It’s really no secret that Johnson’s Lake, on the Godalming AC ticket down in Surrey, has been the place to be over the last few years if you wanted to catch a giant crucian. It’s also no secret that if you want to catch most of your crucians at their heaviest weight then catching them prior to spawning is the best time to do it. I’d been a member of Godalming AC for a few years but had only managed to fish the lake on three occasions; the opportunity to have a go for the Johnson’s crucians prior to spawning had not been a realistic proposition until this year.
The lake has not opened for fishing until 1st of May these past few years and considering that the crucians are often early spawners in this shallow, silty estate lake, my window of opportunity has been as short as a week or two; to give myself the best possible chance of a proper heavyweight I needed to get down there as early as possible.
May 1st fell around Bank Holiday time this year and other commitments prevented my being there for the start of the season. However I organized things so that I could travel down the day after the Bank Holiday for my first session.
The crucian fishing on Johnson’s had been quite spectacular for some anglers over the first few days. Despite the many blanks around the venue, some anglers had clearly been in the right swims at the right time. Those who’d managed to locate the tightly grouped pods of fish had really got amongst them and had caught some great bags or some massive specimens. The best catch during the first few days fell to fellow Northampton Specimen Group member, Jamie Cartwright, who had an enviable stack of 3lb+ crucians. There was also a sprinkling of 4lb+ fish so I was overflowing with enthusiasm to get started.
Unfortunately enthusiasm counts for nothing if you’re not in the right swim and my first two day session for the crucians finished with plenty of tench and several 20lb+ carp to over 25lb on my crucian rods, but the crucians themselves appeared to “do the off” as soon as I had set up.
Undeterred by my initial lack of success and encouraged by some very big fish being caught here and there(including a potential new British record crucian weighing 4lb 10oz) I stayed down in Surrey and planned a second session on the lake as soon as the fishery rules allowed. Sadly, my results from this second attempt were similar to the first and despite catching plenty of tench, no crucians came to my rods.
The weather was warming up but the crucians had yet to spawn so I made the effort to get back down to the lake the following week. Sport with the crucians was clearly starting to dwindle but they still seemed catchable with the right baits and methods – so long as the swim had a few fish in it!
Most crucian fishermen were targeting their quarry with flat method feeders, short hook-links and various hook-baits; nonetheless, artificial castor, corn, pellet or maggot were some of the most popular choices. My own tactics were similar, but I opted for a mini-helicopter set-up where I could simply mould my method mix around the lead. I was also nicking a little PVA mesh bag of pellets onto the hook on each cast for extra attraction around the hook-bait. I experimented with the hook-bait too, as I reckoned most of the big crucians had been caught at least once since the start of the season and may have been wary of the more regular options. As far as the tench were concerned my most successful alternative hook-bait was a small snail from a tin of Dynamite “Hemp and Snails” fished on the hair with a small piece of yellow plastic as a stopper: this ensured the snail wasn’t lost on the cast. There was a 4 hour period when I could barely get seated again before another tench tore off with the bait. I even managed to catch my first crucian of the year, a little over 3lb and caught on snail, so this bait became my default choice on at least one of the two rods thereafter.
It wasn’t long before the regular carp and the crucian carp started to show signs of spawning. The number of anglers started to drop off and I did wonder if I should quit my crucian campaign and save my enthusiasm for a four-pounder until next year. But I was still keen for another go and, at the next opportunity, I was loading up the gear and heading off back down to Surrey.
I started with a couple of day sessions, occasionally moving swim to try and locate the better crucians -but without success. It did appear though that those catching the odd fish did so in previously unproductive areas.
With most of the crucian population spawned-out and the chances of a 4lb+ fish getting slimmer, I put myself in a swim that had looked good the previous day. Action certainly wasn’t instantaneous and I was wondering if I’d chosen a duff swim again when the alarm on the snail rod sounded. I bent into what felt like a really big crucian and on seeing the fish it was clearly much bigger than my personal-best of 3lb 6oz: could this be the ‘record in waiting’ I thought…
I quickly came to my senses and figured that it wasn’t quite that big, but the fish was clearly a new PB and quite possibly over the magical 4lb mark. I was a bag of nerves and very cautiously played the fish until it was safely in the landing net and I could start to breathe again.
On the unhooking mat it was clear that this particular crucian hadn’t spawned and was not only very plump around the belly but bulky across the whole body. I’d got my special, super-accurate, kitchen scales in the car in case I caught a’ borderline’ fish around the 4lb mark but my ‘Avons’ showed that 4lb+ wasn’t in doubt, reading a little closer to 4.02 than 4.01. I was more than happy to
call it 4.01!
A few quick photos and I was soon sitting back with a very satisfied smile and basking in that lovely warm glow of another angling ambition achieved, but I wasn’t relaxing for long! Soon I was attached to another good crucian which eventually sent the scales spinning round to 3.06.
The following day I had another brace of good crucians weighing 3lb 7oz (on snail) and 3lb 3oz (on Scopex flavored sweetcorn) before it was time to pack up and head for home.
My May crucian campaign had, then, yielded a fabulous result and I was all fired-up for my next few sessions in pursuit of carp, bream, catfish or tench.
I’ll let you know how things turned out in my next piece.
Until then… happy fishing!
