Catching crucian carp with a float rod - the main points

The best weather conditions and time (months, hours) for good crucian carp fishing

1. Crucian carp, like most fish, is preferably caught in the early morning and evening.
2. Note that the best bite for crucian carp is in the spring, especially at the end of April or beginning of May. This is explained by the fact that the water begins to warm up, and the crucian carp is looking for food.
3. Wind. The wind has a special influence on the choice of location. It is better when the South-West wind blows at your back, which brings warmth. By the way, in windy weather the bite of crucian carp will be more active.
4. Temperature. Temperature will also have a strong influence on the bite. Usually crucian carp begins to bite when the water temperature is more than 10 degrees Celsius. Temperatures between 20 and 26 degrees Celsius are best. In these conditions, crucian carp is especially active.
5. Note that when the temperature drops, crucian carp prefer to gather in shallow water.
6. Atmosphere pressure. As atmospheric pressure changes, the oxygen level in the reservoir also changes. When it increases, the oxygen level decreases; when it decreases, it increases. Crucian carp bite more actively at low pressure. This usually occurs in rainy or windy weather. For reference: pressure is more than 750 mm Hg. Art. considered high.
7. The nuances of fishing for crucian carp at night. Catching crucian carp at night requires additional knowledge. If you notice noise in the reeds, then this is a sure sign that large fish are feeding in shallow water. Therefore, you need to be very careful when catching crucian carp at night using a float rod. Such places usually have a depth of no more than 30 cm. It is best to use a light float, which does not create more noise when thrown into the water. Prepare a specially glowing float. This will help you make the fishing process much easier. You also need to point out that when fishing from a boat, you need to swim from the clean bottom and not too close to the shore. Being as careful and quiet as possible will help you avoid spooking all the fish.

Tackle for catching crucian carp

To ensure the most productive fishing, you need high-quality gear.

Let's consider two options: fly and match fishing rods:

Fly fishing rod (rod, reel, line, hook, float, leash, sinkers, etc.)

1. A fishing rod for a fly rod should be with a blind rig, which is equipped with a regular reel. The fishing line should be selected depending on the size of the crucian carp. It should be noted that the fishing line should be very strong and inconspicuous. Please note that if you are fishing in a clear body of water, then a flucarbon line is best. This line is almost invisible in the water. If the pond has large thickets, then use a braided line. It looks like algae. In addition, it is very strong.
2. The float should be sporty and very light, because crucian carp is a very cautious fish. It must be taken into account that the heavier the float, the stronger the noise of hitting the water will be created.
3. When using a sports float, you need to use shot-shaped weights, which are best placed near the leash and near the hook.
4. You need to choose a hook depending on what kind of fish you are counting on. The choice here is unlimited. The main condition is that the hook is strong and sharp.
5. If the fly rig uses a fishing line up to 0.16 mm thick, then you can fish without a leash.

Match fishing rod (rod, reel, line, hook, sinker, etc.)

1. A match fishing rod makes it possible to fish in places that are far from the shore. The most popular match rig is the one with a sliding float.
2. The float is best used with an adjustable release. However, the price of such floats will be higher than regular ones. Suitable float weight is from 2 to 7 grams.
3. The float should be loaded using olives weighing up to 8 grams.
4. The coil must be inertialess.
5. For casting over longer distances, a thin line with a thickness of up to 0.14 mm is used. The sliding rig puts minimal stress on the line. For a shock feeder, it is best to use a fishing line with a thickness of 0.2 mm.
6. The main line is best used with a thickness of 0.2 mm. This line will help you cast both long distance and short distance. If you need to cast very far, then it is best to reduce the thickness of the fishing line. Also keep in mind that it is best to choose a fishing line with a medium degree of submergence.
7. Small swivels are used to connect the leader and the main line. They need to be installed in several places. This will help reduce the load on the rod and prevent tangling of the fishing line.
8. The hook is selected depending on the size of the bait and the fish you are going to catch.

Crucian carp on a float rod in spring

Fishing for crucian carp in the spring can be done with any type of float rod. It is important that the fishing rod rig is as thin as possible. Depending on the location and fishing distance, use:

• A fly fishing rod with a blind rig or a plug;
• Bolognese float tackle with a reel;
• Match float tackle if long casting is required.

If the place has been sufficiently explored, the crucian carp stays at a short distance near the shore - the best choice would be a light fly rod with a blind rig or a plug rod. These are the fastest fishing methods. In this case, bait works most effectively; it is only important not to overfeed.

