Golden warrior.

In June, I turned my attention to catching my first Scottish crucian. After doing a bit of research, I identified two venues that I was confident had some true crucian in them. The first being Loch Dunmore situated in Faskally Forest near Pitlochry and the second Greenhill Fishery near Dalbeattie in Dumfries & Galloway. The first venue is a member's only water, so I joined Dunmore Angling Club and drove up there to have a go. Loch Dunmore is a very picturesque water, it has many large reed and lily beds and lots of pond weed in it too, which I thought might be problematic in terms of locating a swim. When I arrived the first time, I had a walk all the way around the loch to check out the various angling platforms before deciding on one at the northern end of the water opposite the old boat house. It was fairly deep, had a large fishable gap in the aquatic flora and proved to be a good choice as it produced some nice fish. I fished three separate sessions from it over the next month or so, using a very sensitive float and a small piece of corn or single maggot on the hook.

The loch's old boathouse.

The biggest roach that I caught.

The loch has a large head of perch too. Maggot didn't even get to the bottom when a shoal moved into my swim.

The venue has been stocked with tench and I caught a lot of those too over the three sessions, mainly on small corn hook baits.

I then decided to pay Greenhill Fishery a visit, so I spoke to the owner before travelling down. He told me that the crucian had been stocked in 2013, and that it had been a few years since he'd heard of anyone catching one. He also told me that most anglers fishing the coarse pond were targeting the carp and tench on mostly method feeder tactics and would be unlikely to catch any crucian still in there. I decided to go and try my luck with tackle more suited to the shy biting fish. The day ticket Lily Pad Pool turned out to be a lovely little venue, only three-quarters of an acre in size and tucked away in a valley. After a quick walk round and listening to a bit more advice from the owner, I opted to fish a peg that had a nice bed of lily pads in the margin just to the left of it. A sensitive float rig was lowered in just out past them and I soon started catching some cracking tench on small pieces of corn that were great fun on my light float rod.

All the fish were in lovely condition.

Over the next month or so I made four trips down there and also did some feeder fishing as well for the resident carp, which I caught a few of over the sessions. The biggest one however was caught on my light float rod, which resulted in quite a lengthy battle. I had to take my time playing the fish, as applying any kind of pressure would no doubt have resulted in it breaking me off. Great sport though!

Patience was key in landing this lovely double figure common carp. It took a single maggot on a #18 hook tied to 2lb nylon!

About two hours into my fourth session, my Drennan No.1 glow tip antenna float slowly slipped under, I gently lifted into the bite and hooked the culprit. It didn't fight terribly hard and came to the surface reasonably quickly. When I got sight of what it was, I started screaming to my mate Ryan, who had joined me for the session, "Get the net! Get the net!". After a brief nervous moment, when the fish thrashed on the surface as it came towards the net, my first Scottish crucian was drawn over it.

Jackpot! A bit of an old warrior, missing a few scales, but still a beautiful fish nonetheless.

I was absolutely buzzing. It's incredibly satisfying when you set out to catch and then get a tricky target species. Especially one as elusive as a Scottish crucian! By this point, I'd already formulated a plan to get me to my goal of one hundred Scottish species. Having moved one closer, I was ready to shift my focus to a small bottom feeding fish that lives in rocky streams and only comes out to feed after dark, the stone loach.

Tight lines, Scott.

And now for something completely different.

My fishing of late has been almost exclusively in saltwater. This was something that I was keen to remedy so on Sunday I set off on another trip down south. This time it was a tour of some of England's coarse fishing venues that are known to contain some rare freshwater fish species. My chosen targets over three days were bitterling, bleak, pumpkinseed, motherless minnow, crucian and silver bream. With the exception of pumpkinseed I have never caught any of them before so the trip was a good way to add a few new species to this year's tally. Setting off early on Sunday morning I arrived at my first venue, Kingsdown Flash in Abram, just after 9:00. My target there was bitterling and I quickly found myself a peg with some nice marginal features to fish.

I was advised by other anglers who had caught bitterling to fish tight to marginal features and these reeds and lily pads fitted that bill nicely.

