A long-standing invite from Ian Welch finally came
to fruition and I was to go to the RMC Yateley complex to fish for the crucians
with him. The weather was terrible for
anglers, but perfect for the fish, temperatures forecasted to go near the 30
degrees C mark with humidity going through the roof. I got out my CAT collection of magazines and
read the August 2003 copy [issue24] where Ian had outlined his methods that
succeeded so well with the crucians, a couple of phone calls to him then gave
some fine tuning to the methods described.
My personal best crucian was a sample of 3lb-10oz taken from the Summer
Pit float fishing right in the side. That was a couple of years ago, now I was
hoping to get one of the four pound fish that had been taken by Ian and some of
his friends over the last several months.
That hope was there, but I was aware that the majority of the 4lb+
crucians had been caught in the spring when the fish were carrying spawn; this
was now August though the fish would still be very big and a new personal best
was well on the cards. The pit is
lightly fished with only a few invited guests and RMC bailiffs on the banks so
I was obviously very pleased to have this chance at those giants.
3lb-10oz and 2lb-14oz Summer Pit crucians.
As I arrived in the car park I was met by Ian, he
advised me that he would put me into the top swim for these conditions. Even with such a large lake there was very
little sign of angler’s activity, just five swims were evident as we came
through the entrance. Ian mentioned that
most of the banks were overgrown and unfished.
The lake is about 20 acres and my swim would be at the shallow end. Normally I would fish for crucians just a rod
length out but the heavy weed made this impossible. Checking the area in front of me, I found a
clear patch about 20 yards out and slightly to my left. Following Ian’s advice again, no pre-baiting
would be done; apparently the tench can be a major headache when crucians are
the target.
Tackle in the main was as shown in the August issue,
which said, I did do variations based on my own thinking. The reel line would be the usual 6lb Pro Gold;
I continued this through into the 10 inch hook length going to a size 10
Drennan Super Specialist. A 2oz flat
lead was fixed by means of a run clip which would allow the lead to release if
the fish ran through heavy weed. I used
the 12ft Drennan 1.5lb Specialist Duo rod with the standard top combined with
my normal Mitchel 300’s much to Ian’s amusement. He thought that the Antiques Roadshow had
come by but I feel comfortable with this model and have landed 95% of my fish
on them over the last 30 years or more.
In line with Ian’s advice, I would be using a
variation of the breadsticks he found so successful. Two fresh large medium sliced loaves were put
through a liquidiser to give a light fluffy mix. Into this, I then introduced about eight
handfuls of crushed hemp and a one-kilo bag of Force Baits Hi Betaine soft feed
micro pellets. These were flavoured with
Scopex and I would use the Force Baits Scopex 6 m/m Hooker Pellets either
combined with artificial corn or on their own.
The bread sticks would be threaded onto the line as a 2 – 3 inch
cocktail contained by PVA stocking that melts away to leave the hookbait lying
next to the feed.
Setting up on that Friday evening, the sweat was just
pouring out of my brow, mostly because of the heat and humidity, but also
anticipation of what was to come. I had
seen the odd fish just kiss the surface in the fashion so familiar to the
crucian fisherman and felt very confident of catching. I did catch through the night, not many, but
enough to ensure my sleep was very broken.
The only problem was that they were all little tench running up to about
5lb. Being so small I had to play each
one as if it was a large crucian, the fight being almost identical and
disappointment met each one as it came to the surface. I had thought the night offered the best
chance of the fish, and as dawn broke I was more than a little concerned that no
crucians had been caught feeling the chance was almost gone until the next
evening.
About 6:30am my right hand rod screamed off and I
went on to land another tench, whilst rebaiting the hook, my left rod went and
I thought a small group of tench had moved in so I manhandled the fight a
little more than usual. My error became
obvious as a large crucian finally came to the surface and continued to give
the spirited fight that the species is famed for. At last the net went under him and the scales
showed a very pleasing 3lb-5oz, not the target but well on the way. I took a walk up to Ian to see how he had
fared but at that time he was blank, at least he had a good night’s sleep
without the tench to disturb him.
Returning to my tackle I continued to take the tench building up to a
total of over one dozen, then, at 10:30 am with the sun burning well in the sky
I hit another crucian of 3lb-13oz, a new personal best. Even the tench bites dried up shortly after
that and Ian came down to do the honours with the camera. He had taken a fish of 3lb-10oz so the
session must be counted a great success.
A brace at 3lb-5oz & 3lb-13oz. A good day already.
By now it was heading towards midday and the
temperature must surely be in the region of the suggested 30 degrees. Just sitting in the shade of the surrounding
trees was torture with sweat dripping down my back and off my forehead. The baited rods were still out in the swim,
but with no real thought of a fish until at 1:30pm when the buzzer sounded off
again. By now I was near the twenty
total for tench and my thought was this would be just another of them. The fight was quite powerful and I thought it
would be a male; they fight so much harder than the females. It went back and forth in the swim ripping up
weeds as it ploughed through them, no concern; after all it is only a
tench. Then it came to the top and I
could see it would be a nice crucian so the gentle gloves went on. I know it is a mistake to slacken off on the
fight in these circumstances but it is hard not to do so when a large fish is
seen. This time it was no problem and I
slipped the net under her and swung it around onto the waiting unhooking
mat. Lying there I noticed this one was
going to be bigger than the previous one and I was sure I had my four-pound
sample, the body shape being far plumper.
The scales and net were still handy from weighing
the last one so with just a pause to wet the sling again I zeroed the net and
lifted the fish within it. Amazed is the
only word I can think of for that moment, the scale showed a weight of a record
size fish that should not be around at this time of the year. Ian had suggested that we might get a fish of
2oz or 3oz over the 4lb but this was in a different street. I quickly put her into a Queenford System net
and ran along the bank to get Ian and his partner to check and witness the
fish. I suggested he brought his camera
and scales with him and this was done.
We quickly arrived at the swim and as soon as he saw the fish Ian’s
comment was this was a new fish to the area.
With such a lot of water that has not been tackled, it is quite possible
that this fish had moved from the other end of the lake and was in this area
for the first time and obligingly picked up my bait. When Ian first lifted the scales he said
4lb-10oz, but they then settled back as the fish moved in the net and he
finally confirmed 4lb-9oz a fish that subject to a weights and measures check
could contend for the record. As we took
the usual photographs the fish began to shed spawn in a serious way making me
realise how close the line between big and enormous. Indeed I saw that the same
fish had been caught a few days later at quite a bit below that best weight
when Martin Bowler took Ian’s advice and returned for the chance of a recapture
for the ‘Fishing for the Impossible’ series.
In forty years of fishing I have had top ten fish on a number of
occasions, twice a fish in fourth place on the list, this one would beat that.
An equal record at 4lb-9oz. Target met!
After that it was an anti-climax, the evening and
night were a total blank and my only action was a fish lost to the heavy weed
just on dawn. That said who cares, it
had been a magnificent session and I could hardly wait for the weights and
measures result. When that came it
turned out I missed the record by the 9 dram margin but as today has shown that
small increment was declared invalid since the scales used could not have shown
that weight and hence it was rounded down to 4lb-9oz at the last BRFC meeting.
This blog is substantially that which was written at
the time for my monthly feature in Course Angling Today a task that only came
to a stop recently after a continuous near ten years. For those not aware Ian Welch was head of
fisheries for the very large RMC complex of waters until its change of
ownership to the current Cemex brand.
BRFC Record Certificate.
