Zoltan Kovacs

Competition Angler and CEO of SBS

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People always want more, but I would have been satisfied with this result, too – the first time at Rainbow Lake. My other wish was that Peti, our professional cameraman could record the catch of a nice specimen. When starting the three days of fishing with Laci we hoped to catch some nice carp, but we hadn’t dreamt about recording the catch of more than one fish above 20 kg. At the top of it, the greatest experience was catching a beautiful mirror carp above 30 kg – and it was our last catch. Attention, the next pictures might be shocking. :)

After catching a mirror carp of 16.5 kg, I again placed the end tackle to the spot where I fished before, hoping to catch a nice specimen in front of the camera …

My first take during the night in front of the camera

Got it!

Waiting for the full run

The next morning I had a run on the same rod. The bite alarm was screaming and the fish tore away as fast as a train. Peti turned the camera on. As Laci was on his way back from feature finding in the boat, there was a run on his rod, too and …

A beautiful wildcarp of 22kg

Seeing a water like this, every angler becomes excited

I was playing fish with both hands at Rainbow. I had already experienced something like this before at Carp angling competitions, but it only rarely happens at such a big lake where it is not unusual to wait days for a catch! So, there I was, struggling with two rods until Laci got closer with the boat, then I gave him one of the rods to follow the fish by the boat while I tried to lead the other fish to the shore as I did the previous evening. Finally, we successfully caught both of the fish, and we were able to have pictures taken together holding them.

I had a scary face when I was playing with the fish with Laci's rod and my bite alarm started to scream

Two actions at the same time

Laci with a Carp of 23.20kg from the bush …

… and me with a mirror carp of 18.50kg

It was quite ironic that the carp I was playing weighed 18.50kg and Laci’s 23.20kg. Anyway, it was a fantastic experience, just like a fabulous spectacle.

Fantastic experience

We were lucky that neither of the fish got stuck in the snags, but let’s see what we can do if this happens. I have mentioned that the best places were in front of the obstructions. If the fish on the hook swims through the branch of an obstruction, then we can’t pull the line up to the surface and it is almost impossible to pull or guide the fish back through the obstruction the same way that it had travelled. What can we do in this case? Let’s see …

We led the main line through hooks fixed on these kind of bars

Sticking bars on the side of small islands we have more chance to catch a fish

The tool, similar to a cutting hook, was developed for this purpose, where the hook at the end is not sharp and bends to a larger force. With this hook you can look for the line, if the fish passes through the obstruction after the run. After finding the other end of the line we cut it, pull it out from the obstruction, then tie it together again and go after the fish. It is interesting that the largest fish don’t jump into the obstructions; they rather turn out and away from them. If we are lucky we can land the fish close to the surface. If that doesn’t succeed, then we have to try to go towards open water, tire the fish and land it there. You can see it in detail in the short film.

Lines in the air …

I know it is a bit shocking that you cut your main line when the carp of your dreams might be on the end of the line, but sometimes you need to do this to bring success. The other important thing for your success is the tackle. At the end of the braided main line there is 20 m of shockleader. I know it sounds as strange as biting the line, but it is essential to your success. The braided line indicates the run on the end tackle in front of the obstruction and this way we can react immediately. After that, raising the rod and keeping it firm, we can turn the fish out of the obstruction.
Why do we need the shockleader, then? The braided line is prone to cut into the wood and can embed itself into the obstruction, becoming almost impossible to pull out. If the fish moves, the inflexible braided line can tear the hook out of the fish’ mouth, and it is not very considerate, either.

We need the braided line to detect the run immediately

I used the shellfish-resistant PB Products Shield shockleader in the last 15-20 meter

In contrast with this, the shockleader is flexible and doesn’t cut itself into the wood. Using this, the fish won’t be harmed in the obstruction. You can see how this works in the short film.
Let’s talk about the end tackle now. I will show you the version used by Laci:
The end tackle is safe; this means that it will drop/lose the lead if it gets caught. The lead is at least 200g, which is essential so that the fish hooks itself – in many cases there is no chance to do it from the shore. The lead does it for us. The hook link is always a braided line, at least 25 lb, but 50 lb is suggested. What about the length of the hook link? If we aim to catch giant carp, we can use a longer hook link of about 25-30cm long. This method might be more comfortable for the fish to feed – it doesn’t need to tilt forward because of its big stomach, instead it sucks up the bait into its mouth. It can’t happen if the hooklink is only 10-15cm.

