Confessions of a Rainbow virgin – day 7.

Friday was a good day – I’d landed my personal best mirror late into the hours of big fish Thursday and despite having not slept a wink on the Thursday night I felt great! The weather didn’t show signs of improving today and eventually the lack of sleep caught up on me – I was ruined by 7am in the morning!

Slipping back the chunk after the photos.

 Just after first light with the pictures done of my new PB, I redid the rod fished over the bars in 9ft of water with exactly the same rig that had nobbled the 57-pounder – double tiger nut with an Enterprise Immortal plastic boilie 10mm in the middle – spaced out a bit like a kebab rig. 

The rig that nobbled the 57-pounder - the only difference was the Immortal boilie was white!

From the start of this trip I’d set my stall to try and winkle a bite off of each spot so with 2 nights remaining I needed to speed things along a little and try and tempt another bite off this spot but with sensible bait application. The biggun’ had crapped out in the recovery sling exactly what I needed to see – a mix of hemp, tiger and boilie poo – exactly what I’d previously baited the spot with! She must have been having it away munching her way down a 60yd baited stretch in the deep water, between the bars, enjoying her free meal before, BANG - I’d hooked her! I just love it when a plan comes together!

The 40lb Power Pro mainline braid and my aging Shimano Aerlex reels performed without fault - this combo was awesome in fact!

For the record the rig that nailed the 57-pounder had been out there in position for the best part of 4 days – so you kinda see where I’m coming from when I say I needed to speed things along as I only 2 nights left to get another bite from that spot! I was so confident with the baiting and rig positioning previously that I really couldn’t have done anything any better, so it was just a case of waiting until a chunk came along – which she did! In the back of my mind the longer the rig was out there – the better the chance of a biggie and that’s the way it worked.

On re-doing the rod, I dispensed with any form of PVA bag and just trickled in ½ pint of hemp and crushed tigers, 10 brazil nuts halved, two handfuls of pellets and 20 halved boilies all scattered in a 10yd area – that was it. With this plan sorted and the rod re-done my mind moved to which rod might go next – that was two rods I’d had bites from and I had two to go!

To the left of the ducks is a small island with an overhanging tree - the spot was just underneath this branch.

My banker rod going into Friday night was my left-hander. I’d hatched another plan earlier in the week on a tasty little spot that I’d been told about by a mate. On Tuesday morning I’d been out in the boat and investigated an overhanging tree that just looked like a really likely ambush point. After tying the boat into the tree I had a good feel around with the prodding stick and the bottom in one particular tight spot close to the edge of the tree was 7ft deep and rock hard – that’s the feeding spot then! I baited with 2kg of chopped boilies along with a good mix of hemp, crushed tigers, Tuna amino liquid and mixed pellets. In total I baited with 5kg of wet mix – all of which I poured straight down onto this little hard dinner plate I’d previously found.  With the spot baited I decided to leave this as my fifth spot and come onto it later in the week if one of my other four spots wasn’t looking likely for a bite! This move to bait and leave was to become a decisive move but I’ll get to that in a minute as to why!

On Thursday morning I decided to move one of rod that I was fishing out over the bars (the other rod on the bars eventually produced the 57) onto this left-hand spot. This new spot was only 40 yards down to my left but it required a bit of careful positioning with the boat and generally it was an awkward trap to set but after 20 minutes of faffing around in the boat and another kilo of my hemp/ pellet/tiger/boilie mix over the top my hookbait was positioned and the trap was set.

Life jacket at the ready closest to the rod I thought my go next - I was right!

As darkness descended on Friday evening I was absolutely dead on my feet and decided to half zip the bivvy door down to keep the damp evening air out of the bivvy and try and catch up on some much-needed sleep. I crashed out a 6.30pm only to awake an hour later feeling like it was 6am in the morning. I resigned myself that sleep just wasn’t going to happen, got the kettle on for a strong coffee and sit there in the semi-darkness of my bivvy and listen for fish. As I was supping on my brew I heard a fish roll over the spot down to my left – game on they had finally found the bait! Suddenly I wasn’t tired as the plan hatched on the Tuesday was starting to come together. 

