Dennis de Wilde had a session of a lifetime at Rainbow Lake earlier this Spring, landing not one but two PBs, here is with the full story.
Last week was my spring trip to the mighty Rainbow and it was a true case of quality not quantity. The lake was still fishing slow so it was a case of carefeully see what happens and certainly not heaving the bait in.
Swim of this week was by far my most favourite swim which is 18. Feared by a part of the anglers and loved by the others part. Its the most snaggy swim with may fallen trees on the oposite bank, and thus an matter of concentrated fishing. I decided(like previous times) not to fish every night with 2 of the 4 rods. These rods are fishing well into the snags so every second counts to fish it responsible and land every hooked fish.
So I take these 2 rods out every evening, put some baits on the spots and let them have a free meal every night without lines in the swims too. Then every morning I set the alarm early and gently place the rods into position and sit behind the rods all day. With the aid of the Line Biters you see every movement and often see them bounce on your line way before you get the actual bite. Which is ideal as your already on the edge of your chair waiting for that bite. In the night you dont have that edge offcourse. With this tactic I hope the fish that had a free meal in the next, will come back for desert during the day, with a nice sharp 101 atachted to it hahaha. The other 2 rods are fished on safe deep spots for the real bigguns and fished most nights too. After setting everything up and baited on the Saturday I put out all 4 rods Sunday morning and just after 2 hours fishing caught a 45lbs leather carp, which is a rare fish offcourse. After putting the rods back into position I had quite some bounces on the Line Biter of the same rod so was really waiting for another bite. After two hours on the edge the action slowed down and I waited another hour to check that rod as I really expected a bite (greedy me haha). Its often a case of reposition the rig and catch a fish as these fish are really presured fish. There are all sorts of twigs and branches on the bottom and if the rig is not sitting perfect they will suss you out. Its a very delicate point to really feel to lead hit clean bottom when you drop your rig from the boat and something I really pay attention too. So I went back out in the boat and the rig seemingly looks ok. Just 45 minutes after putting the rig back into position it bended over strongly and knew instantly it was a very good fish. After a nice fight the huge common slid over the net cord and the scales read an amazing 32.8kg/72.3lbs. What a first days fishing and pretty much the session sorted! The next bite came Monday night on the deep big fish rod and BIG it was! After more the 20 minutes of tug of war a giant common surrendered that just about fitted into the landing net. This was an impressive fish and I knew instantly which fish it was by the small lobe on its tail. Its a fish called the Two Tone Common and one of the A-Team members. I weighed the fish and knew upfront it was a PB, with 35.2kg/77.6lbs it truly was and I called one of my friends from another swim to help with the pics again.Swim 18 and 17 are the only 1 man swims on the lake. So smaller fish Im happy to do with a tripod on my own but monsters I can use an extra hand offcourse. After that my phone exploded with messages as news travels fast these days offcourse. Still on cloud 9 the remaining 4 days went by without a single take anymore. The fish drifted off to 17(4 fish from Wedsnesday till Friday) and 16(who also caught in the 2nd half of the week upto 68lbs). Not that I cared as having a brace of 70’s under your belt your pretty spoiled offcourse hahaha. But a wise man told me once “try to avoid being greedy, but always stay hungry”. And thats very true.