Lovely creatures aren’t they,
living their lives in the quietest corners of our countryside, unassuming and
discrete in both character and nature but still able to drive us anglers mad.
It’s become something of a
tradition these past few years for me to start the season trying to fill the 16th
with bars of gold. They seem the perfect creature to catch on a midsummer dawn
and this year was no exception, so as the light increased from a starlit sky,
my friend Chris Wild and I crept into our swims full of anticipation.
Isn’t it wonderful that the
same feeling of excitement and sleepless nights arises before the glorious 16th
every year, even after nearly seventy years of angling adventures. There is a
whole season of fishing ahead, new or familiar challenges to look forward to
and a world of mystery to explore. Variety of quarry and waters is the key but
there’s no harm in starting with those that are close to your heart.
I love crucians for the
conundrums that they throw up. Will they be in the swim you have chosen? Will
they bite and on what bait? Will you even see the bites and if so, will you be
able to strike at the right moment? These and many other questions are the
essence and charm of crucian fishing and solving the riddles are where the
rewards are won.
Trying to win a few bites, I
had raked and lightly baited the swim the evening before, so I hoped to see
tell-tale bubbles when dawn started to illuminate the pool … and my hopes were
fulfilled but … there were too many bubbles and they were too big. I feared the
worse, king carp, otherwise known as ‘nuisance fish’. I pulled my delicate pole
rig out in fear that it would be trashed but eventually I became impatient at
not being able to fish for crucians and dropped in again.
I’m guessing you have already
decided the outcome and the bite when it came resulted in a violent explosion
of water, an instant stretching of elastic, the nearby bed of lilies smashed
and a sad goodbye to my float.
Trying to calm down, I added
a little more soft pellet groundbait to the now muddy swim, picked up my
slightly stronger rig and dropped in again. More bubbles rose and I hoped for a
tench but an hour later the chaos resumed. What I assumed was the same carp had
returned for more breakfast and it proceeded to give me a tour of all the
surrounding lilies, trashing the swim in the process. It was an exciting battle
and I was grateful that I’d invested in a Drennan Acolyte Margin Pole, for I
was able to pull like hell without fearing it would break. It’s also armed with
an elastic puller so I eventually subdued the carp’s enthusiasm for war and led
it to my too small crucian landing net.
It was a splendid looking
mirror carp with large scales and weighed 12lbs14ozs, not quite the peaceful start
that I’d imagined but an entertaining way to celebrate the season’s opening. My
swim needed an hour to recover from the wreckage before I managed a first
crucian of the season, so I decided to start again, rake and bait it and wait
some more.
Chris was fishing in what we
call the Vole Swim opposite [because that’s where they live] and had already
made me jealous by catching a tench of about 3lbs – I love tench … but don’t we
all … and was now busy pulling his hair out in his attempt to induce and hit
the crucian bites. I had prepared his swim the night before by raking and
baiting and it certainly resulted in crucians being attracted to his swim for
he eventually succeeded in landing a beauty of over two pounds.
Meanwhile, my swim was
recovering, bubbles rising and by the delicate lowering of soft 6mm pellets
below a tiny float, I began to catch some cracking crucians. The weather warmed
up and I became engrossed in seeing just how close to my feet I could attract
them. After an intriguing few hours I had up to ten big crucians so close that
they were alongside the bank-side vegetation in just inches of water.
Fixing up the top two of my
pole with an inch long broken top of a pole float, I freelined a pellet amongst
them and tried to watch them take the bait. They had stirred up the silt but
when I was able to see them make the pick up, all that happened was the
slightest nod of the sliver of my indicator. They sat stationary with the bait
and it’s no wonder they make us pull our hair out as most of the time the bait
was surrounded by half a dozen crucians and absolutely nothing happened to
indicate I had a bite … and most of the time I hadn’t!
No wonder we love fishing for
them, so subtle are they in their feeding … but eventually I got the hang of knowing
what they were doing and ended the session with sixteen crucians to a best of
2lbs5ozs and with an average weight of 2lbs1oz. … and delightfully, most of
them were tricked at my feet.
I even managed two small
tench so the hours flew by and were totally rewarding, especially as Chris had
caught well too, in spite of being taken apart a couple of times by carp. He
ended up with about ten splendid crucians so for both of us, the day certainly
proved to be a glorious 16th.
