Places for catching crucian carp with donks and feeders at night
Crucian carp will be caught well in rivers and reservoirs in areas with a small current. Promising places are the area behind the first edge, as well as places with minimal or no current.
During the day, it is important to scan the bottom and identify edges, areas with shells, and underwater vegetation. It is effective to use 2-3 rods at night. They can be thrown to all promising places, in our opinion. If we fish at a depth of 2-4 meters, on the lower part of a drop-off or edge, then it is better to use equipment with method feeders. Crucian carp in such places are not so shy, so it will be good to catch them on rigs with short leashes at night. Fishing in such places is effective both with a feeder and with donks.
Good places for fishing crucian carp at night are areas near algae with a shell lying on the bottom. A lot of food for peaceful fish always lingers here. The catch often contains roach, bream and other white fish.
Fishing for crucian carp in wide areas covered with shells can be interesting and productive. On medium rivers, large crucian carp often come out to feed at night. They prefer to stay in deeper areas with shells. Here they feel safe and there is enough food for them. Therefore, it is best to throw the tackle at the beginning of this kind of carpet, having previously pierced this place with a weight.
The depth in such places is usually 2-2.5 meters and the current here is small. When the water cools at night, crucian carp move here and begin to actively feed on shells and mollusks. If you hit it successfully, you can catch large river crucian carp all night. One copy will be enough to feed an adult. It is useful to add an animal component to the bait when fishing on a shell - a worm, maggots, bloodworms, or snail meat.
The closest promising point for fishing for crucian carp is located immediately behind the coastal dump (if there is one). It is quite easy to feed such places. Therefore, you can fish with a rig with a sinker that quietly enters the water. In this case, you can feed the place by hand or with a slingshot.
If we catch crucian carp in oxbow lakes or creeks, then casts must be made to the border of the thicket and the clear zone. It is also effective to catch crucian carp at changes in depth. For this kind of fishing, it is best to use river bait, only more crumbly. In this case, it is better to use less bait, but make it very appetizing.
In the evening, you need to prepare a place so that everything you need is at hand. If cool weather is expected, be sure to prepare the necessary supply of firewood. The heat from the fire will spread over several meters, and you can fish comfortably all night.
In general, you should remember well that in summer crucian carp bite well at night at close range, at a distance of up to 20 meters. Therefore, it is not necessary to catch it in the far zone, especially since it is quite difficult to throw it accurately in the dark.
It is imperative to prepare the lanterns so that there are no problems with mounting and feeding the points. During the day it is very important to find areas free of grass. If necessary, the area should be cleared so that there are no snags or unpleasant fish escapes at night.
Feeder characteristics
Let us characterize the feeder. A feeder is a bottom fishing rod equipped with a feeder. Crucian carp is usually caught in still water, so the length of the rod should be from 2 to 2.4 meters. But if there is still a current, then the length of the fishing rod can reach up to 3.5 meters. It is worth noting that feeder fishing for carp, carp or bream is more popular, but crucian carp can also be successfully caught. Since crucian carp is a smaller fish, the tackle should be different from that of carp. Be more graceful.
Crucian carp on the feeder
Tackle for night fishing for crucian carp
For fishing for crucian carp with a feeder, it is best to use mediums with a dough of up to 90 grams and a length of 360 cm. These are universal fishing tools for this case. With their help, it is comfortable to fish both at close points at a distance of 15 meters, and at distant points at a distance of up to 60 meters.
Bottom fishing rods up to 3 meters long are best used when fishing at short and medium distances. For fishing at long distances, casting accuracy may suffer beyond 40 meters. If you are not proficient in such tools, then it is better not to take risks and use them only when fishing at nearby points.
We install reels on the rods with spool sizes from 2500 to 4000, depending on the fishing distance. You can wind both fishing line and cord on the spools, again, depending on the fishing distance. If we are fishing at a nearby point, then both fishing line and braid are equally suitable. If we fish long-distance, then preference is given to braided fishing line. It will show the most delicate fish bites. Although it must be said that at night fish, including crucian carp, bite quite convincingly, and the angler always unmistakably identifies these sharp bends of the nod on the rod.
