The winter fishing down at Rainbow Lake can always be a bit tricky and you have to be a little bit lucky with the weather. I've fished every year in February since 2004 and it's a case of 'some you win some you lose' although I have managed to catch at least one fish each time. This year the weather turned just at the right time though, and it was getting in to double figures for the first time this year. The water was still quite cold though and it meant being very careful with the baiting approach. In the winter I generally go for the Quench with its lovely fruity aroma and it turned out to be a real winner. It started off with me catching 3 small commons over small beds of the Quench with matching 365 pellets. Hook baits were double 14mm Quench.
As the first week wore on the fish started to move in more and they got bigger. The first real biggun was a 54lb common, which was the start of a really good spell of action. To that point my mate Gary had been struggling on tigers and after changing over to the Quench he got his first fish of the trip, a 36lb mirror. That was the start he needed and we both caught fish consistently every day after that with Gary landing his new PB of 65lb and also his 3rd biggest ever, another good mirror of 62lb. Most swims were producing one or two fish but I'm sure that the Quench was responsible for keeping the fish interested out in front of us.
Besides the bait there was one other thing which seemed to make a difference and that was the new Solar Unleaded braid. This stuff is just amazing and will make leadcore a thing of the past. you can see from the pic how supple it is and while it is heavy, it contains no lead wire. It is designed as a leader material but I caught a few fish using it as hook lengths too!
Thankfully the sun kept shining all through the trip and after last years struggle when it was all about snow and ice it made a nice change to be able to sit outside all day and feel that there was a chance of a run at any time. As usual most of the action came during the day
and that is always a feature of the fishing at Rainbow, which suits me fine - a good nights kip and then up for a bit of carp action! The Quench has served me really well in cold water conditions and I find it really helps to match the pellets to the boilies. I've done well with Quench and Dairy Cream pellets in conjunction with Quench boilies, whereas in the warmer months the Red Herring or Club Mix 365 pellets work a treat with the Club Mix boilies. It was a good start to the year anyway and I'm just looking forward to the next trip now!!!
Cheers Briggsy........................
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