 

8pm and whack the left-hand rod alarm went into spasm-mode and I’m doing battle once again. With the clever use of a bankstick placed on a shallow bar opposite the actual spot my plan was to crank from my end and pull the fish away from any danger and out into open water and then go and deal with it in the boat. The plan worked perfectly - I made 10 turns on the reel and with Tim’s help I manoeuvred the boat through the shallow gap between the islands and off I disappeared into the evening mist for another open-water boat battle. As I approached the area I could see that my float was well away from the overhanging tree and the fish was just plodding around deep down in 9ft of water. I lifted the line from around the bankstick and was then in direct contact with the fish – she felt a pretty decent one too. A couple of lunges later and a few efforts to spin the boat I caught my first glimpse of a battle-scarred common in my headtorch. She had a distinctive mark on one side of her flank and seemed pretty peeved that I’d managed to extract her from her feeding spot. Two deep lunges later and up she came and into the net first time. I was elated – my baiting tactic had worked, the rig positioning must have been bang-on and the simple use of a bankstick had given me the line angle to pull the fish away from the snag and out into open water!

I beached the boat on one of the shallow small islands and took a closer look - she looked at least 40lb but I was faced with a dilemma of how to get me and the fish back to the bank. The shallow bar between the two islands directly in front of my left-hand rod was too shallow to get through with the fish held by the side of the boat. Decision time…what to do? Then I figured it – unhook her in the net, roll down the net and place her on top of the unhooking mat that I’d laid in the front of the boat. Well it worked a treat and I was able to get enough speed up with the motor to lift the engine as I got to the shallow bar to drift into my mooring point – I must be a dead jammy git as it worked first time with a little assistance from a bankstick as an oar!

Tim presumed I’d lost the fish but I soon explained that the carp was secured inside the boat inside the mat, he laughed and congratulated me on my improvisation to get around a fairly tricky problem. After letting the fish recover in the sling for a few minutes we weighed her and the needle spun past 45lb and came to rest at 49lb exactly! Holy sh*t I’d just landed a PB common too, less than 24hours after landing a PB mirror – what a trip this was turning into, a red-letter one for sure!

Second personal best in less than 24 hours - this time it was a 49lb common!

Tim did the honours with the photos once again and nailed em’ - the fish was a real old warrior with well-healed battle scars on both flanks, certainly a distinctive carp moe than a pretty one! She behaved perfectly for me as we did the pictures and with her returned to her home I shuffled back to bed a very happy carp angler indeed!

Well this entry concludes my confessions of a Rainbow virgin blog! I hope you’ve enjoyed reading my ramblings as much as I have putting them together sat on my laptop in my bivvy on the banks of one of the most amazing carp lakes in the world. This blog was all about what was going on in my mind as it happened, when it happened, blow-by-blow written at the place it was all going on. I can’t really sum up this trip in one poignant sentence so I’ve decided not to even bother trying – the way I see it, I fished well, I had a plan, I stuck to it and it eventually paid off for me. The best bit for me isn’t about the PB’s it’s that this Rainbow virgin ain’t a virgin no more – now I’m a Rainbow angler – job done, can’t wait to go back! Thanks for reading, Jerry Team CC.

Home time - but this time by plane!

Special thanks to Pascal & Nadine Jousseaume, Tim Paisley, Frank Warwick, Lewis Porter, Scott Day, Martin Locke, George Csonka, John Lilley, Matt Rand, Andy Pethick, Paul Musson, John Walker, Dave Chilton and Lewis Read for all your help and support before and during the trip!

Confessions of a Rainbow virgin – day 6.

The weather was on the change - it felt freezing!

Thursday turned out to be a cold, cold late November day, totally unlike the incredible warm sunny days we’d experienced during the early part of the week. It was almost as though a switch had been flicked from summer to winter during one phase of never-ending darkness. Following the captures of Tim’s 65 and Tom’s 82, our spirits were so high and there was a real buzz around the whole lake as we entered big-fish Thursday. Something I’ve witnessed this so many times on overseas trips that do a roll-on, roll-off system on a Saturday. Basically imagine this – you arrive at the lake Saturday, you’re knackered and generally it’s carnage as everyone gets into their swims and generally causes loads of disturbance. At Rainbow it’s been no different – Saturday was slow, Sunday the odd fish were getting picked off and then as things started to settle down, so naturally do the carp as well. By Monday, bait has been on the spots for three days and the fish seem to respond by being slightly less cautious. By Wednesday / Thursday things are getting even better – the fish are accustomed to where they can feast around the lake and as the bait starts to be gorged those biggun’s start to get confortable, they trip up and get caught.

