Spring Fishing for Crucian Carp - April 2016

Best Crucian of the day from Bury Hill Fisheries - Milton Lake

Now that spring is in the air and I'm done with my winter fishing for the year, it's species like the crucian carp, tench, bream and rudd that grab my attention in the freshwater world. The Crucian is not a fish that I have ever specifically targeted before. Sure I've caught a few in the past when just generally fishing for bites.....but 'actually' fishing for them in particular is a new challenge for me.

They have a reputation for being finicky feeders and giving very delicate bites, so I did my homework and discovered that fishing very precisely and delicately is the way to go. That's what the dedicated crucian anglers recommend anyway. Light lines, small hooks and a small float dotted right down to register even the tiniest of bites seems in keeping with the traditional approach. Those after the real specimens favour a scaled down modern carp fishing approach with bolt rig tactics in favour.

For me, there was only one way to have a go for the crucians and that was with a float. I just love float fishing, I get all nostalgic about it as it takes me right back to my childhood angling days with my grandparents. My initial aim was to just catch a crucian, not break any records after all. The float and the concentration required to fish it really helps you engage with your environment and quarry I find. I just don't get that connection when I'm sat behind a pair of rods on buzzer bars.

As the initial aim was to simply catch a crucian by design, I chose a venue that has plenty of them in it - always a good starting point! Old Bury Hill in Surrey is one such place as this fishery has a dedicated tench and crucian lake with a good head of true crucians.

It was a chilly spring morning when my my friend Dave and I arrived at Bury Hill's Milton lake for our crucian session. We chose to fish with our backs to the wind and I focused my attention in the margins where the crucians are known to patrol looking for food. With a bait selection including corn, casters, maggots, pellets and bread we were well prepared.

I kept the bait to a minimum as it's still early in the year and I didn't want to attract the tench either. Fishing for one bite at a time with a little groundbait and a single hook bait was my approach. It seemed like a smart move as after changing the baits around a bit I got a bite on corn and hooked my first crucian of the session. A very pretty, hard fighting fish of around a pound or so. Result!

6 or 7 more followed over the next couple of hours and then as the day got brighter the bites became less frequent and more difficult to hit. The best of the day is the fish pictured above.

In the end I managed 10 crucians, 2 roach and 1 tench for my efforts so it was a resounding success. I was fishing a running line and small waggler float but Dave, on the next peg along, fished the pole. His delicate and accurate approach with the pole really scored for him, with a bag of at least 30 crucians or more. It was interesting to compare and contrast the two approaches and there's no doubting the effectiveness of the pole for these shy biting creatures.

Winter Pike Fishing - 2015/16 Season

I love my Pike fishing. I always look forward to that time of year when the frosts kill off the weed and sharpen the appetite of our freshwater apex predator. The sight of a big pike really is quite something to behold and still to this day I get a surge of adrenaline when the float starts bobbing or a big croc chases my lure in. Even after all the fishing I've done around the world there's not much that compares to the joy of seeking out a big pike on a crisp, frosty morning back home.

They are ferocious ambush hunters and impressive to look at, there's just something about them. Perfectly designed for the job they do and unchanged through evolution for millennia. They are a marvel of creation.

A feisty Jack Pike taken on a fly

There is great appeal in the fact that pike can be caught on bait, lures and also on the fly. This makes fishing for them interesting in that there is always a challenge and you can alter your techniques to suit the conditions on the day or to match the time of year.

My season started in early October with a trip to Chew Valley Lake with my West-country piking buddy Roger. He was very kind to ask me to be his boat partner during the first week of the pike trials there. It was a tough day for us both though. He blanked and I managed a big rainbow trout for my efforts on the lure. I also lost a fish on a deadbait right at last knockings but it didn't seem like it was of any great size. Chew really is a ball-breaker of a water!

You can't really complain with by-catch like this!

After that, my attentions turned to Perch fishing for a while and it wasn't until Christmas that I got back on the Pike. I prefer to fish the rivers if I can but this winter was such a wash out that the tidal stretches I favour were largely out of shape whenever I had the opportunity to wet a line. With this in mind I chose to fish a club water that I have access to. It screams 'Big Pike' and looks the part, it also has a history of producing the odd big fish so I put a few sessions in to see what I could tempt from it.

