Methods
Crucians
The Fringe Pool is absolutely teeming with golden flanked cheeky Crucian Carp. The fact that they are there in numbers does not mean that they are always easy to catch. In fact, over the years, generations of Crucian Carp have mastered the art of removing the bait from an anglers hook without registering a bite on the float. The other classic Crucian trick is to register a really fast bite that you just can't hit ... and steal the bait, leaving you the poor witless angler scratching your head.
The following method has been tried and tested by us a Tingrith in the Fringe Pool ... and the news is that they work!
Catching Crucians on the bottom.
Equipment
You will need:
- A soft 11-12 ft waggler rod, with 3 or 4lb reel line or a 6m pole elasticated with no 6 or no 8 elastic.
- One bag of Tingrith micro pellets or a fishmeal based Browning groundbait dampened with water. One pot of soft hook or expander pellets and or sweetcorn or paste.
Use a 3BB or 2AAA peackcock waggler with a cane insert (or similar). Set the float up so that just 2 or 3mm of float is showing or use a 0.5g pole float with a fine bristle. As shown in the diagram.
Ensure that you use a fine hook length line 0.10 in the summer months will be fine and most importantly use a small barbless hook, as small as you can get away with. A 16 or an 18 is ideal in the summer.
Important: Find a flat part of the bottom (normally about 5 or 6 metres out (one and a half rod lengths) and Plumb the depth....make sure you bait is set to the dead depth, i.e. ensure that when the bait has finished falling through the water it actually just rests on the bottom of the lake with no line touching on the bottom.
Feeding Pattern: Once you have chosen your feeding area,introduce two small balls of groundbait into ,the swim or squeeze two small balls of mini-pellets together and feed those in either using a pole cup or by hand. Be as accurate as possible!
Now bait your hook - it is always wise to have a choice of hook baits - and cast your float directly over the feed. Then be patient and wait for a positive indication on the float. The float will move a little at first and then slide under. Strike at this point and the chances are you'll find a cheeky Crucian on the end!