Motor at the ready!

 For me Thursday was great day, witnessing an 80-pounder on the bank is an experience I’ll never forget as long as I live but for me personally it was soon to get even better. Back in swim 21, nothing had changed dramatically except for the large banks of mist and fog that were drifting in just before dusk. It was cold, damp and generally pretty gloomy, BUT, and a big but, it was big-fish Thursday and Thursday wasn’t done just yet! By 10pm I was pretty fed up of the mist drifting into my bivvy and everything, including me felt damp. My crocs had been replaced by my winter thermal boots and the new Fox winter suit was cracked on as I huddled over the stove, perched on the edge of my bedchair trying to keep warm. After trying to upload yesterday’s blog several times and failing, I resigned myself to getting my head down and crashing out. I think I’d only just dozed off when my middle right rod let out a series of short, sharp bleeps. I jumped up, boots on, glasses on (steamed up) and went to investigate. The rod tip rocked again in my headtorch light and Tim who was by this time by my side said the same thing as I was thinking – “that’s on boy”! I retracted the rod from the butt rests, hit it and sure enough there was indeed something attached to the end – game on! 

Darkness descended - little did I know what the evening would bring in my direction!

 Life jacket on, into the boat and the old heart was pumping again and the reliable right leg doing it’s shaking thing again! I gradually wound myself over the first bar 30yds out, carefully navigating under my other two rods and then I had a clear run out to the fish. At this point the mist was savage and my headtorch for all its power was bouncing back off the fog and I was forced to drop it down a power notch just to be able to see where the hell I was heading. Before long I passed a landmark white post that was about half way between the bank and the spot, good I was getting there. As I gradually kept making line I caught glimpse of my float and a massive swirl erupted behind it. As soon as the fish saw me coming it tried to bolt away and shifted some serious water in doing so, but it couldn’t move because the line was trapped under something. By this point I was only 20ft away from the fish but a shallow bar no more than 2ft deep separated me from the fish. I couldn’t go over it and there was no way this fish wanted to come over it - stalemate. At that point I was slightly overwhelmed – there were just too many things to consider and they were all going on at the same time – it was just too much for my small brain! I caught another glimpse of the fish as it rolled up onto its side to try and get over the bar and possibly away to freedom – it was big, very big and bigger than anything I’d ever hooked before. By this time both of my legs were shaking and because I was totally pumped with adrenaline it was making me feel physically sick.

Sickness aside my first issue to overcome was to get the line that was trapped under something free because it was stopping me from making any line on the fish and it was still a stalemate situation. I had the fish to my left, the float to my right and I was somewhere in between. I rocked the boat off the bar and moved with the motor in reverse over to my right. “Get your head together boy – this is a biggun” I kept saying to myself over and over. I dropped the rod into the boat and hand lined myself over to where the line was trapped. I could see my float bobbing about, so carefully I used a long bankstick with a rod rest on the end to run down the line under the water and try and ping it free. It worked a treat (thanks for the advice Andy) and the first hang-up came free. I was by now getting ever closer but the fish was still visible off to my left hand side swirling and trying to surge away. By this point I was totally disorientated and had no clue at all where I was in the lake. Still feeling sick I knew that I needed to worry about where exactly I was once the fish was in the net!

I refocused my mind on the fish and less about my whereabouts and slowly pulled the braid closer to the boat in my hands. I found the next hang up and literally managed to rip off the top of a tuft of sandy grass on top of the submerged bar and suddenly the line was free. Immediately the fish felt the line go slack and powered off back into the deeper water. I wound furiously to keep in contact and ‘bang’ I was hooped over again with direct contact with the fish in sensible water-depth.  I kept pumping and winding until my float and leader were at the tip rig – come on son, she’s nearly yours!  One more surge and she came up in the water and up popped a massive head – geez, this was it, do or die and waste the whole incredible experience with a hookpull or net her and get the hell out of there!