A nice lure caught fish from a club water

The water mentioned has the advantage of being spring fed so remains clear whatever the weather throws at us. It was a great opportunity to get the lure and fly rod in action. After a fair few attempts I had little to show for my efforts and was a bit disappointed with the results. I'd had a fair few fish but I'd be lucky if the best nudged 10lbs in weight. Still, it was enjoyable fishing in beautiful surroundings and it's always nice catching them on the lures and flies whatever their size. I just expected there to be the odd big girl in there as well. Maybe next season will be better, I'll certainly try again.

A little Jack takes a fly on my club water

In the new year, I got invited to fish a lake that had not had any pike anglers on it for quite a while and where the fish had been left largely unpressured. It was a rare opportunity to get access to some interesting fishing and the owner was curious to see how the pike were doing in the water. It's not every day you get an opportunity like this so I was very keen to give it a good shot.

I was fishing it with another local pike angler and we teamed up to make the best of the time we had on the water. With the lake being coloured we chose to fish baits and to draw the fish to our desired area we groundbaited with finely minced fish. The idea being to introduce plenty of scent and blood into the water but not to actually feed the fish. The only edible morsels were our herring and mackerel baits. We fished a spread of 4 rods across the baited area and waited in anticipation.

The first 2 runs were to the rods of my buddy and he landed 2 nice fish, a low 20 and an upper double. A great start that left me wondering what I had done wrong! This is just how fishing goes sometimes. It all came right for me as the light started to fade though and I had the craziest 5 minutes of piking I think I've ever experienced....

A fine brace of fish as the light fails

My left hand rod ripped off and I raced over to it, winding down and setting the hooks. It turned out to be a small Jack that put up little resistance against the heavy tackle. After quickly unhooking it and re-casting to the spot I sat back down again. Within a minute, the right hand rod was away. This time it was a much better fish that looked to be pushing 17lb or so. Just after it slipped in to the net my left hand rod was off again. I handed the net to my buddy and attended to the next fish which felt better still. After a great fight I slid an even bigger fish over the net and had the pair of them sat there together. I was shaking with the excitement, what a pair of fish. What a crazy 5 minutes!

The biggest of the pair at 20lb 10oz

I weighed the biggest and the scales settled on 20lb 10oz. I was over the moon, my biggest of the season so far. I didn't weight the other but it was a few pounds smaller, what a brace of fish!

My next session saw me back on Chew Valley Lake for the February pike trials and I was once again with my buddy Roger. This time round the weather was horrendous. We had high winds and rain which made fishing rather difficult. We struggled to pin the anchor by 11am in the rising winds and spent the remainder of the day sheltering behind the island along with many other boats! Funnily enough, the fish seemed to have had the same idea as we witnessed a 32lb fish and a 40lb 10oz caught in the boats either side of us! I was gob-smacked to be honest, I'd never seen pike of that size in my life and saw 2 in an hour. Chew really does have some potential. I've no doubt there's a record fish swimming round in there somewhere.

A nice Chew pike on a perch replicant lure

This inspired me, and I was fishing hard in the grotty conditions - continually casting my lure to cover the water. On two occasions I had a monstrous fish that looked well over 30lb swipe at my lure by the boat. It was real heart in the mouth stuff. Sadly it failed to connect properly. Just before it was time to head in I got a nice fish though, not one of the monsters the water is famed for but an incredibly beautiful fish. I was well pleased.

My best Chew Lake pike to date - a proper stunner

My final pike fishing sessions of the year were all on the fly. As the weather warms a little in the early spring this can often bring about some aggressive feeding and I love to chuck a fly at them. This is great fun and allows the pike to show it's fighting prowess to the best of it's ability.

Things were a little patchy until the fish spawned. After this the pike were ravenous and one day in particular my buddy Paul and I hit it just right. The pike were in the shallows following the silver fish in as they were grouping up in readiness for their own spawning. We waded carefully through the shallows working our flies as we went, getting some great sport in the process. We managed 4 fish each up to a best well into double figures - a great days pike fishing by anyone's standards and all on the fly rod too. Brilliant.

My best fly caught Pike to date and a happy angler

Paul with a nice fish

It was a good season really, I enjoyed it as much as ever. It's just a shame the rivers were out of sorts for much of the time. There's always next year though.....until then.....Tight Lines!