Single pinkie on a #22 hook fished under a very sensitive No.1 Drennan Glow Tip Antenna float shotted right down to a pimple was my chosen approach and I soon caught a few small roach as well as a couple of bigger fish that I think were rudd but may also have been roach/rudd hybrids.

I'm pretty sure this is a rudd. Hmmm.

After a while I decided to try for my target at a second peg but this only produced a few more roach and a tiny perch. With a two hour drive to Stratford upon Avon to make to try and catch bleak before a further eighty two mile drive south to my hotel I decided to gamble, fish on for an hour longer than I had originally intended and moved to a third peg that again had some nice marginal features to fish.

The view from the bottom end of Kingdown Flash, known locally as Polly's I believe.

More small roach were soon gobbling my small red maggot, with a single gudgeon eventually making a nice change.

Not the little fish I was after but one that brought a little smile to my face.

To be honest I was just about to give up on catching a bitterling and begin packing up to go when I got a huge slice of luck and caught one.

A very pretty little fish with a nice purple sheen to its back and an almost neon stripe on its tail root. 

Over the moon but now behind schedule I quickly packed up and headed off to try and catch my second target, bleak. After driving down the road, parking the car and walking a short distance I arrived at a very nice little stretch of the River Avon just below a weir opposite an old mill that had been replaced with some expensive looking flats.

A lovely spot to fish with a bit of current. Ideal for catching bleak hopefully. 

I decided to use my centrepin reel in conjunction with an Avon float to trot my pinkies down the river. I like using the centrepin although my casting is still very poor but luckily distance wasn't required and by holding my float back, causing my bait to lift up in the current I found that I was soon getting bites. Hitting them was another matter and I soon discovered the difference between a dace and a bleak is a fraction of a second but I managed to connect with a few of both. 

Bleak look similar to dace but have a much bigger anal fin. They also have a nice bright shine to their flanks that looks lovely when you tilt them back and forth in the sunlight.

Spending a few relaxing hours catching a few dozen fast biting silvers was very nice. Some much needed centrepin casting practice was had before I headed down the road to a hotel near Congresbury where I'd be targeting colourful pumpkinseed the following morning.

Up early and breakfast eaten, I checked out of the hotel and made the short drive down to the next venue on my itinerary. The roads leading to Silver Springs Fishery were not great and my Sat Nav took me down a very uneven one before I eventually found my way there. If you want to visit the venue head west along Silver Street and follow the dirt track at the end of it. 

A nice fishery on a lovely day.

Speaking to the owners I was assured that there were plenty of pumpkinseeds present but was saddened to hear that they were trying to remove them. Fishing with the same end tackle I employed for bitterling in a shallow area with lily pads and reeds either side of me I soon caught a few dozen small roach. Thinking that I was going to have to keep plugging away until I caught my target I suddenly spotted a few fish at very close range in about a foot of water amongst the rocks and weed on the bottom that I thought I could make out a gill plate spot on. Reeling in I didn't bother adjusting my float and instead slowly lowered my pinkie in amongst them. They quickly attacked it and I lifted out a pumpkinseed. Quite surprised by their very aggressive nature and their close proximity I adjusted my float depth to about six inches and before I knew it I had caught a dozen of the pretty little fish.

Some were more brightly coloured than others. Perhaps male and female but I'm not sure which is which?

Happy enough I decided to head to my next destination, Viaduct Fisheries, earlier than I had planned to spend the rest of the day trying to catch a motherless minnow. Speaking to the lads in the fishery shop when I arrived I was assured I would easily catch one if I fished my pinkie about a foot under my float and could strike their very fast bites quickly enough. Well I was soon catching plenty of tiny roach again but by late afternoon and having fished a few different pegs the only other species I had caught were a couple of rudd and a perch so I moved to another pond that had a nice view of the viaduct that the fishery gets its name from.

A nice view to fish in front of. 

This produced a few more roach but after an hour or so I decided to have a break, plumbed up a rod length out and fished the bottom for a while. This produced more roach, a lot of bream, a couple of F1 carp and a lovely little tench.

Little slimy bream.

F1 carp gave a good little scrap.

They lack or have tiny residual barbules.

The smallest tench I've ever caught. How cute. 