 I pulled the rod slowly back behind me and with my left arm fully outstretched I somehow managed to pull her massive head over the net cord. It seemed like time stopped when the fish was half in and half out but with one last pull this time she was mine! YES – GET IN, I’d done it, she was mine. I felt for that split second sat there in boat, cold, soaked to the skin, disorientated  that my whole fishing life had prepared me for that battle and my fishing experiences through my life had got me through it! It was an incredible feeling I can tell you.

It’s difficult to estimate fish weights from the water but from what I’d seen of the fish in the water this was a definite mid-50! Fish secured, motor down and I’m heading towards the only light I can see which I correctly presumed was Tim’s headtorch.  Once ashore we did the weighing straight away…I was praying for the needle to go over 50lb for the first time and I was overjoyed when the Reuben’s confirmed a colossal carp weight of 57lb 8oz! A milestone had been reached and if I’d grinned any wider I would have given myself a Chelsea smile – what a result!

Job done - 57lb 8oz of Rainbow carp - buzzing!

By now it was midnight and I was still completely buzzed! Tim described the pre-described events as “totally epic” and in my small world for that moment I really can’t disagree. People will catch bigger fish than me this week but for me it was truly special - it was an amazing battle, from a massive fish on an incredible lake. I was shattered …mentally and physically done in!  What a night – roll on the next one eh!

Until tomorrow, Jerry Team CC.

Confessions of a Rainbow virgin – day 5.

The remainder of yesterday (Wednesday) passed without incident, there was no more action on any of the rods during the morning feeding spell for either myself or Tim so I made a quick dash to the shops to top up our dwindling supplies. Once I was back in the swim I decided to move one of my rods down to my left underneath a snag tree and with that mission completed I sat and did a bit of keyboard tapping and caught up on some phone calls. Later that afternoon Tom Duncan-Dunlop popped by for afternoon tea which lasted until just before dusk. Before we knew it the sun was making its evening descent behind the trees and another 14 hours of darkness was a fast-approaching reality. It seems that when it gets dark here at Rainbow the whole lake comes alive; fish started boshing on two of Tim's spots and the Coypu seemed to make a beeline for our swim to polish off the old bait that I was using to keep them away from my bivvy! I stayed up listening into the early hours and eventually crashed out about 1am. The next thing I recall is hearing a commotion coming from Tim's side of the swim; he'd only gone and bagged one! I pulled on my boots, navigated through Tim's rods to see a massive common in his landing net, a big smile on his face and him completely soaked to the skin. We both went to lift the fish out of the water in the net but it just wasn't happening & this fish was too big! I went and grabbed the weigh sling and slid it underneath the chunky common that was still inside the net. After hoisting her up on the scales the needle came to rest at 65lb exactly! Tim was thrilled and I was honoured to have shared the moment of such a mega capture. Word of captures soon spreads around the lake here and Martin Locke put it perfectly after I'd texted him about Tim's capture -The godfather has spoken, damn right!

Due to technical issues I'd planned to post this blog yesterday but my interweb connection has just disappeared &

 perhaps the misty / foggy weather is affecting my dongle speed (well quite). The weather turned totally overnight and the fog hung in the air all morning, so for the first time during this session t-shirt weather was forgotten and the winter clobber was needed for the morning fish-scanning session. Just before 11am, with little chance of the fog lifting, I'd just about given up on the fish spotting when Colin Richards (over on the island swim) rang to tell me that Tom Duncan-Dunlop had landed a chunk and I should get down there pronto to have a look. Well this carp was so large it was partially sticking out of the retainer sling - it was obviously of humungous proportions and had already been weighed in at an incredible 82lb! With my camera in hand I captured the whole moment with both digi vid and photos and the fish just looked like nothing I'd ever seen before; it was a carp, but just too big to really be a carp & it was collosal! So yeah what a day! I returned back to my swim shattered, I'd not slept much during the previous night and adrenaline of two monster fish had kept me fuelled. I sat down had a strong coffee and recalled what had just occurred during the past 24 hours. I'd caught my first Rainbow carp, Tim had nailed a 65lb common and Tom had landed the biggest common carp I'll probably ever lay eyes on in my life. What a great day in the office, it doesn't get much better than that. Until tomorrow, Jerry Team CC.