When fishing underway, it is wiser to use Bolognese tackle. It is more preferable if you are searching for fish. This is the most versatile float tackle.

On floods, for example in meadows, it may be necessary to cast long distances. Coastal sedge and shallow water often do not allow fishing under the shore - here, match float tackle will help out.

Equipment of a float rod for crucian carp

Fishing for crucian carp in early spring is carried out in rather cold water, when the activity of crucian carp is not at the highest level. Therefore, the equipment of a float rod should be thin and light, as far as fishing conditions allow.

Considering that crucian carp is a heavy fish that actively resists when fished, thinning the equipment has its limits.

Based on this, you can try fishing with equipment mounted on a fishing line with a diameter of 0.14 mm, and put 0.1 - 0.13 mm on a leash. The load capacity of the float is 1 – 2.5 grams. The size of the hook is selected according to the bait - the more compact the bait, the smaller the hook.

Float equipment:

• Main line 0.12 – 0.18 mm;
• The leash is 0.01 - 0.04 mm thinner than the main line;
• Float 0.8 – 3 grams.

The loading of the float is made adjustable with the possibility of redistributing the sinkers along the descent from a slowly falling nozzle to a quick dive to the bottom. In some places, crucian carp takes only a stationary nozzle, therefore, the load is divided into the main one and the “auxiliary one”.

The difference between coarse and fine equipment will be visible in the number of bites and catches - anglers using coarse equipment simply will not see a single bite.

Self-installation of a float rod

When installing a float rod you need:

1. You need to wind the main line onto the selected reel.
2. Attach the reel to the rod.
3. Thread the end of the fishing line through the rod guides.
4. Attach the float to the fishing line.
5. Tie a hook to the edge of the fishing line using a special fishing method (Or use a previously prepared leash).
6. Set the sinker based on the weight of the float.

After installation has been completed, check whether the float stands up in the water. The prepared tackle can be lowered into a bucket of water. This makes it possible to prepare the equipment at home so as not to waste time on it on the pond.

Loading the float

The sensitivity of the bite directly depends on the correct loading of the float . It is recommended to surround the float so that only the small antenna is visible.

In windy weather you only need to lightly load the float. The fact is that when the wind develops across a body of water, a wave is created. And our bait on the hook, due to the small weight, will “play” in the water, which will arouse greater interest in the crucian carp.

An experienced fisherman knows that crucian carp love waves. It is important that the float stands up and does not lie on the bottom. So take care of this in advance.

Loading methods

There are three ways to load a float:

1. One sinker is used near the hook.
2. Two weights are used: one near the hook, the second near the float.
3. No loading. This will help prevent more noise from the sinker hitting the water.

Catching crucian carp in spring using a jig with a nod

Fishing for crucian carp in the spring with a nod is especially interesting, since the fish is very careful and requires people to have a certain approach, knowledge of the secrets and subtleties of fishing. I’ll tell you the first secret: it’s best to use bloodworms as bait in the spring, since the fish have not yet fully activated after wintering and prefer bait of animal origin.

They catch crucian carp in the spring both with a feeder and with a donk, but fishing with a nod shows the best results. The fact is that when using a jig, bites from small fish are automatically cut off. Most often only large crucian carp bite on a jig. And here the fishermen have additional excitement, they master the technique of fishing with new gear, and even only large fish bite.

Successful catching of crucian carp in the spring with a jig largely depends on the silence at the fishing site. Although there are rumors about crucian carp that it can handle anything, these are just rumors; if there is noise, it is afraid and swims away. If you managed to get to the fishing spot quietly and without spooking the fish, then that’s half the battle.

Otherwise, success in fishing depends on playing with a jig, which we’ll talk about next. First, throw the tackle into the water and let the jig reach the bottom. It is precisely at this time that you need to watch the nod very carefully. Very often, during natural deepening, crucian carp clings to the jig.

If this does not happen, then you need to carefully and smoothly lift the jig. This should be done very slowly, at about 1 cm/s, with pauses every 10-15 cm.

During the pause, you can make several short jerks, but do not get carried away, do everything smoothly and carefully. Do not make horizontal movements under any circumstances; not only will the fish not react to them, but it may even get scared.

Once you reach the surface, release the jig to the bottom again and repeat the process until you see the bend of the nod. If the nod is bent, you must hook it immediately, the main thing is to do it very gently so as not to tear the tender lips of the crucian carp. We recommend that you watch the video to fully understand everything.

