Toughing It Out For Crucians.

 This particular post covers three trips which have been embarked on over the past week. Fishing recently has been tough owing to the topsy turvy temperatures where overnight temps have ruined the daytime improvements. It has to be said that with the poor conditions I'd hazard a guess that everything is now a few weeks behind schedule, that ranges from the dormant inhabitants waking up to begin feeding with spawning in mind, through to spawning. If temps do not begin to improve soon we could easily see Tench and Crucians spawning off a lot later than usual.

 The latter part of that brings me to a little stumbling block as it closes mid-April until mid-June. The lake I am targeting is well known for it's monster crucian stocks for which I have had the pleasure of dipping into albeit fleetingly. This time last year the opportunities to target them were few and far between, what a difference 12 months can make. Colder winter temps and prolonged spells at that have illustrated at just how dependent on mild conditions certain species are when it comes to feeding. Last March the fish were coming out thick and fast to those lucky enough to be on the spots where the tench and especially crucians were grouped up, this year it's turn up and fish 12 hours for a bite!.

 Least wise that's how I have approached my three trips so far this spring. The first two trips resulted in a lot of effort put in for no reward. I travelled down again on good friday to try again, hopefully putting those blanks behind me and reward me for my efforts. On my previous two trips I had fished fairly standard tactics but with the lack of activity I decided a more natural approach may give me an edge over everyone who seemed to follow suit in blanking or bagging the occasional fish every trip. Not the sort of return one would hope for given the effort. So I set my stall out with a helicopter-rig fished in-conjunction with a 35g cage feeder which was plugged with a cocktail of crumbs and a 5 inch stiff hook-length hooked up to a juicy Dendrobaena.

Just a few of my rigs, ready for battle.

 What tench could possibly turn its nose up at that!.......The answer was they couldn't, which was good for me as staring at two rods for three days without a bleep from the buzzers would have been a kick in the plums for sure.

These kept me and Brian occupied for countless hours!

 The first run took around 4 hours to come around, as my area that had been baited lightly with a concoction of caster, crumb and chopped worm showed very little by way of attracting fish, although it is fair to say the chop on the water did cancel some of my visibility out, so being able to spot pin head sized bubbles in the ripple would have been a tall order. I sat nice and warm in my shelter awaiting some action when the first run finally came which to be honest took me by surprise.

Best of the day.

 I wound down into a solid fish which didn't do an awful lot as early spring tench often do, obviously the target is a crucian but the lack of action from them suggested I needed to take a different tac, not long after winding down on my first bit of action a plump 5lb 9oz tench posed for a photo in the rain (only weighed it to get an eye in), as it had been a while since I last had a tench!

To crack a smile in those conditions took some doing!

 Thankfully, that wasn't the last of my action as I had another two takes either side of that first fish, the very first take did me in an old weed bed and even broke my hook length which was disappointing, thankfully I landed the next run. Then shortly after that my third run and second fish resulted with another lovely tinca, this one weighed in at 5lb 6oz.

 Knowing how tough it had been I really wanted to catch just to know my rigs were working and as is often the case I become very critical of myself when things aren't going to plan, I feel a combination of location and tactic changes paid off as I finished off the day with a third tench ( 5.05 ), not long afterwards I had finally decided to pack up as the incessant rain had eventually got the better of me. Packing up in the rain has got to my biggest dislike, but, the prospect of packing up in heavy driving rain which was forecast I'd glad fully take my chances in the light rain I put up with all day!

Soaking wet, but these were good fun.

 A little bit on the tackle I have been using of late. As this lake in particular is still fairly new to me a lot of what I have been doing is articulating on my basic knowledge and adjusting my rigs to be more effective, in trying not to get info from other anglers I have worked fairly hard to work the place out for myself as I feel in the long run I will look back at my campaign for a 4lb+ Crucian Carp a complete success.

 The rods I use are either 1.25tc Greys Prodigy,12 ft rods, or the Korum 12ft 1.5tc "all-rounder" rods. Reels are fairly standard front reel drag Shimano Exage 3000fd's as I prefer these to bait runners as I can set the drag at the beginning of the fight once assessing what I have on the other end, I hear too many stories about setting a tighter drag for the crucians and get busted up by a 20-30lb carp, not my bag to be honest.

 Mainline, I tend to fish as light as I can without being naive, 6lb Diawa sensor is my go to and hook length materials are either 4lb Drennan double-strength supple or or slightly heavier hook length material in the form of 10lb Guru ultra-low diameter "Pulse Line", which is a mainline, but I find this almost perfect for hook length material as it is strong, but thin and supple enough to achieve what I want and also gives me a slightly better chance at putting everything I contact on the bank, all of which above came to this arrangement. 

 The method "flat bed" feeders that I use are usually 42g to give me decent distance abilities and also enough weight to enable a good "self-hook up" of anything that picks up the bait. For my method feeder fishing I use a short length which is typically 3-5 inches depending on various things on the day. My heli-rigs typically are fished with longer tails and around a foot from the feeder, but laid flat the hook bait lays just an inch from the top of the feeder, or in essence that is what should happen.

 Terminal tackle like hooks can vary again, if the fish are touchy then I'll drop to a size 18 or 20; if bites are coming thick and fast, but hook up rates are poor then I'll fish a size 14 or 16.

 As for bait now I am fairly confident in plastics ie: caster, buoyant maggots/bloodworm and corn, but where the fishing has been tough the naturals I felt would work well and my theory was proved right to a degree, although I could have just dropped on a patch of fish where fish were feeding sporadically.