TWO hundred carpers descended on a lake in Romania last week in search 
of a world record breaking carp.
Sarulesti Lake is confidently tipped to hold a fish of at least 90lb, and top 
carp anglers in 104 teams from more than 30 countries spent the week 
trying to claim their place in history, and to claim to carping World Cup 
being held there. Among them were well known UK carpers Paisley and 
Chilcott.
“That’s why we come all this way – for the big fish,” said Paisley’s 41-year-old
 partner Steve Briggs from the banks of the bleak reservoir 28 miles from 
Bucharest, at the halfway point of the six day Carp World Cup.
The water was created when former communist dictator Nicolae 
Ceausescu dammed the Danube River to flood the area in a misguided 
attempt to expand waterborne shipping. Four villages were lost underwater
 in the process and residents given only 72 hours notice that their homes 
would be submerged.
The carp in Sarulesti Lake grow big on a rich diet of crayfish, worms and 
mussels and the current world carp record, a common of 82lb, was caught 
from the venue by an Austria angler in 1998. Locals are confident bigger 
fish are there for the taking.
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 what is no known as ‘the carp angler’s Everest’.
 He held his first World Cup there in 1999. 
There are two parts to the competition – the biggest individual catch and the
 total weight of fish over the week. Pairings draw for a peg which they fish 
on for the full six days and contestants pay nearly some £2000 to enter and
might spend as much on bait during the competition. 
“It’s one of the best places in the world for carp,” said eventual winner Kurt 
Grabmayer, who runs a rod and reel shop in Vienna, Austria.
Austrian Manfred Pfeffer with a big Sarulesti common.

Kurt was fishing with Manfred Pfeffer and they had banked five carp for 
198lb at the halfway point of the match. They finished the match with 22 fish 
for 235kilos, 15kilos clear of the second placed team, another Austrian 
outfit. An Italian pairing finished third with Chilcott and Jenkins the top 
placed Brits in fourth. They banked 19 fish to 34lb over the six days, for 
a total of 162 kilos. 
The winning pairing brought with them four metre Grabmayer rods especially
 manufactured for the event, which enabled them to cast the required 150
metres from their peg.
Nearly 4000kilos of carp were landed, but there were no world carp record. 
The biggest fish of the event at 23kilos fell to the Dutch pairing of Sukens 
and Rollick. 
NAMES OF THE TEAM
Country
Place
No. Of Fishes
Biggest Fish
Total Weight
1 GRABMAYER/PFEFFER
Austria
67
22
23.3
235.5
2 ZADERER/ANGERER
Austria
22
25
14
220.2
3 PASINI/BERTONI
Italy
21
16
19.2
178.9
4 CHILCOTT/JENKINS
G.B.
85
19
15.2
162.9
5 BOYLE/ST. CYR
USA
75
12
19.2
116.9
6 MANDRIOLI/RAMBALDI
Italy
48
18
11.2
114.3
7 LAZZARINI/MICHELE
Italy
43
12
12.6
106
8 BANGIEVSKI/BOGDANOVS
Macedonia
20b
13
12.6
101.1
9 SVINCOV/SVINCOV
Ukraine
104
12
15.8
99.9
10 HOFER/BERMOND
Germany
54
19
8.5
97.5