It doesn't mater how long you have been fishing, as angling always has a way of surprising us as Roger Westcott can testify to as a session on a local pond not known for containing many crucians, let alone specimen fish, produced a superb 4lb PB for him.
Fishing with his friends, Richard and Simon, the trio had started fishing a new pond in the hope of catching whatever swims. Roger opted for his favored feeder setup, which had been producing bags of bream on other nearby waters.
"I was using my trusty 10ft Drennan MatchPro feeder rod with a cage feeder setup," he told us.
"I always prefer to fish on the lighter side as I believe it gets me more bites, and I am in no rush to land the fish. My mainline is always 6lb, opting to fish with a 3lb hooklink and a size 16 hook on this occasion."
Roger is a big advocate of fishing closer in during the spring and always opts to fish where he can catapult maggots, believing this helps draw more fish into the area. However, after a very slow day, he decided on a change of tactics.
"I saw a large fish roll directly over where I had been fishing for the majority of the session, so it was obvious the fish were there, I just needed to change my tactics slightly," he said.
"I decided to change from maggots to corn, and within ten seconds of the feeder settling, I had a bite."
Roger was unsure what the fish was, knowing there were tench and bream in the lake, he expected it must have been one of those species. However his heart almost stopped when the huge crucian surfaced.
"Simon and Richard were standing with me, and we all witnessed the huge crucian surface. I won't repeat what was said, but we were all excited and shocked."
"The lake is not known to produce crucians, and maybe does two captures a year of much smaller fish around the 1lb mark, so this came as a complete surprise."
"After all my years of fishing, it still has a habit of surprising me, and that is what I love about it. The fish was also a new personal best, beating my previous best of 3lb 6oz from Marsh Farm," he concluded.
FLOAT FISHING IS ALSO A GREAT WAY OF CATCHING CRUCIAN CARP, CHECK OUT OUR BUYER'S GUIDE FOR SOME GREAT OPTIONS.
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