The Sessions - May 2018

Crucian Heaven

Well I signed off last month after my worst trip to Spain in 18 years following a terrible winter and spring, so things could only improve…

6 May – Fields End Fishery

Work has not been letting up and a change of rank has seen my fishing restricted mainly to weekends which is not ideal, I have been joining fishing clubs with limited membership for the forth coming season, this will give me a chance of getting reasonable swims at weekends, well I’m hoping so…

The weather had been warming up with long sunny days at 23 degrees so it was a good time to continue on my quest for a Cambridgeshire 3 pound Crucian. Fields End gives me the best chance, with the bigger lake holding a good head of Crucians with many over the 2 pound mark, my best to date from there is 2-10 so a 3 has to be a good possibility.

I arrived for the 07:00 opening and walked round to find it very busy, the lake is on a caravan site and does get busy during the warmer months, but luckily my swim of choice was free so I set up feeling pretty confident. Over the last two close seasons I have found float fished prawn to be best so I set up two rods on floats fishing tight to the marginal reeds with size 14 hooks, one with prawn and the other on Pandemic paste and fed broken prawn and maggots.

I had a Tench and a single figure Mirror on the prawn but had a nagging feeling I was in the wrong spot, I’ve written before about trusting your instincts so I did and moved down to a deeper spot by an overhanging tree.

After plumbing the spot and setting the floats I was fishing on a marginal slope a rod length out, I sat myself right back so just the end two eyes were over the water. The prawn rod was very busy as usual there with regular Roach, Rudd and Perch, the paste rod was quiet but out of the blue I had a Crucian on the drop but I wasn’t getting much on it at all.
No one was catching Crucian but they were showing regularly in the swim so at lunchtime I had a re-think on tactics and set up two method feeders on 35g flatbed feeders, made up a sticky groundbait and tried hair rigging prawns.

The thought process was to get the bait down to the bottom to avoid being smashed by silvers on the drop. It was better but I still caught them or they pulled the bait from the hair but I did catch three Crucians so was on the right track.

By 17:00 it was getting frustrating so I tried a piece of fake corn on one rod popped up half an inch. The prawn rod continued to be attacked by silvers but the corn rod only went twice at the same time and they were both Crucians which gave me plenty to think about as I was packing up at 18:00 hours.

12 May – Fields End Fishery

After the hot spell we had experienced it had cooled down to normal Spring temps at 14-15 degrees during the day, cloudy with sunny spells. I got to the lake for opening and went back in the deeper swim, I was first on and the cooler temp was certainly keeping people away from an early start.

I’d given it a lot of thought during the week and come up with a plan that I thought would keep the silvers at bay and pick out the better fish. My set up was two rods, both on 6 pound mainline, 35g flatbed feeders, Drennan 5 pound braid hooklink to size 14 Guru barbless hooks, with a small piece of fake corn on the hair. My plan was to bait drop two droppers of maggot and micro pellet an hour and recast the feeders every 10-15 mins. I’d thought about my groundbait mix a lot and come up with something I thought would work well, this is something I want to keep to myself for a while……

Once set up I bait dropped the maggot / pellet mix and swung the feeders out the rod length to the spot. First cast I had a Carp that wasn’t far from 20 pound and a pound plus Rudd.

The morning then continued to be busy with regular bites most being Crucians to 2-04.

It slowed down a bit after lunchtime but I continued to pick up Crucians every hour to finish with 16 Crucians with seven being over two pound, 4 Carp and a bonus 8-14 Barbel that the camera annoyingly had a malfunction with.

I was really pleased; my plan had worked as the rig and bait mix really picked out the better fish as I only had two Roach and a Rudd.

18 May – Fields End Fishery

Following a few cooler days it warmed up again and we had settled temps at 21-22 degrees. I had planned on a weekend Tench fishing but work got in the way again leaving me just the one day to go fishing so I made up some more of my ground bait mix and headed over to Fields End.

I arrived on opening and went straight back in the hot swim, I was well practised and the rods all set up so I bait dropped some dead maggots and swung the two flat-bed feeders into position. It wasn’t quite as instant but bites soon starting coming to my rods and I was catching consistently. I did lose a few and the hooks were coming back burred over, I can only attribute this to fish with mouth damage leaving the boney bit exposed so the hook was not going in fully.



I finished at 17:00 and had a real red letter day landing 19 Crucians with seven being over two pound with a brace of 2-04’s being the best.

I had a few more silvers with eleven Roach and two Rudd along with two low double figure Carp. The beauty of this style of fishing was I only used possibly a pound of bait so it keeps the cost right down.

27 May – Fields End Fishery

I got to the lake on opening again and went back to the same little spot, it was a misty morning a little chilly but was forecast to be warm again.

I bait dropped the last of my dead maggots and swung the rigs in. I had a Carp and a Roach first put ins and then Crucians started to roll over the area, from 07:30 – 11:00 I caught regularly with repeated line bites as well, it really was sit on your hands until the baitrunner was churning.

By 11:00 I’d caught 18 Crucians, with five being over two pound up to 2-04 again and then the sun came out and I didn’t get another bite and packed up at 15:30 hours.

Although brilliant fishing I couldn’t work out why they just stopped feeding, but that’s what keeps us all going, if it was easy it would be boring.

After a great four trips I made up my mind to join Johnsons in Surrey, the holy grail of Crucian fishing, so went home and completed the application and popped it in the post. A phone call to my pal Phil Smith to discuss tactics convinced me to try my groundbait mix there, so all being well I’ll have tales to tell of bigger Crucians come the end of the summer.

31 May – Gingerbread Lake

I managed an overnighter for Carp and Tench but the only bites I got were mossie bites, lots of them!! However I did have a little more success on my next trip which I’ll tell you about next month.

Until next month tight lines and be lucky

Julian Barnes