A CRUCIAN CONUNDRUM

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 16^th 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 16^th.

SOLID SILVER AT RAINBOWS END

Sadly, I’ve realised that there comes a time in every bloggers life when he has to stop fishing and get blogging … and this is it. So to mark the end of my roaching and the start of my tenching, I thought it would be nice to celebrate the wonderful time I’ve had under the spell of those beautiful, big, fat bars of silver.

only 2/6 but the wide angle lens trick works every time

Sway Lakes was the peaceful place of roaching worship and being a carp fishery, it’s inevitable I tangle with a few mud suckers ... and when it happens on roach tackle it can be quite exciting.

what a gorgeous mid double linear mirror - almost lovely enough to make me take up carp fishing, but not quite!

Isn't this a beautiful creature … the ultimate ‘nuisance fish’! How I landed this mid double linear mirror when it was tethered to the reeds on the far bank by a leader that hadn’t been tied on properly I’ll never know … but having snagged the leadcore on 2.5 line, a lot of patient pressure meant it ended up in my landing net, along with the tethering reeds and a branch. 

this is the 'death rig' tethering the carp to the reeds

When roach wake carp anglers at night, they are often termed ‘nuisance fish’, along with all the other species … but I think this damage by an exasperated carper to this beautiful big roach should see him hung from a tree by his wedding tackle!

1/12 of perfection until you see it's mouth

how could a so called angler do this to a wild creature?!

Horrible isn’t it, so come on guys – how can you damage such beautiful creatures when you are only missing some sleep? Shame on you for not treating all fish with respect.

Trev enjoying a rare day off

Great friend Trevor Harrop of Avon Roach Project fame shared plenty of banter and his ‘best sandwiches in the world’ before the project kicked into overtime, so we had some lovely days catching roach in the early spring sunshine.

soaking up the winter sunshine

nearly two pounds of winter warmer

Then when the river season closed I started to try to find ways of catching the bigger fish. Hemp and tares largely avoided the ‘nuisance’ perch and also produced several very welcome two pound roach, but I suspected that when the inevitable smaller roach were whisked out of the swim by my pole, the big ones wouldn’t like it.

fat as butter and weighing 2/6

So side-hooked mini boilies were the next to be tried and the quality of the fishing improved no end, a lot fewer fish but the size rose dramatically, the average probably 1/5 pounds. Two pounders came fairly regularly, though the delicate presentation and bite detection on the pole far out fished any other technique.

2/2 of pole fishing perfection - first cast at dawn

even bigger  - 2/7

My ambition rose to not just two pounders but a two pounder on the pole at night, so I attached a little starlight to the top of my pole float and when I wasn’t going cross-eyed, much enjoyed seeing the light extinguished as it was pulled under the surface, the glow slowly disappearing into the darkness. It was a coconut every time, with two pounders included.

secrets of the night - 2/3 beauty

Bites were still snatches on the quiver rod, even at night … and even though I suffered from eye strain as I watched the meniscus of the slack line where it entered the water, the bites were missed almost all the time. Tricky fish roach!

a two plus glowing in the sunshine

Yes, I know that if I’d lowered my standards and used a bolt rig I’d have caught much more, but there’s a limit to how low I’ll stoop, even for a roach! Only joking, every man to his own … but I’m now at an age where what I catch and how big is secondary to the technique I’m using. They’re only fish after all and if I want to watch a float trotting downstream or a pole float gently dithering to a crucian’s enquiry, then that’s what I’ll do.

who needs a bite when dawn looks like this

And there's the surroundings and wildlife too ... just as important as the catching in my view, the beauty of dawns and dusk an essential part of a special day in the countryside.

The favoured technique for the local tench is to bolt rig maggots at range but I’d rather catch a three pound tench on the float close to my feet than a six pounder 50 yards away. Mind you, if I go tenching tomorrow I might be giving it the big one into the far distance!

Trev hasn’t been able to join me much due to the imminent release of impressive numbers of Avon roach back into their ancestral homes. 

Andy Martin of the EA, project stalwart Dickie Howell and roach mother Trev

the future assured

roach returned to where they belong

a passing admirer enthralled by the colours

I was on hand to take a few happy snaps and film them being released in Fordingbridge park, one of four historically famous places for roach fishing. Happily, the future of Avon roach has received a major boost on yet another year of successful productivity by Trevor, Budgie and the team supporting them. To read more, visit the project blog at http://www.avonroachproject.blogspot.co.uk/

So there’s no doubt that one day we’ll once again be rejoicing at the sight of roach like this in our landing nets.

in ten years time we hope to be catching Avon roach like this

The roaching has been wonderful at Sway this spring, the warm winter ensuring they are fat and in the best nick I’ve ever seen. I ended up with more than 100 over a pound and 17 over two in just a few visits … but the best was yet to come.

In mid-day sunshine last week - [no, the roach haven’t read the rule books], I got very lucky and instead of missing a twitch on my ancient little Drennan bomb rod, hooked what felt like a roach but soon became so obviously too heavy that I became convinced it was a tench. Then it rolled and the red fins made me gasp. It was a monster … please don’t fall off!

After more than a few anxious moments the bar of silver ended inside the welcoming arms of my landing net and it was obviously heavy, maybe over three pounds. So when carefully weighed and it went three pounds five ounces I was a little chuffed.

what a fish - even incompetents sometimes get lucky

After sixty years of roach fishing I had beaten my PB by an ounce … and as luck would have it, a fellow roach angler who also had a PB of 3/5 was on hand to do the honours with the camera and share the sight of the beautiful creature. It was simply a stroke of luck that possibly the biggest roach in the lake had come along and snaffled my boilie … and that I was alert enough to strike! I phoned Trev to share the happy news and he suggested I should go out immediately and buy a lottery ticket!

 a bar of solid silver - an old warrior for an old warrior

Ain’t angling wonderful when all the stars merge to provide such amazing moments of joy. Now for that ten pound tench – or a blank!

a last cast sunset - until the next time