Crucians at maximum weight just before spawning !!!!
Last week I popped down & chatted at length with a nice old chap fishing Harris lake at Marsh Farm.
He was fishing in a deeper than normal marginal swim, his tactics were waggler fishing & just one rod.
I watched him catch fish after fish & his swim was fizzing with activity at midday of all times.
This lucky chaps morning passed with countless crucians up to 3lb & tench to 5lb, let me tell you this man (as nice as he was) was no Martin Bowler, far from it. Using a 25 year old, heavy rod, 8lb mainline & a hoofing great size 10 hook.
Not a bit of finesse at all, something I've found so vital with the shy biting crucians.
I came to the conclusion the main reason for his extremely lucky catch was the brisk wind was on his back & his large unbrella was sheltering the water up to a rod length out.
This was protecting the swim & giving him excellent presention of his waggler with the deep margins only 6ft from the bank.
I was straight on the blower to @dangriff75 & quickly organised our next fishy trip as soon as possible before the fish started spawning & became occupied with other things.
The forcast for our chosen day was looking sunny & warm, strangly I've have some good catches in these conditions but as the day drew close the weather completely changed with heavy rain.
As we thought it wouldn't be as busy as it might be, so I picked up dan at 7am heading off for a big coffee & a tasty yet unhealthy breakfast en route to the lakes.
As we arrived I was ruing that decision to have an extra hours sleep, with 10 or so cars in the carpark, my heart sank further when I walked up to the deep marginal swim that the old geezer had caught so well a few days earlier.
It's taken & so are the surrounding three swims.
I knew of one other swim that I've heard has produced some good cru's in the past & it's rairly fished as the grass on the bank was quite long.
Having never fished it before I needed get started & quickly, maybe sneak a fish or two early on.
Without wanting to spook any fish I didn't plumb up 4 the first hour & just got a bait out as quickly as I could.
A few twitches in a few casts with double red maggot & I had a very positive bite & my carbon bent well into a decent fish.
But my excitement is short lived as after a few shakes of the head & he's back to his watery home. I checked the hook & it's still sharp, just one of those things I guess but never the less hugely frustrating.
After that the wind picked up & I struggled keep the float & still, I didn't feel comfortable that the presentation was good enough. After a biteless 40mins my moral was low & I had to give up the float rod.
My old faithful back up was employed,
A pair of sonik 1.5tc rods with my size 40 Okuma freespool reels, 6lb mainline & method feeders with a short 5lb fluorocarbon hooklink & 16 hook.
I wanted to try something different & I bought a pair of banjo feeders in the excellent onsite shop, with the thought that I can fish groundbait or sticky pellets & bury the hookbait inside without worrying about a possible tangle.
As a fisherman wanting to catch the best I can every single time, it's good to adapt to new theories & tactics & field test them so to speak when I can.
As you might spot I'm using alarms, not something I would normally do at this day ticket but I've bought a set of the new ATT alarms & receiver, so this was as good a time as any to give them a whirl. I've heard you can have problems matching them up with Stow bobbins (that I really love using). Apparently the indicators get stuck in the wheel of the ATT's & damage the line, I can't see it myself but we will wait & see today.
After a slow start both me & dan started to get lots of liners & we hovered over the rods, waiting to slowly lift into the fight.
Two or three runs each resulted in small male tench around 2lb max, but my god they scraped amazingly hard for their size, putting in a superb account of themselves, most of them had minimal spawning damage, but of course were fighting fit after being preoccupied with the females latey.
It's still slow going so I decided put a rod on the near side marginal shelf, where I prebaited for the float earlier, this proved a good move as my rod ripped off a minute after recasting, a good, spirited fight & as it gets ready to net it's a Crucian, finally they have turned up.
A nice clean fish of around 2lb
With that I thought that might kick start the feeding but it didn't.......
About 2pm dan had a great run & the line melted off his spool, the bend in his rod told me this must be a Tench, really thumping about & turning from left to right & back again. As I readied the net I saw a big paint brush-like tail as he burrowed freedom, in the net it looks a good'un, after unhooking we put him on the scales.....
4lb 4oz & dan let out a sigh, "this soaking has been worth it then" hahaha
The next run was my rod to the far Island & after a stop start run I struck into thin air, what happened ????
Within a second I understood what was going on, I automatically started reeling quick, he has come towards me,
Slack line safely back on the spool, I felt him kicking back, I'm lucky but game on. It feels a good tench but let's wait & see, a barnstorming fight, really thumping about, I ease the clutch off just as dan nets the fish.
As dan looks in the net & then peers up at me, his face tells me it's clearly a beast & I start to quiver with excitement.
On the mat it looks even bigger & this must be a pb, the scales tell me yes 5lb 10oz of lovely male tench
So I broke my pb by only 5oz but I'll take that, I can only imagine a what a 10lber looks like.
After pictures he goes back very much fighting fit & I'm feeling very pleased with myself
Within a 20 mins my margin rod screamed off & this felt altogether a different fight, slow plodding head shakes, as it surfaced my legs went to jelly, "dan get my net" I said as I left it just out of reach, "it's a good Crucian"
What turned out to be a fairly poor fight compared to my new pb tench, I peeled back the net to reveal this biggest Crucian I've even seen, I had them to 2lb 10oz last year but this looked a whole different beast.
3lb 3oz, a beautiful Crucian, another pb, what a sesson & I now agreed with dan, today was worth a soaking !!!!
We had a few more smaller tench through the day, up to 3lb+ & dan finally had a couple of small crucians.
As we packed up & got soaked again loading up the car, I had to ask the other anglers in my normal swim if they had anything ??
My smile grew bigger as they told me it was an awful day, a few very small tench & no crucians, I shouldn't laugh but I will, hahaha
I might not have had my pb's without having to try an untested swim & once again I've learnt a lession.
I still want to catch some bigger fish on the float here but I will have to leave that thought for another day
As we drove home looking like two drowned rats all we smiled away & talked about my two pb's & our next plan of attack for the next marsh farm session !
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