In general, night bites on donks or feeders haunt many anglers. Some remember for a long time and share their impressions of what beautiful bites they observed in the dark. After such sharp bends of the nod, it is enough to simply remove the rod from the stand and perform a light hook, carefully bringing the fish to the shore.
As for bottom and feeder equipment for fishing crucian carp, the best options are installations with method feeders and leashes 3-5 cm long, a cork with 2-3 leashes 1-2 cm long, paternoster and inline.
In this photo we see an interesting way of attaching leashes using plastic clips. This method will allow you to quickly change the leash. Considering that we fish at night, this feature will be very useful.
In general, you should pay attention to useful little things for night fishing. These include all installation elements: swivels, carabiners, knotless fasteners, hooks, stoppers, etc. It is important that they are always accessible so that flaws in installations can be quickly corrected.
We will use hooks for fishing crucian carp No. 10 according to international numbering with a medium-length shank. We make sure that the sting is always sharp and passes through the maggot without any problems and digs into the lips of the crucian carp.
The length of the leash for feeder installations is 30-60 cm. We use fishing line for leashes with a cross-section of 0.18 mm. The main line has a thickness of 0.22-0.25 mm. We use braided fabric with a thickness of 0.12 – 0.14 mm.
Tackle
It is believed that small lakes and ponds where crucian carp are found do not require long casting, and on most crucian carp rivers, feeders weighing 20-40 g and rods about 3 m long, light or medium class, are sufficient. But we have to fish not only on small lakes, but also on large reservoirs and ponds. For all conditions, an “all-weather” rod with a length of 3.9 m will do for equipment weighing 10-90 g. And even when fishing on rivers with overgrown banks, a four-meter rod is not always enough to quickly move the fish away from the snag. Of course, “medium” is not an ideal option. Anyone who constantly travels to diverse bodies of water comes to the conclusion that you need to have at least two fishing rods in stock - light and medium class; here, as in spinning, it’s not easy to get by with just one.
Telescopic feeder for crucian carp
Some fishermen prefer to catch crucian carp with feeder telescopes. Undoubtedly, due to the reduction in length at the joints of the knees, they turn out to be heavier than plugs. Due to the design features, the bending during casting and during the fishing process is uneven - the lower knees are almost not involved in the work. On telescopic feeders, the rings are installed not where we would like, but where it works out - in the front of the knees. But, despite all the shortcomings, bottom telescopes are in demand; they have their admirers, who value such fishing rods for their practicality during transportation and for the opportunity not to remove the bottom equipment - they arrived at the reservoir, extended their knees, and you can fish. And fishing with such rods is a sight to behold - I constantly see telescopes at crucian fishermen.
Spacious drawer
A spacious box with various important things will be very helpful in catching crucian carp, and in fishing in general. By the way, boxes of similar quality for storing various small items, somewhere in household goods, cost two times less than in specialized fishing stores. The good thing about the box is that you can arrange everything neatly, always knowing where everything is. An extractor or a small clamp will be indispensable if the fish has swallowed the bait deeply, which is common when using small hooks. A pair of needles - for untangling a forest or braided beard. Hooks, stoppers, beads, fireflies for night fishing, spare fishing lines, leashes on the leader. Small sharp scissors, which are convenient for cutting off the braid, or even the tail of a worm - so that it oozes for a long time, attracting fish. But polarized glasses also have a place of honor; they make your eyes less tired and make it easier to keep an eye on the tip of the feeder even in cloudy weather, not to mention the sun. If the box is of a decent size, then it will also include a flashlight, flavors, and bait in suitable boxes. There is also a place of honor in the box for feeders, of which there are a great many. They differ in shape, loading location, material, volume, weight, but the requirements for all are the same - to be durable, reliable, not to interfere with the transmission of the bite to the alarm, not to confuse the equipment, preferably inexpensive, because the consumption of feeders, especially when fishing in “strong” places, very significant. And even a spare coil - suddenly the main one fails! After all, catching with a feeder is not playing tricks! Frequent casting and reeling of heavy feeders, fighting against strong fish, algae, snags, and currents, so the reel must work like a clock.
