Martin Locke recalls a recent trip to Rainbow Lakes, that saw him land 42 carp up to a massive 61lb!

The trip started with a bang when just twenty minutes after getting the rods out, one of them cranked over and I was into my first of the session, a 50lb mirror.

It took me completely by surprise. I’ve never had a take so quickly from Rainbow in all the times that I’ve fished there. It was a nice reward having slogged it out in scorching weather for the previous few hours hauling boat batteries, buckets of bait, setting up bivvies and what have you; I can’t recall ever drinking more water in a day than on that Saturday as I struggled to stay hydrated in the heat.

The Sunday saw a big change in the weather though as torrential rain set in and rivers of water started gushing through the swim. After such a promising start I was expecting things to continue nicely and while loads of action was had on the Sunday, it was all from sizeable grass carp.

With that not being the intended quarry, both Dave Whibley, who was doubled up in peg 19 with myself, and I switched tactics, changing from a particle-and-boilie approach to a boilie-only approach. It worked! From 2am on the Monday until 8pm that evening we had 15 carp between us. By the evening we were so tired that once we’d caught one we couldn’t bring ourselves to put the rod back out. We’d wait until there were two rods to redo before shaking ourselves up a bit and getting them back out there. We had to be a careful as the rods were all being positioned from a boat, as is the norm at Rainbow, and with the longest rod being dropped at around 230 yards, safety has to be paramount, so we weren’t rushing ourselves to get back out in the boat. Despite wearing a life jacket and being experienced at boat work, you can’t be too careful.

The weather settled down on the Monday, with the rain easing and the temperature reaching a more bearable 25oC, which I’m sure played a big part in the amount of action we had. The temperature picked up after that for the rest of the trip, reaching low 40oC during the day and the action remained steady throughout the trip, averaging three or four carp per day.

The amount of takes meant that each time I put a rod back out I’d only drop four or five handfuls of boilies over the top. Although I had plenty of bait with me I needed it to last for the duration of the trip, and if you get carried away in a situation like that then you can end up using all your bait too early… and then you’re really stuck. I was using the Club Mix, Solar Tackle’s longest-standing bait, but with our Ester Cream flavor added to it. It’s a bait that I’ve used a lot over the years, on and off, but later this year I’ll be making it available to the public for the first time ever, so keep your eyes peeled for that one.

To be honest, with so many carp of huge proportions in the lake, you’re never going to be able to put enough bait in to stop them in their tracks for long anyway, so small amounts of bait in a little area in the back of Peg 19, where I know the carp like to visit, was good enough.

The business end of things was kept relatively simple, as always, but strong and reliable. What worked for me was a 10m leader of 40lb Unleaded and the same 40lb Unleaded as a hook link, tied up in a multi-rig style with a Size 1 Solar 101s hook. I was using a kebab rig on all four rods, which incorporates three hook baits on a hair, usually two boilies and an artificial bait. To be honest, once you have an area going the hook bait doesn’t matter too much. What I have found with the ultra-supple Unleaded hook link though is that it creates a confidence rig, of sorts. It’s memory free and, when set up with a PVA bag, sits there in a coil, so that when a carp takes the bait it ends up with at least six inches of my 12-inch hook link in its mouth. It’s very difficult for them to deal with and the hook holds on a lot of the carp I caught were three to four inches back in the mouth.

Quite a few of my 42 carp were thirties which, as mad as it sounds, are the smaller stamp for Rainbow, but seven forties, four fifties and a 61lb 8oz mirror topped my list of captures on this particular trip.

Dave Whibley doubled up with me in Peg 19 for the first week and did really well fishing on the left-hand side. He landed 10 carp, with only two under 40lb, the best being a 57lb mirror, a 60lb common and a 65lb 8oz common on the last night. Andy ‘Waterboard’ Thomas took over from Dave on the left-hand side of Peg 19 for the second week. It was Andy’s first time at Rainbow and he was scared out of his wits when he saw his first take; it’s extreme fishing to put it mildly. He took to it like a duck to water though and caught six, including three forties and a 52lb mirror, was a PB for Andy, during his stay.

The weather was extremely hot and the 15-hour drive home wasn’t exactly appreciated, as it usually takes 10 hours, but there you go, I’ll be back out for another go on September 29th so we’ll see if I can continue where I left off.

Before that though I’m fishing the World Carp Classic at Bolsena in Italy. There will be 150 pairs competing for the title of World champions, and we’ll be doing all we can to bring the gold medal back to the UK. It’ll be an interesting one as, apart from the Italians, nobody really knows the place, but with our team consisting of Tom Duncan Dunlop, Tim Paisley, Steve Briggs, Lee Jackson, Ian Chillcott and myself I think we’re in with a good shout. It’ll be a buzz for sure and second place is not an option."

Martin is the owner of Solar Tackle, and a former holder of the World Carp Record. He is also off to represent England in the World Carp Classic Championship next week, where he hopes to bring home the gold medal (along with the rest of his team).