Before too long I was ready to try again for a motherless minnow and headed to a third pond. By now time was starting to run out, one of the guys from the shop I had talked to earlier popped over to see if I had caught my target and was surprised to hear I hadn't. Just after he left however I finally got a couple of them in quick succession.

Somerset has small populations of these little fish. Also known as Sunbleak they can be easily mistaken for other species at first glance but their partial lateral line is a key distinguishing feature. It only runs 7-10 scales from the gill cover.

My efforts rewarded I quickly packed up and headed east to Godalming in Surrey where I'd be spending the next two nights.

Up early on Tuesday morning I headed to Marsh Farm Fishery to target crucian, the species it's famous for in its purest form and to record proportions. Again seeking advice from the lads in the tackle shop on site I headed up to Richardson Lake and picked a peg.

Lucky number seven?

I took my time setting up and after making up some groundbait and plumbing the swim to find the bottom of the marginal shelf I tossed in a few balls and cast out. There was a slight breeze blowing and this made it tricky to see the tip of my float and any tiny movements that crucians might cause. After a short time I could see bubbles breaking the surface, an obvious sign that some fish had entered my swim and I soon caught a small bream. After landing three more my float dipped under again and I struck into a fish that was a bit better, fought for longer than a few seconds, putting up a decent little scrap. A golden flash when the fish first showed itself had my heart pounding but after a minute or two my first crucian was in the net.

A pure crucian. A lovely fish indeed. 

Keen to catch more crucian I fished on into the early afternoon and hooked a couple of other fish that fought well until disappointingly my hook pulled. Plenty of bream kept me busy however and after twenty five of them and their accompanying thick mucus I decided to head off to try and catch my final target of the trip, silver bream.

Another small bream comes to the net. Their slime was starting to get everywhere. Not pleasant.

About an hour south of Marsh Farm is Mill Farm, a fishery renowned for record silver bream. Arriving there I sought shelter from the wind and started fishing on the bottom into a depression I found whilst exploring the swim with my plummet about two thirds of the way between my chosen peg and an island. I fired out a few maggots and cast in. My float hadn't settled for long when I got a lift bite and struck into a small fish. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that it was my target species.

Silver bream may be rare but I would discover they are not shy. 

They have a relatively large eye. 

A black edge to their fins is another distinguishing feature. Overall a nice looking fish with the added bonus of being slime free!

Next cast I caught another and this continued with the odd roach also hitting my maggot on the drop. Almost a fish a cast I had soon caught over fifty silver bream!

I then decided to try another pond to see if a bigger bait would produce a carp. Firing in a load of maggots and some corn I fished double maggot or corn on the hook. This produced more silver bream and roach with my baits rarely being on the bottom for any length of time at all. 

All of the fish were in lovely condition.

Fishing to an island feature my float finally shot away so quickly that I knew a carp had taken my bait and feeling the hook had charged off. Luckily the rod was in my hand otherwise it would have probably been out of the rest and heading towards the water. My rod immediately had a nice bend in it and I just took my time playing the fish letting the rod sap its strength whilst my drag allowed it to run when it wanted. 

My soft float rod cushioned the lunges of the fish beautifully. 

It stayed deep, made a few short but powerful runs and took almost fifteen minutes to finally come to the surface and show itself. It wasn't done yet though and it took another five minutes or so before it was ready for the net.

A common carp in lovely condition. Great fun on my float rod too.

I carried on fishing for an hour or so and caught a few more silver bream and roach. Heading back to the hotel I reflected on a very successful trip which couldn't have gone any better really. I caught all of my targets and some other really nice fish too. I really enjoyed myself, overall it was quite relaxing and thinking about it I wasn't sure why I had done so little freshwater fishing lately. I've had some superb saltwater sessions though so can't complain but I am planning on doing more freshwater sessions though. In particular I've been told about a diamond backed sturgeon that has been donated to a Scottish fishery so I plan on having a go for that soon and I also have a spot of lure fishing for pike in the pipeline for next week with my mate Nick.

Tight lines, Scott.

Most Wanted : True Crucian.