Feeder reel and clutch
It is easier for a donker to choose an inexpensive, high-quality reel of size 3000 or 4000 than for a spinning angler. Is it heavy or somewhat cumbersome? Yes. But he solves all his bottom problems. On the other hand, lately they have been putting their favorite spinning reels on the feeder, making sure that there is no special “overload” for them, and that it is more pleasant to fish, and I do this often.
The main part of the feeder reel is the friction brake assembly, which releases the line when the fish pulls. Even if in a spinning rod, where strong fishing lines are used, this point is considered important, then in a feeder, with its thin leashes, and even more so. When adjusting the clutch, I rely not only on the breaking load of the leash, but also on the mass of the feeder. If it is heavy (from 70 g), then if the clutch is pinched, the thin braid may break when hooking, or even break the form if a strong braid is used. So I release the brake a little more than usual. The friction located in the spool is called the front one, and the one in the rear part of the spinning gear housing is called the rear one. Both designs have pros and cons, and there is no better one; the choice depends only on the personal preferences of the fisherman himself. The front clutch is more compact and the reel is somewhat lighter; in addition, such a brake, due to large friction discs, makes the braking force more stable. The rear one is easier to adjust when fishing (no need to turn the brush inside out), the spool can be changed more quickly, and it gets clogged less (it is hidden better than the front one). Although all these features do not dramatically affect fishing, otherwise there would have long been only one type of brake left. Although there are some preferences: high-speed “float” ones - with a rear clutch, powerful ones with a baitrunner - with a front clutch.
Nozzles and baits for fishing crucian carp at night
Crucian carp at night is most effectively caught in warm weather. Accordingly, we will use both baits and bait for summer fishing. The priority is small makha, boiled peas or mastyrka, pearl barley and store-bought crucian bait with the smell of garlic.
The best baits to use at night are a medium-sized dung worm and maggot (colored and white). When fishing with method feeders and plugs, foam balls will come in very handy. As practice shows, crucian carp respond best to white foam plastic. Moreover, this pattern is true for both daytime and night fishing. This does not mean that there is no point in catching crucian carp using colored foam. Not at all, experimenting is useful and important.
Airy dough with garlic and honey flavors is very suitable for catching crucian carp. These balls are colored light red and yellow. You can read more about the air test in this article on our website.
The best vegetable bait for fishing crucian carp is pearl barley mixed with breadcrumbs or flour, or with store-bought bait. Bread, mastyrka, steamed wheat grains and rolled oats are very effective. When fishing at night, it is not customary to cast often. Therefore, you should use harder vegetable baits that will stay on the hook well for a long time.
If you want to use semolina, then it should be mixed with cotton wool in moderate quantities. Then it will stay well on the hook and you won’t have to check every time whether the semolina is on the hook.
As for flavors for baits and baits for crucian carp, it is best to use garlic, anise and tutti-fruit. In the background are vanilla, strawberry and caramel. In cool weather, it is better to use sprays with the scents of coriander, pepper and worm.
Since it is not recommended to make noise at night, starting feeding should be done in the evening. To do this, we use large feeding troughs. Further casts are made with a bite. If the bite is not important, then we recast every 20 minutes or so. It is important to use lightweight feeders that enter the water quietly without scaring away the fish. When fishing at short distances, as mentioned above, it is better to use a pear-shaped sinker instead of a feeder, and throw the food by hand or with a slingshot.
When we fish at a nearby point, we make sure to use fairly loose and aromatic bait. Such qualities will be given to it by fresh finely ground flour or fresh breadcrumbs. You can add a little more chopped worm or maggot. This will attract crucian carp for a long time and the number of bites should increase.
Groundbait and bait
When fishing at night, you should feed crucian carp based on the fishing method and the seasonal preferences of the fish. In this regard, the time of day is not so important.
For donks the mixture is made looser, for floats it is thicker. As for the flavoring of the bait mixture, spicy and animal aromas are used in spring and autumn, and sweeter flavors in summer.
