A Method to the Butter Bars.

 Crucian Carp are arguably one of the prettiest species within UK waters, unfortunately the Crucian's are fairly rare in their non-bastardised form, hybridisation has effected the true population and finding waters where thoroughbred's reside is very small. I know of a few lakes within an hour of me in south London, most of which have decent stocks within but the most prolific and best known fishery is Godalming's Marsh Farm fishery, on the day ticket weight's of Cru's can reach the dizzy heights of 3lb plus although nowadays these are rare. However the club lake holds some leviathan's with the British record falling on a couple of occasions, which stands now at an eye watering 4lb 10ozs, if only I caught one that size, well I would be a little more than content in myself.

 Seeing as I don't have a ticket for the club lake for a couple of weeks yet I decided on Harris lake where good stocks of Crucian's are present with a fairly heavy stocking of Tench, whilst the Cru sport is quite the Tinca's can provide some very good fishing, unfortunately for myself and usual angling partner Brian the fishing didn't set the place alight, bites were hard to come by on both the float and the method feeder. The tactic of using the "Method Feeder" divides a lot of opinion in regards to it being a smack in the face to traditional approaches to what is an enigmatic little species, but the flip side of the argument is the sheer efficiency of the set-up, usually a bite results in a hook up and catch rates are vastly improved, I myself have only until recently adopted the stance of sticking to my traditional approach to all my fishing, but recently have turned to the "dark side" and embraced the method feeder approach, I must say that once the teething problems of getting the gear right has been resolved the takes and indeed catches have improved slightly when the tactic has been deployed.

 For large swathes of last Saturday myself and Brian were pulling our hair out as to what was we doing wrong!, the answer was simply nothing, the fish weren't feeding avidly and secondly at times we believe the swims were actually devoid of fish, bubbling and rolling would stop and the swim would go dead.

Bit of a warrior.

 One thing I have learnt about Harris lake in particular is that the fishing is best between opening time to around 930-10am and then the final hour or so before dusk, throughout the remaining time the fishing was hit and miss with two Crucian's to 1,10 coming to the net and four Tench to 4lb or so, not electric at all, when it's not happening as planned there is always doubt about presentation and bait selection. Well.... as the magic hour arrived I struggled to keep both rods in the water, the bobbing's were up and down like a fiddler's elbow. Thankfully that spell of hectic sport culminated in another three Tench and another Crucian which weighed in at 2lb 2oz, certainly not one of the record shakers but one of the prettiest I've slipped a net under. It won't be long until I visit the lake which holds the monsters, my apprenticeship on Crucian fishing was served many years ago and it's time to really get amongst some creatures of the wild.

Immaculate and worth the wait.

The best part!