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.