SUCCESS: A FINE WINE WITH VINEGAR NOTES.

     It is hard to believe that, despite the stocking of hundreds of Crucians of varying sizes over the last few years, nobody had caught one from 'the pool' since about 2022. I believe that of those only a handful would have cleared the pound mark and among that hallowed handful, just one exceeded two. The 2lbs 4oz example that graced my net last Wednesday was such a desperately longed for capture by all involved that the management saw fit to reward my good luck with a trophy. Nothing spectacular you understand, just a good old-fashioned British understatement with a dose of irony as an embellishment. It was an Otter on a pebble and I cherish it.

 
     As predicted in my previous post, rather than endeavour to make hay while the sun shone, I abandoned the 'casters fished close to the reeds approach' in favour of bread punch in a tight tree-lined swim. For three of my five hours that morning I fished out in the lake and absolutely nothing happened and then quite suddenly, after moving closer in, I began to see signs of life at my float which suggested fish activity close to my bait. By the time a slow-developing bite had become irresistible, time was running out but it didn't matter a jot. That bite was from my second Crucian; another fine fish weighing bang on 2 lbs.

 
     As obsessive anglers we are always, always, looking for patterns and having gone from desperately seeking any Crucian carp of any size at all to catching a couple of two pounders the feintest echo of one could be heard. On both occasions I had baited two areas in front of me. The one that I felt to be most likely to produce a Crucian was left un-fished for a minimum of two hours although I baited both spots in identical fashion, that being with a small amount of bait every ten to fifteen minutes. Both of the spots that I was hoping to catch Crucians from were closer in and within a metre of cover. My initial fishing was all done either out in the lake or against some other cover as far as possible away from where I hoped to catch them.

 
     This tactic worked like a charm, producing bites immediately I came inside, not just from Crucians but Tench as well. Either way, it was apparently a success but the angling deities can be a tad mischievious and on my third visit I hooked two big Tench in my initial baited area, the first of which was another outrageously large fish which I managed with some difficulty to get out. Rather disappointedly it was a recapture but more upsettingly, the second ploughed through my carefully preserved Crucian spot not once but multiple times. I managed to wrestle it out of the trees twice but I could feel the line rasping over the snags and when it got into them a third time, inevitably, the hooklength sadly failed. I hate leaving hooks in fish, whether they are barbless or not but the damage was done. Not only had I lost another powerful and potentially very large fish, my careful managed margin swim was trashed.

 

     Angling theories are ten a penny in my world and ultimately experience shows that the majority are barely worth that much. Nevertheless, I do feel that there is some value in this approach or at least that I am close to finding a way to catch more of these very difficult but worthwhile fish. After all these are the only two that have been caught and they came from different swims on different baits. It is true that my third attempt failed but my much cossetted Crucian swim was badly disrupted just before I began fishing it and more hopefully I began to get a few cagey indications and liners just as I ran out of time. Not only that but Pete in the swim next to me had fished to a similar plan and when he moved inside to his second spot his bites went from nothing to plenty. No Crucians it is true but some suspiciously finicky activity and a hatful of silvers were enough to demonstrate the worth of this approach. I can only persevere a bit longer and see what happens but this for me is what angling is all about. A puzzle with light at the end of the tunnel, what more can I ask?