Crucians - the latest obsession

[Paulg]

Very well done on the roach Anderoo, hope you got a picture!

 

So, how did you fare for the afternoon session.....and any more thoughts on ways to better your crucian/tench ratio? A 2.13 crucian is a cracking fish...nice one!

 

As long as the weather holds, I'm going this Thursday, fishing just with two feeder rods in the daytime.....although I may not be able to resist the temptation of float fishing at some point! I'm then hoping to fish the night on another lake, just float fishing close in. I've modified a pole float to take a starlite so no doubt I will have gone cross-eyed by midnight!

[Anderoo]

What a great day, I finished with 6 crucians (1lbish, 2lb 4oz, 2lb 5oz, 2lb 12oz, 2lb 13oz, and 2lb 14oz), 4 small but very pretty rudd, the little mirror carp, about 28 tench (I lost count!) including a few decent ones over 6lb which were a handful on the light gear, and that fantastic roach.

 

The rod on the baited spot easily outfished the other one, although by the end it got so hectic I was down to one rod anyway!

 

A lovely way to see out this year's crucian campaign, hopefully next May I can hit the ground running and maybe catch a REALLY big one

 

A few pics from today:

 

 

 

 

 

[Vagabond]

Good catch Anderoo

 

My catch yesterday consisted of a load of roach, a nuisance carp, and a sprinkling of ant bites ! No crucians!

[Paulg]

Gorgeous fish Anderoo, and nice clear pics too !

 

Is that leadcore above your feeder, or just some rig tubing? Interested to know as I don't tend to use anything like that.....maybe that's one of the mistakes I need to correct And it looks like you use green groundbait.....as I do

 

Oh....and your landing net needs repairing

[Anderoo]

Ha ha! Yes the landing net does have a few holes, thanks to winter chubbing and barbed wire fences!

 

I've been using little method feeders with about a foot of tungsten tubing above it, just to keep the line out of the way as the water is so shallow. Then at the business end a very short hooklength and small fake baits (mini corn, maggots, caster, pellet) hair rigged to they're just off bottom. (You may have to hide such ungentlemanly tactics from CP but they're very effective!)

[Paulg]

(You may have to hide such ungentlemanly tactics from CP but they're very effective!)

 

I wouldn't worry about that.....he uses fake maggots when trotting in the winter, and he's not adverse to the use of method feeders for carp and tench either. That said, he hasn't used them for crucians....yet.

 

Now, here's a question.....which way do you hair rig fake casters, aligned with the hair, or at 90 degrees ? I've tried the latter and didn't get a touch, so am thinking bait alignment may be putting the fish off.

[Anderoo]

The bounder!

 

I essentially tie a little tiny pop-up rig so that the bouyant fake bait just lifts the hook so that it's hanging horizontally like a claw, and is just sitting on the bottom. The hair is coming off the hook near the eye. I'm using size 16 or 14 hooks and there's about 5mm separation between bait and hook.

 

It's a slightly scaled down version of what I used to do for tench. Which is itself a scaled down version of what people do for carp

 

I'm not really one for complex rigs but I do think getting where the hair comes off the hook is important for good hook-ups - off the bend for bottom baits, off the eye for pop-ups.

Edited August 17, 2014 by Anderoo

[Anderoo]

Oh, and I've been using light soft braid for the hooklengths (6lb drennan sinkbraid). Hooklengths are about 2-3" long.

[Anderoo]

Oops sorry, just re-read your question! Corn and pellet I hair rig in line with the hair, maggots and casters at 90 degrees.