But it is true that in most cases giant carp usually feed near the edge of the plateau – here the carp can suck up the bait easily just from the side of the plateau without leaning forward. In this case the length of the hooklink is inconsequential.

The most proven end tackle …

We still have to talk about the size of the hook. Laci rather prefers the “big fish, big bait” theory, but sometimes he is not averse to using smaller baits. If he uses bigger sized baits (20-24mm) with a pop-up, it is obvious that he needs bigger hooks in this case, generally size 2.
And finally, there is one more very important thing, for most of us the most important factor – the bait.
I have mentioned in the previous part that Laci uses partly SBS products and takes part in product testing, as well. Laci usually uses his home-made boilies, but this time he had his own boilies on two rods and SBS on the other two. I was really happy about this because we could compare the two types of boilies. Secretly I hoped that the SBS baits would overcome his own favoured boilies. And we all know how difficult it is to persuade someone as to the effectiveness of another product…

The snowman bait proved to be very effective

We had the following SBS-products with us: Ace Lobworm, M1, M2, Bio Big Fish – he chose M1 without hesitation. He put a pop-up of 20mm next to the 20mm sinking bait. He weighted this bait so that although the bait was floating the hook was lying on the bottom thanks to the lead shot placed on the stem of the hook link.
His own home-made boilies were – sounds a bit strange - chocolate flavoured.
He spread cooked cornmix with the baits in almost every case, which contained the following:

• tiger nuts
• peanuts
• beans
• hemp
• colza
• megacorn

For feeding we used a corn mix with the boilies

According to our experiences these cooked corns were most effective when the sugar derived from the tiger nuts start to ferment and a jellylike, viscous layer forms around the corns.

Of course, we also spread some free (hook bait) boilies around the hook. We repeated this feeding method in every case, every time we brought in our rigs.
Now let’s talk about the fish we caught, but before that I will tell you the result of the boilie-battle of Laci’s baits vs. SBS products. Laci caught 8 carp above 20kg. 6 came for the SBS M1 and 2 for his own boilies. The two biggest carp came for the M1. Have a look at the photos of the nicest ones:

Another specimen above 20kg

Close to thirty! Its weight: 28.20kg

It is quite shocking to catch so many giant carp during a fishing trip, but as I have written at the beginning, I would have been satisfied with that result, not to mention this mirror carp of 28.80kg – you can see the fish being played in the film.After the three days were over, Peti packed and finished the last recordings.

Life is the best director

We were close to the end of our fantastic fishing trip and understood that life is the best director. As Peti left we still caught some fish, among others a special sturgeon of 17.50kg and then, something that we had never dreamed about, a mirror carp of 34.20kg, falling to M1, as the last catch. It crowned this unforgettable trip with László Pámer.

Next to the Carp we caught a giant sturgeon as well

A native of Rainbow Lake weighed 34.20kg

A catch like this is a lifetime experience

There is only one thing that I have left to share with you. This is the testing I have already mentioned. On European waters, especially on ones with large surfaces and smaller fish populations, where bream and crayfish might cause some problems, hard baits have to be used, which stay longer on the hair. These baits have the disadvantage that they are so hard that they enclose the valuable, attracting ingredients within themselves and are therefore less effective. SBS developed the 20+ Premium range with a special mix, which remains almost as soft as other boilies, and retain great effectiveness. These baits emit the ingredients easily, don’t fall to pieces, are resistant to the attacks by the bream and the crayfish, and can stand in water thanks to a revolutionary ingredient. The testing results speak for themselves:

World Carp Classic 2011: 7th place, 24.80kg - the biggest fish of the sector

Rainbow Lake September 2011: 8 pieces of carp above 20kg, the biggest fish: 34.20kg

Rainbow Lake November 2011: 36.75kg…

… and 35.17kg

These test results prove that the 20+ Premium series is the best bait for giant-carp-angling. I would like to say thank you to all those anglers who helped in testing the 20+ series.

Dear Carp-Anglers! I wish you successful angling with big carp and great experiences with the innovative and novel bait products from SBS.

Enjoy the short film and click on the icon for the English subtitle!

Photo, video: Péter Takács, Zoltán Kovács, Imre Gyöngyösi