What is really important is the increase in the concentration of odorous substances, because at night the fish rely more on smell than on sight. Many successful fishermen began to use a bait component such as molasses. This substance perfectly fills the mixture with odors, but does not make the aromatics harsh.
How to catch crucian carp at night
After the starting feeding, we begin to actually catch crucian carp. In our case, it is very important to understand in which zones it lives. Most often, fishing is successful in places with shells and near plants. Fishing in clean areas does not always lead to success.
If you find a large carpet of shells and establish that normal-sized crucian carp are biting on it, you can safely cast the fishing rod that has no bites. In this case, we will use tactics when we fish in places where the redfish bite well.
Yes, you can leave your fishing rod in a place where there are few bites. But practice shows that in most cases the number of bites in such places does not increase. Most likely, there are few crucian carp there and there is no special point in catching them there.
It often happens that the crucian carp initially bit well at medium distance, and then its bite moved to close range. For this reason, you should never remove your fishing rod from the near edge or coastal dump. If there are enough crucian carp in the fishing area, then sooner or later it will bite. It is especially good if at this time the wind subsides and the long-awaited coolness comes at night after a hot day. On such summer nights you can catch good fish not only for crucian carp, but also for bream and even carp.
Once again we focus on “quiet” casts. If they are, then the likelihood of crucian bites will increase significantly. This has already been verified more than once. As soon as noisy casting begins, the bite immediately goes away. If during the day the crucian carp is not so shy, and there is not much difference between the feeders or weights for catching it, then at night the opposite is true. This should always be kept in mind. Behavior on the shore should also be as quiet as possible and the light of lanterns should be moderate.
Most often, the peak activity of crucian carp occurs between 12 and 2 am. Before this, bites are observed, but not so bright. But after 12 hours, the crucian carp begins to be closely interested in the worm, maggots and other baits. Its bites are very obvious and it is always easy to determine that it is crucian carp. Often after this it is detected on its own, and the tension of the fishing line noticeably weakens.
We do not recommend using a flashlight to illuminate rod tips. It is better to use fireflies or apply a layer of fluorescent varnish to the top. This way we will keep the flashlight charged, won’t scare off potential applicants for a place in the cage, and will clearly see all the bites, if we don’t fall asleep, of course.
After 2 o'clock in the morning, the bite of crucian carp usually weakens and is episodic. Basically, take a short nap until 4 o’clock with your fishing rods on the alarms. This does not apply to those cases when there is an active bite in places with shells on the river. In such cases, the main fishing takes place at night, and in the morning and, even more so, during the day you can sleep.
Where to look
Like any fish, crucian carp must first be found. Crucian carp usually spend their entire fish life in one area. Therefore, if you have found this place, consider that half the work is done.
Where the most inconvenient place is, where there is the largest number of snags, a muddy bottom, and thickets of sedge, that’s where crucian carp most like to live. The fisherman needs to lure him to a clean area so as not to snag the fishing line and gear and break off the feeders.
in spring
You need to look for crucian carp in different places at different times of the year. In early spring, before spawning, fish move from the depths to shallower, warmer places. At this time there is a chance to get large specimens.
In summer
In summer, crucian carp is caught in the morning, before the midday heat sets in. In summer, the fish move away from the shore to the edges and holes. So you will need a long fishing rod to reach the fish’s feeding area. To avoid catching small things that are running around in shoals at this time, cut them off by using a larger bait: corn kernels, a worm, steamed pearl barley. It is very good to use mastyrka or semolina, but fish will also bite on simple bread crumbs.
in autumn
With the arrival of autumn, the feeding activity of crucian carp increases. Fish need to accumulate a reserve of nutrients before the cold winter. In autumn, crucian carp move from the shallows to deeper parts of the reservoir. At depth, water does not freeze, so all living organisms overwinter in the deep part of the reservoir. Bait in the fall should be more filling, and animal feed gives satiety. Use maggots, bloodworms, and worms as bait.
in winter
It is believed that crucian carp are inactive in winter, but this is an erroneous statement. Fatty crucian carp are often caught on bait in the cold.
