Cracking week for crucians!

It's been a remarkable week for the shy-biting crucian, topped by what may well be the best haul ever by Korum-backed Gary Knowles.

During a recent session Gary netted an incredible 14 crucians, 10 of them over 2lb and four topping the magical 3lb barrier, topped by a personal-best giant of 3lb 14oz. 

Gary explained to Angling Times how the session unfolded: “Fishing has been slow owing to the hot, dry weather but a change to a strong south-westerly wind and heavy rain meant I just knew I had to get out,” he said. 

“I arrived at the Shropshire pool late evening and got set up ready for a morning assault. When I arrived I was the only angler on the pool and didn’t hesitate to set up in the face of the strong wind. 

“Very little happed during the night, but some line bites encouraged me to make the decision to feed heavily throughout the morning, whether I was getting takes or not. 

“At first light I had my first crucian, and a good one too at 3lb 3oz. From then on, with regular feeding of casters, corn and 2mm pellets, they kept coming.

“Eventually bites slowed down and I actually thought the session was over. My mate had just come up to photograph my new pb of 3lb 12oz, and with the fish returned I started to pack away when my last rod rattled off. This turned out to be another immaculate fish and another pb weighing in at 3lb 14oz, which capped off one of my most memorable sessions ever.”

Gary’s remarkable catch fell to a specialist approach incorporating a Preston Innovations Flat Dura Feeder, a 3ins hooklink of 4lb Powerline and a size 14 PR39 hook. For feed he used a 50/50 mix of 2mm Krill and Bloodworm pellets, a pint each of casters and red maggots, and half-a-tin of sweetcorn. He fished over the top of this with an 8mm Sonubaits Oozing Krill boilie.

Kevin Sanders has also been getting among the crucians. On a recent trip to Johnson’s Lake in Surrey the 41-year-old from Cambridge landed three crucians over 3lb. Topping the golden trio was a new personal best of 3lb 5oz. 

Kev, too, adopted a Method feeder approach but began the session with a Dynamite F1 Durable Hooker pellet for bait, placed tight in the margins. 

Kevin told Angling Times: “I introduced a sweet milky particle mix to try and get the fish feeding harder.

“Eventually they really switched on to the approach and I caught them on in-your-face baits such as 10mm Dynamite Pineapple and Banana fluro pop-ups.”

Johnson’s Lake delivered another superb catch to Andy Childs. Targeting the venue for two days with pal Mark Fox, the pair looked to break their personal bests. They did so in fine style, between them netting numbers of crucians topped by a 3lb 4oz bar of gold for Andy. 

Once again the successful tactic was a flatbed Method feeder with either a small pellet or boilie as the hookbait. This approach definitely seems to be a winner for the species at the moment!