Return to Rainbow - The ultimate challenge - Part 1

Breathtaking Location Extreme Angling Thrilling Battles Monster Carp Rig tips Thrills and Spills Final Outcome Tips & Tricks Return to Rainbow - The Ultimate Challenge - Part 1 Hi, welcome everybody Anglers who have already had a chance to fish on such a difficult water as Rainbow Lake in France, where everyone has the chance to catch a record fish, can easily fall in love with the place. I first fished here in autumn 2011 and now I have the chance to join László Pámer and put myself to the test again at this extraordinary lake. When I got the opportunity to join the team, I thought I am going sleep on it to decide, but before I went to bed, I already knew, I would return. There was an extra incentive, when we published the two-part series article about our first trip, we received a lot of positive feedback and questions from several countries in Europe. I hope that you will find a lot of useful information here that will help you to improve your fishing and bank that real big catch. Join me again now for the following few minutes as I relive my experiences; lean back and enjoy the fun just as you did with the first series. We are fishing from peg #19 again. The only difference, in autumn the water temperature turned cooler and now, because it is spring it is just the opposite situation. We arrived to lovely sunshine, but the next day when we started to set up our camp and prepare our fishing gear, heavy wind and rain arrived. Send your great-grandmother! Looking at the current weather it is unbelievable that few days ago we had extremely bad weather. Now we have proved the proverb, that bad weather for the angler is a good base for a real big catch. Imre Gyöngyösi, whom I introduced in the previous parts, is fishing in the neighbourhood now. Imi landed a 30.80 kg (67.9 lbs.) mirror in the heavy rain, and few days later a common carp over 26 kg (57 lbs.). He caught both carp in the shallow water from the leeward part of the bushy channels. Yesterday we went to join Imi and he showed us the baits that he used and the place where these beautiful carp came from. Now we are at the same channel where Imi caught his two giant carp, refreshing the bait in the places where the catches occurred. It is wondrous, that it is possible to catch big carp in such a tight place as this. Here is a small tree underwater, we sidestep it… I used one Phaze1 balanced wafter boilie as a hookbait, and I prepared a stick mix in PVA mesh made of the groundbait and the liquid included in the All In Flumino Box. I throw some boilies around my hook. It is done, we can go. The hookbait is in the right place. Until we get back to the lakeside, let's watch the moments of Imi's catch! Wow, it is beautiful. It is much bigger than we thought! I said 27 kg (60 lbs.) at first. 27. 250 kg (60.07 lbs.) Beautiful! Ohhhhh, come back! Okay, let him go. Did you see that? The main line runs through a hook fixed on the tree there and the other one goes here in the sticking bar. Here we need to come round, because of this snag. Now we are going to the place where Imi caught the biggest fish of this session till now, a 30.80 kg (67.9 lb) mirror carp. The previous place was also an extreme one, but if you see this one… It is incomprehensible. For those who have not fished a place like this it is unthinkable that it is possible to catch a fish here. The end tackle is in the right place, done with the feeding. Hopefully we will a catch a bigger one from here. Can you see how we have to navigate between snags and trees to come out? It is in the hook. As you can see there is a hook fixed on the branch, we can lead our main line with it, which is how we can avoid being stuck on the underwater snags. From here it is a bit easier, we can go back to the lakeside. After this, let's watch the biggest fish up until now. It was Imi's catch from this place. 30.775 kg! (67.9 lbs.) You did like the Cranberry, didn't you? Good bye. It is always important to check that the pop up floats as it should. Let's check it! It performs perfectly. I’ll move it a little bit, it moves easily with the current, but it does not shift from the lakebed. I would like to call your attention to two things. First of all, as I did not use a hook especially for pop ups, I fixed the hair with a small piece of silicone tube to the shank of the hook. The second important thing is to find the right balance. You should add some weight to the hook length. The bait performs well, if it moves a little bit with the current so fish can take it easily, but it does not lift from the bottom. Now it is ready to go. The pop up hookbait is ready to go and now you will smile, but the most bites I had was when I used a PVA mesh filled with Flumino Groundbait and some particles. I put it on, make the finishing touches, navigate the boat in the right