Zoltan Kovacs

Competition Angler and CEO of SBS

0

Life always has some surprises in store, challenging moments or undiscovered waters. During the last few years as a competition and test angler I stepped into many unknown areas. Nowadays I have the opportunity to introduce our products, new methods tried during my fishing adventures across many European waters. I was thinking about my next fishing destination, when my cell phone started to ring. Leslie Pamer was on the phone, and asked if I would like to spend two weeks with him at one of the most famous venues for Carp anglers, Rainbow-Lake. Many of you will think that if you have an invitation like this, you have to say 'yes' without thinking. I was a little bit doubtful, but finally I decided that I cannot miss an adventure like this. Finally I am happy to say that I had a real buzz during these two weeks, that I am going to share with you now... ;-)

Before we get started, I would like to explain why I hesitated to say 'yes' right away to the opportunity of fishing the Rainbow-Lake. First of all I had a lack of information about the lake, secondly a lot of issues were raised about how to make a video of the fishing. We did not want to keep the cameraman there for two weeks, and during few days there is no guarantee that we would have some nice catches. Finally the most important part, that everyone expects a great result, however it is not so easy to catch a big one there. I thought if we can land one or two fishes during the two weeks, maybe many anglers will say, that it was any easy job, anyone can do this at the Rainbow.    

Bird's eye view of the lake. It is easy to recognize that the fishing is not easy here, because of the extreme conditions. Bushes, trees and islands everywhere...

On the whole because of the reasons I mentioned above, our French challenge seemed risky, however such an adventure would have been difficult to refuse. After thinking a while, the following reasons convinced me not to stay at home:

• I will go with an angler who has experience and nice results at this lake
• He is happy to assist us to test some new SBS products, and partly he is going to use these baits during the two weeks
• Luckily I agreed with the cameraman Peter Takacs, that he is going to join us for 3 days to record the happenings

To make things more difficult, the first two days of the trip were at the same time as the last two days of the World Carp Classic at Lac de Madine. That is why I arrived two days late to the lake, and I was fully loaded with expectations because of the result that we achieved at the WCC.

At the WCC we finished at 7^th place and won the first prize for the biggest fish in section with a Carp of 24.80 kg

We finished in the prestigious 7^th place out of 130 teams, and we won the first prize for the biggest fish in section with a Carp of 24.80 kg. That is why I started to think that we would have a great result at Rainbow-lake as well, with the same newly developed bait that we used during the competition.

When I arrived at the famous lake, it was quite dark and I was very tired, so I went to bed. In the morning I got up, stepped out from the bivvy and I could not believe the amazing view, there are no words to describe it.

Stunning surrounding

I felt like I got up on another planet. The pinewood, the mysterious islands, the ducks and the sunrise like a moment in the movies. I came back to earth when I recognized bushes and the trees under the water. I immediately jumped on the boat, and started to use the fish finder to survey the area in front of our camp. I could not believe what I saw on the screen, I saw almost a forest under the water, and furthermore there were small islands with bushes and trees between the bank and the promising fishing spots. We had to lead the main line over these to put the bait to the chosen area.          

With the usage of the fish finder I found many promising spots

It is said, by those anglers who have not fished at Rainbow, that it is easy to catch big fishes there. If someone is not prepared, and arrives without the right accessories, - like crooks and sticks to lead the mainline - can turn back and go home. The next task to solve, that the best fishing spots are, one and all, exactly by the obstructions. If we have a bite, how can we keep away the fish from the obstruction ?

Obstructions, trees, bushes, islands... With common methods it is impossible to fish here

At least we discovered the promising fishing spots, the fishing rods are ready to fight, we are waiting for the first bite. In the meantime I got acquainted with the location and I am constantly thinking of how we can be more successful... While we were waiting for a bite, the son of our tour guide, Imi visited us. He was really excited, because he heard and read a lot about me and the SBS products. He is a young committed angler and it turned out, that he had already fished at this special lake many times. He said, that he had caught many fishes over 20 kg here, but he is still waiting for the real big one... They arrived 1 week before we did, and during this period he could not land an extremely big fish. I told him, that we are developing a new SBS series (I will tell you the details later) and I offered him the choice some of these new baits to try out. Imi loved the ones with Ace Lobworm and M1 flavours, and he took some small diameter Premium Pellets with the same taste. He went back to his camp, and he started to fish with the new baits. Next day Imi arrived with a smile on his face, and he told the whole story about the previous night, when he landed a 24 kg mirror with the new baits.

After we met, Imi had a great catch during the night with this nice 24 kg mirror

As a hookbait he combined a Squid & Octopus Dark Firefly pop up with an M1 boilie, and he put in a small PVA bag with small pellets.

He used the 20+ Premium series M1 boilie under tested with a Dark Fireflys pop up

Early morning he landed another nice 17.35 kg common. As Imi told us, the new bait convinced him so much, that he decided to solely use SBS products at his following session in October at the Rainbow.

Few hours later he could pose with a 17.35 kg common in front of the camera

We packed the baits for him for the next fishing session, and a few weeks later we got the news from Imi, that he had the most successful Carp fishing experience ever. He broke the two Hungarian records with his catches. He landed a massive 36.75 kg mirror with the new baits, but that was still not the end, he also had a 35.17 kg common in the same week. Until now he is the only one Hungarian who has caught this size Carp abroad.

The weight of this giant mirror carp is 36.75 kg!

It is noticeable on the image, how big he is

This result means that although not in Hungary, but among the Hungarian anglers a 20 year old young man has the record for the biggest common and mirror carp. Congratulations to him. We are extremely proud that we could assist him and be a part of this amazing catching series.

New record catch! Hungarian angler has never ever caught a common like this!

The weight of the fish is 35.175 kg

Let's go back to our session... Luckily we caught some nice fishes, so I was really happy, that according to these results we have good chance to shoot the film. After we started the shooting I landed a 16.5 kg mirror in front of the camera. I was very happy, but of course this is not the end of the story...

In the first night of the shooting we recorded the fight with this 16.5 kg warrior

To be continued...

Let's watch the first part of the series what we recorded at the Rainbow-lake (English subtitle is available):

Video: Péter Takács