A Personal Best Crucian Carp - 3lb 2oz - June 2016

3lb 2oz of stunning Crucian Carp and a new personal best :)

I have been trying to catch a decent Crucian for the last couple of summers and this week it all came right. The water I have been fishing holds a low stock of very good sized specimens and the problem I have had has been avoiding the tench!

Every time I have fished the water I just seem to keep catching the beady, red-eyed tench and the crucians were just not getting a chance to get to my bait. My tactics have been traditional style on the float, shotted right down and fishing in the margins tight to the lilys using corn or small pellets as bait. 

I think my error in the past has been introducing too much bait. The tench soon home in on this and once they get their heads down they push everything else out of the swim. I had to do something differently if I wanted to catch a shy biting Crucian so I tried going completely the opposite direction by using very little bait at all.......and it worked!

On the day, the successful method was to introduce one small walnut sized ball of groundbait with no food items in it whatsoever and then fish a single grain of corn over the top of it. I had a bite within 5 minutes and it turned out to be the 3lb 2oz Crucian - RESULT! I was so happy i packed up and went straight home.....2 years of effort finally came good in the end and and I've learnt something too. What a  fish! Until the next time...CHEERS!