on the micro locations I needed quite a few tries. I only fed after I was completely satisfied by my placement. I always tried to place the rig right in the centre of the location. I only fed a little in the beginning to see if I was going to be able to fool the carp that way.

First two days

On Sunday evening, at 6 PM everything was set and we were waiting for the first take. It happened at 4 in the morning. I didn’t need much time to get the carp into the landing net and was happy to see a 18,1 kg mirror. This carp confirmed that I found at least one good location. On Monday and Tuesday we caught all together 8 carp. The heaviest of them was 21,7 kg.

Third day

Wednesday was all we could wish for. It was 11:20 when my father got a take. The carp didn’t resist much in the beginning but it did much more as it came closer to the bank. Right before I got it into the landing net the owner of the lake came and helped us with the weighing. The carp was my father’s new PB – a 28,6 kg common. It was caught on Dynamite Baits Robin Red 15 mm boilie + 10 mm Secret Slammer Fluro Pop-up.

I returned the rig to its position. As I came back we chatted a little and I said it would be a dream for me to catch a mirror over 25 kg now. A few minutes later, at 12:40, we got disturbed by another take – this time on my rod. After good 10 minutes of fight we saw a big mirror in front of the bank. I knew it had to be over 50 lb but I still waited anxiously to see what the scale says. It showed 25,4 kg. I couldn’t believe it, my wishes totally came true. With this catch I improved my record by one country. It is now 11 countries over 50 lb. The carp was caught using Marine Halibut 15mm bottom bait with 10mm Butyric-C pop-up. The system was made of Fox components – Arma Point SR Hook 4 and Coretex Matt 35 lb.

Fourth day

Thursday, fourth day in Romania, fishing was still going strong. The carp were most active early in the morning. We caught four carp, the heaviest being 21,6 kg. Until Thursday night we have already had 16 fish all together and 8 of them were over 20 kg. We only lacked three carp to break the lake’s record.

I saw the carp from the boat for the first time that day. They came right up to me and many of them seemed to be well over 25 kg. They swam in small groups of three to five, very close to each other. I could tell by their behaviour that they were getting ready to spawn.

Last few days

Fishing in Romania continued in a similar tempo through Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Carp were loving the food and in the end our result was 25 carp with 13 of them over 20 kg. The heaviest in the last three days was 23 kg. We ended our fishing session on Sunday with an amazing experience that will be impossible to forget and hard to beat.

Many thanks to the owner of Monster Carp Lake, Ioan Vida (Saky) for his hospitality. I have to say the owner’s knowledge about breeding and handling fish results in healthy and fit inhabitants of the lake. I fished many lakes across the world but have never seen such beautiful carp in an excellent condition. I was happy about the fact that it is a small lake that doesn’t contain too many fish. The record of carp caught in one week by a team is 18 and we managed to beat it. I will be happy to come back to the lake in the future to try to catch another massive carp and would recommend the lake to everyone eager to catch some big fish.

Conclusion

I’ve had an amazing week in which I managed to catch 9 fish over 20 kg and improve my world record by adding another country to it. Now there are 11 countries on the list: Slovenia, Croatia, Austria, Italy, France, Germany, Belgium, Bosnia, Serbia, Hungary and Romania. At this opportunity I would like to thank my sponsors – the best team in the world Dynamite Baits and company Fox who takes care of my fishing equipment. You always got to have goals set for the future and I have them. One of them is definitely improving world record that I currently hold.