direction, it is a good fishing spot. The only disadvantages here are the snags. If I am going to have a bite and I can keep clear of them, I will have a good chance to have a fish, or we will have to use our special tool with a hook to free the line. I have one more thing to do - I’ll throw a small shovel of the seed-mix exactly on it. We can go. Another point of interest. We use here a so-called line biter with reflective tape around it, which I attach to the main line. When we are coming out from the lakeside by boat it is a useful tool, because it sits on the surface and allows us to keep our eyes on the water showing where the main lines are. As you can see the main lines are quite close to each other, but with the light of the headlamps it is much easier to navigate if we use this bite indicator. I have mentioned the warming water, let's see what kind of baits we brought for this session. We prepared mostly sweet flavoured baits; we chose the 20+ Premium Phaze1 (spicy - fruity) boilies, the orange colour Hi Vis Fluro Pop Ups Cranberry and also the Pineapple-Banana flavoured boilies from the Eurostar range. I could not leave the fismeal based Ace Lobworm boilies at home, because they have produced some amazing catches in a short time. I did not think that this boilie would play an important role during this trip. Well, you are right, but we should not go further, keep the punchline to the end! First of all I would like to tell you why we chose these flavours for this time, from the wide variety available from SBS. Let me start with Ace Lobworm. I put them in my bag because, as you could see in the previous parts, Imi had two giant carp with this one, therefore it could not be left at home. Phaze1 was a new flavour in 2012; just two weeks ago our SBS consultant Des Taylor had his personal best, a massive mirror of 34 kg (75 lbs. 14 oz.) with this bait, also here at Rainbow Lake. I took the Pineapple-Banana flavoured boilies from the Eurostar range, because a lot of anglers can thank this bait for big catches here. Cranberry is one of my favourites and it is important to say, that I always like to use some buoyant hookbaits. Until now it seems that it is a good tactic here, but you will see that later on. I would like to add, that by the standards of Rainbow usually smaller carp picked up this bait, but some of these would be a record catch at most of the commercial lakes. Laci, tell us, why was the Ace Lobworm so special for you this time? Imi had the upper edge at the beginning of this session and we were looking forward a bit despondently and I thought it is not our turn now. Finally on the third night we had luck and we landed a giant carp with this bait. After it took an Ace Lobworm snowman we had a really hard fight, because it ran straight into the snags, but finally we freed it with our special tool with a hook at the end and we could land the fish. At first it didn’t seem so big, we estimated around 27-28 kg, but we were very happy when we saw the scale. Over 30 kg, it was exactly 30.20kg (66.58 lbs.). Yes, you are right. We did not think that it was so big. This weight was a surprise for us, but a good and enjoyable surprise. It was a male mirror carp. I know this was your fifth carp over 30 kg (66 lbs.) and two of them have been caught with SBS baits. Please show us the bait combination of Ace Lobworm boilies which you can thank for your fifth carp over 30 kg. The wide variety of SBS products caused me trouble, because there are so many kinds of boilies made, from the ordinary bottom bait to the wafters, which gives you the edge on these hard-fished waters. This one is wafters, it doesn't float in the water, but it is critically balanced, neutrally buoyant. There is a third kind also available, and to top it all it is made in three sizes, that is the Ace Lobworm Pop Up. I had to put these kinds together to get a combination that I like. My favourite bait combination is the snowman but I really don't like to use a heavyweight putty or a split shot to weight the rig. The desired position is when the hook is laying on the ground, but the bait is floating above. That is why I chose a pop up, which performs perfectly together with the sinking boilie and they are moving naturally with the current above the hook. Now you can see how it floats under the water, but I have to tell you and it is very important, Laci uses strong and heavy hooks. Lots of anglers like to use thinner and lighter hooks. If you use hooks like that, it is always recommended to set the balance of the sinking and the buoyant bait. You should chip the pop up a bit to set the right balance to get the same effect. I think we should not stall for time, let's see the fish! Look, it is over 30 kg (66 lbs.) 30.2 kg (66.58 lbs.) So there! Laci, Congratulations, This one is also over 30 kg (66 lbs.) Beautiful, 30.2 kg (66.58 lbs.)!