It seems true crucian are becoming rarer and rarer these days with the parentage of some "crucian" that are caught being subject to doubt. This is due to the fact that they breed quite easily with other cyprinids producing hybrids. This will happen wherever crucians are found along side other carp species and most commercial fisheries aren't too fussy about this. For match purposes bag weights are all that matters and the sometimes questionable genetics of the fish being caught isn't of concern to the anglers competitively filling their keep nets. To muddy the waters further, brown goldfish and F1 carp can sometimes be mistaken for crucian. All of this makes finding photographs of a true crucian a bit tricky so rather than take the risk of including a picture of anything less than a 100% pure crucian I've decided to use a wonderful old drawing to illustrate an example of the species.

The crucian. A rather handsome fish I'm sure you'd agree.

With a few questionable pretenders swimming around how can an angler be sure his crucian is indeed a crucian without going to the length of having DNA testing carried out on a sample scale? Crucian's shape and colour can vary but there are a few key identifying features that can be looked for. They have no barbules. The dorsal fin is large and convex. The caudal fin is almost straight edged when extended vertically. Scale counts can be performed. I guess most pleasure anglers would be happy to call it a crucian if it looked like one but knowing for sure matters to us species hunters, well it does to this one anyway!

To make things easy for fussy folk like myself there are a few carp free fisheries who pride themselves in the purity of their crucian stock and go to great lengths to protect it. To help ensure I catch a bonafide crucian I've decided to pay a visit later this year to one such fishery, Marsh Farm in Surrey. Considered by many as specimen crucian mecca, I'd be happy to catch one of any size!

Tight lines, Scott.

Two freshwater targets evade capture once again.

I've had a couple more attempts to catch ruffe and also crucian carp recently. Earlier this month I went to Balmaha on the eastern shore of Loch Lomond with my mate Jake. We split up and adopted two different approaches because we both wanted to catch different species. Jake was after big perch using lures and I was after the perch's little cousin the ruffe using maggots fished on a simple running ledger. I started in a small bay in the boat yard and Jake fished from one of the pontoons. Fishing was quite slow so we decided to move around to the opposite side of the bay. This didn't really improve things much and apart from some small perch, small roach and a single jack neither of us had caught what we were there for so after a while I decided to head along to the pier whilst Jake persevered in the bay.

Jake caught this jack on a Pink Candy Lake Fork Live Baby Shad fished on a drop shot rig.

When I got to the pier and dropped down my bait I got bites straight away and was soon catching lots of perch and roach. Whilst reeling one perch up a pike grabbed it and made good his escape with a free meal. I called Jake to tell him there were plenty of fish around and soon after he came along and joined me on the pier. Whilst I continued to catch plenty of fish Jake carried on fishing various lures and was having a frustrating time. This was made worse when a second much larger pike came up from the depths, attacked a roach I had hooked, missed and shot off back down to the bottom again, giving me quite a fright in the process. This prompted Jake to try and catch it and whilst he tried various different lures and retrieves without managing to tempt it I carried on catching perch and roach hoping that a ruffe might come along and take my bait instead but it didn't happen. Just before we left I caught a roach that was a bit bigger than the rest I'd had and it was in really lovely condition with bright orange eyes and fins.

I admire one of the nicest looking roaches I've ever caught.

So we headed home both quite frustrated, Jake by the lack of big perch and failing to tempt the big pike and me by the ruffe, supposedly the most common species in the loch, having eluded me once again. I shall just have to keep trying to catch the little buggers!

Today I headed up to Orchill Coarse Fishery to try for crucian again. I fished the snake pond and after making up some groundbait and tossing in a few balls in front of the reeds that line the opposite bank, I started fishing maggot over it using a float ledger setup. It wasn't too long before I started catching fish.

A lovely little mirror carp in nice condition was the first fish to take my bait. Maybe a ghost carp?

I had several small common carp too. Some of them looked like they could be ghost carp too.

I caught a few small perch, roach and bream too. This little "ghost perch" had rather odd large bug eyes!

A very dark and beautifully scaled mirror carp was the last fish of the session.

All in all I had a most enjoyable day and whilst I didn't get a crucian, which would have seen me beat last years species tally, the feisty little common and mirror carp were a lot of fun and it's a venue I'll be returning to in the future for sure.

Tight lines, Scott.