Confessions of a Rainbow virgin - day 4.

Day 4 Blues!

Doesn’t time just roll on so fast when you’re out fishing…days in the office never seem to past this fast! As I’m writing this I’m just through the half-way point of the trip and on one hand it seems like I’ve been here for ever – caught up in the Rainbow bubble, and then, in terms of days – it’s but a blink of an eye! Last night felt cold, really cold and the resident coypu paid me several visits during the night. Somehow they managed to savage some boilies that were air-drying in the tree on a make-shift washing line. I deliberately put some decoy baits (leftovers from last weeks’ anglers) on the lowest point of the line and soon after dark my long-tailed friends were feasting. They’ve become more tame as time has gone on this week but they still aren’t tame enough to get their photo taken properly - yet!

Tricky to see but there is a large greedy rodent-creature here!

Fishing wise I’ve still not been seeing much fish activity and last night (Tuesday night) passed without so much as a bleep on the alarms. At 8.30pm last night I was seriously starting to flag. I’d been up most of the previous night listening and trying to figure out if the carp were coming through into my side of the swim under the cover of darkness. By 9pm I was ready to crash but I fuelled myself with some French rocket fuel coffee, stuck on my jacket (as it was chilly) and stood on the top bank up to my left poised with the headtorch on full power to zap any areas where I heard any fish activity. I did hear enough activity to keep me interested, even though it was difficult to pinpoint exactly where the swirls were coming from. By 11pm I’d made a decision that in the morning I was going to move one rod off of one of my four main spots and investigate the bay down to my left – there seemed to be enough activity to warrant giving it a go at least! 

Chilli...con...carne!

 By 6.30am I gradually dragged myself out of the sleeping bag and whacked the kettle on for my first caffeine hit of the day. With one coffee down the hatch, I pulled on the jacket and stood once more on the high bank. I saw nothing but strangely, and almost in an eerie manner, the mist started to drift in engulfing everything around it. Then the mist then because a thick bank of fog...spooky times! By 8am the mist started to burn off and the sun once again reigned supreme and confirmed we were in for another cracking late-November morning. 

My carp house seemed more appealing than being stood outside...the sun was coming!

By 9am I was deliberating what the hell to do with the rods. Three of the rods I was happy with but I had made up my mind to move one down to my left. Then completely unexpectedly a couple of sharp bleeps sounded from my 4^th rod, the one positioned where the hookbait was positioned some 200yds away close to a small dot island. After the initial burst from the alarm, the clip pulled, the tip bounced and bent over…fish on! I legged it to the rod, picked it up like a demon and lifted into whatever was on the end. For a split second I was convinced I’d hit into thin air but thankfully I felt a kick from a carp on the end – come on!

After a bit of navigating under the other rods I was out in the boat winding down to the fish. In my head I was cool and focussed but for some reason my right leg was shaking uncontrollably and it wouldn’t stop! What the hell was I attached to? With a deep breath I passed over the first shallow bar some 30 yards out in front of me and turned the boat round and whacked on the engine and steered myself out to the fish, reeling steadily and dropping my rod on a tight line, either left or right to steer myself out to the carp zone! I was only a few yards away from the spot when I lost the tension in the line and momentarily I thought I’d dropped the fish. Fortunately I needn’t have worried as the fish kicked hard as my leader knot passed onto the reel…this was now battle time! I kept on winding and wound down to the top of my leadcore leader – now was the time to hold on and keep my nerve. The fish surfaced and I caught a glimpse of a golden-flanked common – not a massive one, but big enough to keep my right leg shaking like an epileptic baboon! Once more the fish tried to spin the boat but I just steered her left or right to keep myself straight. After five minutes of plodding around up she came and after a bit of a scramble with the net in she went! Yessssssss…..I so wanted to shout it out aloud but not wanting to sound like I Rainbow virgin who’d just netted his first fish, this shout only sounded inside my head! Relief was draped all over me – a fish in the net after getting a bite on a hookbait that had been in position for nearly 72 hours! With my leg returning to normal I grinned from ear to ear as I made my way back to terra firma with my prize. 

