Wallys-Cast wrote: ↑Sat Nov 14, 2020 3:26 pm
I have caught plenty of Tench in the upper levels but never a Crucian. I wonder if they are Crucian Hybrids as small common carp will feed at any level.
Wal.
I am certain they were proper Crucians, not hybrids.
They look identical to moley's pictures in the 'any one been fishing' thread.
That looks like a proper crucian to me.
Wallys-Cast wrote: ↑Sat Nov 14, 2020 3:26 pm
I have caught plenty of Tench in the upper levels but never a Crucian. I wonder if they are Crucian Hybrids as small common carp will feed at any level.
Wal.
I am certain they were proper Crucians, not hybrids.
They look identical to moley's pictures in the 'any one been fishing' thread.
That looks like a proper crucian to me.
Rotrax, I am not having a go about your Crucians but we had a big debate not so long back and many "true Crucians" are now thought to be hybrids.
I am surprised nobody has had a go at Moleys Crucians to be honest.
Well, this is all new to me.
They were splendid fish, from the four inch tiddler to the about two pounder.
By golly they are strong fish!
Genuine Crucians or not, I shall not worry.
No point in worrying about something you have no control over.
The pleasure from my days fishing is still with me, and that is sufficient.
Rotrax wrote: ↑Mon Nov 16, 2020 3:00 pm
Well, this is all new to me.
They were splendid fish, from the four inch tiddler to the about two pounder.
By golly they are strong fish!
Genuine Crucians or not, I shall not worry.
No point in worrying about something you have no control over.
The pleasure from my days fishing is still with me, and that is sufficient.
And that is exactly how I feel about it too Rotrax. I was merely pointing out the possibility of a reason for the fish to feed high up in the water.
I never knew until recently that a F1 carp was a cross between a crucian and a common. Yet I have been catching them on and off for years and have never really noticed the resemblance. To me they were just what I've always known as pasties.
I think MGs has it about right. The stocking density in most commercials means that the natural food availability is restricted so the fish are competing for anglers bait. If they don't get it soon after it's thrown in then they won't get it at all. Very little of the bait that's thrown in reaches the bottom.
It got me thinking about a small pit that I used to fish in Suffolk where I knew there were crucians in the swim because they regularly rolled on the surface but I couldn't get a bite. At some point during the session I would start catching for no apparent reason and I now suspect that it was because the fish were initially feeding up in the water. They then went down to the bottom to clear up any bait that had got past them. Shame I wasn't canny enough to try a slow sinking bait but then crucians always feed on the bottom don't they?!!
What do they know of fishing who know only one fish and one way to fish for him?
- Jack Hargreaves.
Many years ago while doing a doing a narrowboat trip on the GU Canal we stopped a couple of days at Kings Langley to meet a guy who had some vintage motorbike bits I needed. The canal at this point was flowing as it was a canalised bit of river, the Bulbourne IIRC, a tributary of the River Gade.
I got the rod out and did a bit of trotting off the back of our boat. Bread on the hook, just off the bottom.
Caught three small roach and a gudgeon, the guy turned up with the bits so the rod was laid on the cabin top while I paid him, showed him the boat and we had cofee and cake.
After he left my wife started preparing dinner so I went back to the fishing.
Caught three half pound ish Crucians in quite fast flowing clear water.
They all took at the end of the trot as I held it back and the bait lifted in the water.
Again, Crucians in fast flowing clear water, beyond my experience.
You don't have to be in a well stocked water for the fish to feed in mid-water. You can often get fish to come up in the water by constant loose feeding. This happens in both still waters and rivers. Fish that are feeding well will start intercepting the bait nearer and nearer to the source gradually rising in the water column.
I've had instances particularly when catching dace and I've thought I've lost the fish but then spotted fish flash just below the surface and when I've reduced my depth started catching again.
I have experienced that too Phil, but never with Crucians.
I had never caught a Crucian in anything other than a still water untill the GU/Bulbourne three, and none since.
They are just about my favourite fish, something about their dogged fight and the feel they have in the hand. Like the metal gold, heavier than they look.
I agree, beautiful fish crucians. We had few waters in the East Riding which contained crucians in the past but things have improved although some stocks are not pure fish. I actually have some crucians in my garden pond although they have produced a hybrid with my goldfish.
A pure crucian below and what is probably a brown goldfish.
When I first started 'serious' coarse fishing there were members of one club that regularly fished with two hooks on the same float tackle - one on the deck and a dropper up to about 18in above. I was told that this was a carry over from local river regulations of that era permitting the use of "up to two hooks and no more" but I never saw those regulations for myself - perhaps someone here familiar with the 1970s regs applicable to Lancashire could confirm/deny? It was an approach that proved that crucians can be tempted to take a bait well off the bottom. The general consensus of our elder match angling gurus was that sometimes they accepted baits one way better than the other, and at times the smaller 'bottle tops' could be caught two at a time! Baits were most often bread punch on one hook and pinkie on the other, swapped around until any preference was established. It was a contentious method - as effective method, baits etc so often are to the competitive angler - so eventually the club rules were altered to single hook only. In those days nearly every cattle drink, farm pond and brick pit in the area - and there were hundreds - held a head of crucians. Now, sadly, the vast majority of the few dozen that remain fishable are dominated by big heads of small to medium king carp of dubious origin! Myself and farming friends are attempting to reverse this demise with our own programme of pond reinstatement and crucian 'farming'
