Zoltan Kovacs

Competition Angler and CEO of SBS

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I first had the chance to visit Rainbow Lake in 2011 when, at that time, there were a number of sensational catches. During the one week trip I had wonderful and memorable moments and I was waiting for a chance to go back to this challenging and hard water. Six months after my first visit I had the opportunity to again fish this extraordinary water with my friend, Laszlo Pamer. I had to give a quick answer - I thought ‘I‘m going sleep on it’, but before I went to bed I knew that it would be a tragic mistake to miss an adventure like this.   

I already knew, that I would return sometime…

As an extra incentive, when we published the two-part article about our first trip, we received a lot of positive feedback and questions from several countries in Europe. We were able to provide a lot of valuable information about the early autumn period, when the water starts to cool down, and now we have the opportunity to show our tips and tricks on what we use in the late spring, when the water starts to warm up.

The unforgettable sunset of the first evening

It was midway through May when we arrived at Rainbow Lake, and in lovely sunshine we prepared our camp. By the next day a cold front had arrived, with heavy rain and wind; could this unpleasant weather be a good start for a successful fishing trip? The answer came when Imi Gyöngyösi in a neighbouring peg, had a big carp of over 65lbs during the first night. Then, on the following day he had another crazy time playing a big carp close to the submerged trees.   

A few days later, when the bad weather had gone, the sunny springtime weather returned. The temperature of the water started to rise and we witnessed giant carp spawning close to the bank. As a result, the carp would spend all day in the shallow water of the small channels, in and around the trees and bushes. Imi and his company, in these conditions, had great spots close to their peg and they did not hesitate to take advantage of the circumstances.

Small bubbles came up in one of the narrow channels. It is a good sign…

We are going to catch a big one like that

Let's go to the bushy channel!

Concentrated feeding around the end tackle

Because it was springtime, with the water warming up, we prepared mostly sweet flavoured baits, that is why we chose the 20+ Premium Phaze1 (spicy - fruity) boilies. I had success with my personal favourite, 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 20+ Premium Ace Lobworm boilies at home, because they have produced some amazing catches in a short period. In 2011 Imi Gyöngyösi had two carp over 65 lbs with this bait and in the same year at the World Carp Classic at Lac de Madine the SBS Szi-Ko Team Hungary won the biggest fish in section award with a massive 54.67 lbs carp.  

Phaze1, proven already many times with its spicy and fruity mixed flavour

Des Taylor, one of the experienced consultants for SBS had the biggest carp of his career with Phaze1 Pop Up. The weight of the fish was 75 lbs. 14 oz.

My personal favourite is the markedly orange coloured, Cranberry flavoured Hi Vis Fluro Pop Up. It has already produced some great catches during periods when it is hard to force a bite

We could not leave the 20+ Premium Ace Lobworm boiliesat home, because they produced great results in a short period: in 2011 at the World Carp Classic at Lac de Madine as members of the SBS Szi-Ko Team Hungary we won the biggest fish in section award with a massive 54.67 lbs.

Last year, Imi Gyöngyösi landed a nice common carp of 77.53 lbs. at Rainbow Lake…

… and also a giant mirror of 81.01 lbs.

As I mentioned before, Imi landed a great mirror carp at the start of the day, it sucked up a Cranberry Fluro Pop Up. As it turned out after weighing, this warrior was precisely 67.85 lbs. A few days later Imi again had a full on run, and after a heavy fight in a narrow bushy channel he landed a 60.07 lbs common. On this occasion he could thank the Eurostar range Pineapple-Banana boilies; with this bait many anglers have had success on the lake at this time of the year.

Imi was happy on the first morning of the session with this old warrior

It is possible that the 67.85 lbs. carp is older than the young angler

It is noticeable in the image, how big a body this carp has

The heavyweight channel resident weighed 60.07 lbs.

We fished from peg #19 with Laci, and had mostly deep water in front of us. This area was a prefect fishing spot in summer and also in autumn. We did not think that we were going to crave for the cold and rainy weather that we had experienced in the first few days. As soon as the good weather arrived, fish started to spawn again in the shallow water. On the third night, when we still had the cold period, something picked up the Ace Lobworm snowman (one bottom bait and one pop up). The bite alarm started to scream and we ran out of the bivvy as quickly as we could. After a strong battle with the fish we were very happy to read the weight of the fish on the scales, a massive 66.58 lbs.

Laci can be proud of his newest 65 lbs.+ catch

66.58 lb

Because of the wide variety of the SBS products, only our imagination can set a limit for the bait choice, how we combine the sinker, wafter or pop up baits

Just a few days had gone and yet we had already caught two carp over the magic 65 lb mark. The following days provided even more excitement; we are going to share these and also our tricks and tips in the following two parts of this series.

You can read about our exciting adventures at Rainbow Lake in the next parts of the series

To be continued…                                                            

Watch the first part of the series we recorded at Rainbow Lake (English subtitles are available):

By: Zoltán Kovács

Photos: Péter Takács, Zoltán Kovács, László Pámer, Imre Gyöngyösi

Video: Péter Takács