Get in there - 40lb of November carp! Nice tache too!

   

On the scales she went 40lb 10oz – not massive by Rainbow standards but for me it was a massive personal achievement and a huge sense of relief that I’d actually managed to catch one from a swim devoid of fish! Never give up – too damn right. 

Until tomorrow, Jerry.

Confessions of a Rainbow virgin - day 3.

Well I’m three nights into my eight night session and neither myself or Tim have managed to open our accounts. I had a weird occurrence yesterday morning when my rod tipped slammed down the alarm went mental and I struck what I thought was a take. Immediately the braid fell limp and my heart sank when I realised I’d been cut off. Later that morning I went out to the spot in the boat and dragged the it to see if the terminal gear was still down there. I was still unsure whether it had been a pick-up or whether one of the resident coypu had taken a liking to my line entering the water and had bitten it off! Either way I was a gutted – I’d said at the start of the trip that I wanted a bite…well I’d had one and now I wanted a fish! 

The prodding stick has been invaluable to find the hard spots.

The remainder of the day passed quickly and I managed to capture the early-morning sunrise and also the burning end-of-day when the sun quickly disappeared behind the trees directly in front of Tim’s swim. In short not much happened so it was a case of re-doing the rods and sitting on our hands waiting for the fish to arrive, which they hadn’t as yet! Tactically I’ve decided to not go mad with the bait as the guys who we followed into the swim hadn’t experienced a prolific week – perhaps three or so fished hooked.

Kebab anyone? Tigers and an Enterprise Immortal in the middle.

Tiger nuts seemed to be on the wanted list for hookbaits so I edged my bets and ‘tigered up’ on two rods and fished boilie on the other two with a mixture of oily hemp, pellets, crushed tigers and mixed-sized boilies in the mix I introduced over the top. Prior to the trip I’d been advised to go easy with the bait and to only introduce a pint of bait over each rod – that’d I’d done, plus a small scattering (for good luck) in the general area around where I was dropping the rigs. 

My remaining bait all labelled up and rationed for use each day.

 There have been several fish caught around the lake with the biggest reported so far being 67lb, a true monster, but not massive by Rainbow standards. So there you have it, the search for a carp continues from what really is the most incredible carp lake I’ve ever visited! Until tomorrow, Jerry. 

The view from Tim's swim as the sun sets on another late-November day.

Confessions of a Rainbow virgin - day 1.

After leaving Sheffield at 5.30am I knew that we had a long journey in front us – close to 1000 miles to be precise. I was joining Carpworld editor Tim Paisley for my first ever trip to the lake where dreams are made, that lake is Rainbow Lake in the south of France. With the driving shared between us and the luxury of picking up the earlier ferry our destination arrival time was 11.30pm, a long old day considering we left in darkness and would be arriving in darkness. With those miles behind us we finally pulled up at the Rainbow clubhouse and were greeted by several familiar faces including Martin Locke, Steve Broad and Nick Helleur. After a quick beer and a natter with the lads there was already that expectant buzz by all the lads who were moving onto the lake the following day – me included, despite the tiredness I was buzzing. After a surprisingly good nights’ kip in the clubhouse I was greeted by an incredible sunrise and the November sun made it feel like it was like an English early-autumn morning. It seemed an age before we were given the nod to make our way into our swim for the week – swim 21 to be precise.

 Swim 21 is a snaggy little peninsula that is best accessed by boat – so with all the gear laden into the vessels I made my first trip around into the swim. I was told that 21 was one of the most technically difficult swims to fish and I could see why immediately! A multitude of bars, islands and snags was certainly going to test this Rainbow virgin to the max. (Above: this is what my left-hand rod looks like - eeeek, it's hairy!)

By 4pm I was actually fishing with three rods. After some tense moments in the boat I’d managed to find some nice spots and dropped the rigs and a pint of mixed seeds and chopped boilies around each of them. Totally shattered I enjoyed my first Rainbow sunset and crashed out. What would the night and early morning bring eh! Time will tell! (Above: rods were locked safely into place!)

Until later, Jerry.