Club lake Crucian, river Rudd and surface carping. A varied summers fishing. Part 2.

The 2nd half of my summers fishing was just as rewarding as the 1st. Fishing fenland rivers to club lakes it was again all about variety. The highlight for me was catching a pb that I had been dreaming about for many years.

I have been targeting Crucians for the last few summers or so and have caught lots of beautiful fish to over 2lbs. Now a 2lb plus Crucian may not sound like a big fish but when they are as rare as they are in my part of the world ANY Crucian is a special fish. I had fished over at Marsh farm day ticket lakes in Surrey a few times in the hope of getting that special 3lb fish. But after catching many 2lbers it seemed like the place to catch a biggie was the club lake called Johnsons. It's a 200 mile round trip to Johnsons for me but there are not many other places (probably none) that you can go and fish for the quantity of big Crucians this lake has.

My 1st trip was at the end of July so the Crucian fishing had been in full swing for a few months already. I got to the lake about 6am after a very early start from Cambridge to find the lake very busy. And this was a Monday after the weekend crowds. I had some advice to follow from some regulars and headed to the train bank. There were only a few swims to choose from so settled into a quiet corner and dropped one ground bait method feeder in close to some lilies and one a good chuck out near to some weed. I was into a powerful fish almost straight away which turned out to be a plump Tench of around 5lbs in weight. A few more Tench over the next few hours had me thinking of a move. I found some fish bubbling in a shallow area the opposite side of the lake. It didn't take me long to move and it paid off within minutes and a 2lb 12oz Cru was soon being photographed. It tuned out to be the only Crucian for me that day but only a handful were caught around the entire lake. It was a pb for me so I was well happy with that!

Two weeks later I was again up at an absurd time in the morning navigating my way around the M25 to Johnsons lake. This time it was a Saturday so I got there even earlier to make sure I could get a swim in the fancied area. Well I couldn't believe it when there were only three cars in the car park! This time I had the pick of the "going" swims and soon had my rods out in the lake. This time I wanted to try something different along side the ground bait method feeder. I opted for a maggot feeder just to give them something different to the standard ground bait feeder. I cast the maggot feeder several times next to a weed bed to get some free offerings in the area. About 5 minutes after the 1st proper cast I was into a fish that I thought must be a Tench due to the speed of the take?! Not long into the fight I could feel the tell tale up and down fight of a Crucian. It went into the net with no drama and equaled my pb of 2lb 12oz. What a great start.

The Crucians carried on feeding through the day and I landed several 2lbers along with several Tench to 6lb. I noticed a Crucian jump 20 yards past the baited area so I wound in the ground bait rod and dropped it as close as I could to it. A few minutes later the bobbin slammed into the rod and I was into a better fish. As I played the fish in I knew it was a better Crucian and as I pulled it into the net I could see it for certain. Would this be my 3lber? At 3lb 4oz it was indeed! The early start and long drive was definitely worth it. And to cap the day off the very next fish was another 3lber! I can't wait to get back.

I manged to get out onto my local river for some more evening sessions after the Rudd. Although not the most practical way of targeting them I love fishing from a boat. With the evenings drawing in it doesn't leave much time for fishing once you have got the boat into the river and everything sorted! But nevertheless I had some very enjoyable fishing catching some beautiful Rudd to 2lb 4oz. In just half a dozen or so trips between me and my boat mates we boated 12 2lb plus Rudd. The highlight was one such evening session with my mate Mick. He had never caught a 2lb Rudd before so when his big piece of bread crust got inhaled by a 2lb 1oz fish I was just as over the moon as him.

Carp fishing has taken somewhat of a back seat for me over the last few years. That's the problem when you target multiple species. There's just never enough time for everything! Especially when you have a young family. I did manage to get out one particularly hot late August evening with the hope of catching some Carp off the surface at my local club lake.

There was a fair breeze blowing which made for tricky presentation. I opted to fish the back of the wind where there was some shelter from the tree's behind. There were a few fish on the surface and looked ripe for a floater or two! I spodded out 7 or so loads of mixers and the fish started taking instantly. I had several Carp to 19lb over the next hour or so but I noticed a sizable fish taking mixers relatively close in. I cast about 5 yards in front of the fish in the direction it was heading. As the fish got closer I repositioned the hook bait just to make sure it couldn't miss it. And it didn't! As it sucked down the mixer I set the hook. The fish didn't realise it was hooked for a few minutes and just plodded about. As it got closer to the bank it woke up and ran me all over the place for another 10 minutes! After a few attempts at netting it I finally bundled it in. It was a lovely old looking mirror of exactly 25lbs and a great way to see the summer out.