Choosing a place to fish for crucian carp

Note that crucian carp is a schooling fish and is in constant motion. Therefore, today he will peck in one place, tomorrow not a single bite will occur.

However, several features can be identified according to which it is necessary to choose a place on a reservoir:

1. Islands made of reeds.
2. If we are talking about fishing in the spring, then you need to choose shallow places where the water has already warmed up a little.
3. Flooded snags, tree branches, etc.

However, if your place is consistently fed, then the crucian carp will constantly bite here.

Lure

Bait is an important component of fishing. A well-fed place separates an experienced fisherman from a beginner.

There are two methods of feeding:

1. The first is that bait is carried out at a specific point. You need to throw in the prescribed amount of bait every couple of minutes. It is important to ensure that no additional noise is created during the casting process.
2. The second method is used to lure fish to a specific area. To do this, you need to throw the bait so that you end up with a whole feeding area.

There are several features of bait:

Bait in winter and summer

In winter, odors spread very poorly in water. However, if you feed the prepared hole constantly, you can get quite good results.

For bait it is best to use:

1. Feed bloodworm.
2. Breadcrumbs, to which you can add a few pinches of crushed seeds: sunflower, hemp or flax;

It is necessary to pour out the bait in small portions.

In summer, your choice is unlimited. The main thing to consider is the adequate size of the bait. It is important not to overfeed the crucian carp, otherwise the productive fishing process may be called into question. In general, in summer you can use all plant food, which smells very good in water.

Most often used:

1. Cake.
2. Makuhu.
3. Breadcrumbs.
4. Feed bloodworm.

2. Amount of bait, use of flavors

As stated earlier, the amount of bait should not be particularly large. It is important not to overfeed the crucian carp. And to further attract fish, flavorings can be used when making bait.

Crucian carp are attracted to the following smells:

1. Anise.
2. Corn.
3. Vanilla.
4. Hemp.
5. Chocolate.
6. Caramels, etc.

The main thing is not to overdo it. This will have a negative effect.

3. Making your own bait

There is no single correct bait option. However, there are several good recipes that are most often used by experienced fishermen:

1. Cut the black bread into small pieces and dry. After arriving at the pond, put the bread crumbs in a net and place them on a pole in the intended fishing location.
2. Soak raw peas for five hours. Then cook it until pureed, and pour in half a glass of semolina porridge. At the end you need to add a few tablespoons of honey or egg powder.
3. Boil pearl barley. Then add millet and peas. After everything is boiled, you need to drain the water and add any flavoring. To create the necessary density for this bait, you can add soil from a pond.
4. Mix: wheat, barley and corn grits. Then add a fourth of the resulting mixture of flour or semolina. All this needs to be mixed well. On a pond, this bait needs to be wetted and a few drops of carvalol added.
5. Mix breadcrumbs, bran and crushed sunflower seeds. Add a teaspoon of honey to two kilograms of the resulting mixture. Add water from the pond and leave for a few minutes.

Fishing for crucian carp in spring in March, April and May

Spring activity begins ten days after the ice melts. In the southern regions this process begins earlier, so it is difficult to give an exact date. The water temperature must be at least seven degrees. At this temperature, the golden inhabitant of reservoirs begins to show increased interest in bait.

When planning fishing for crucian carp in the spring, you should take a closer look at small ponds, creeks and shallow waters. In such places, the water warms up faster, attracting fish. The reason is not only that the crucian carp wants to warm up after a cold winter. There is another motivation. In warm water, microorganisms appear in large quantities, which serve as a source of nutrition. The favorite habitats of the silver and golden inhabitants of reservoirs are reed thickets. It is also recommended to cast gear near snags and at the border of aquatic vegetation with clean water. If there are backwaters with algae and reeds on the reservoir, then the place is promising.

Unlike the summer season, in the spring you don’t need to fish at dawn. It is better to start fishing in the afternoon, when the water warms up, and continue during daylight hours. It is important to check the weather forecast before fishing. On a clear and sunny day, the chances of catching increase several times. The main secret of spring fishing for crucian carp is temperature. The more the water warms up, the more active the silverfish behaves.

Bait

Almost any bait is suitable for catching crucian carp with a float rod. Crucian carp is a very voracious fish. We will divide all baits into animal and vegetable.

If you want to find out in more detail what they use to catch crucian carp, you can read our article.

Animal baits include:

1. Worm.
2. Maggot.
3. Bloodworm.

Vegetable:

1. Black and white bread.
2. Pearl barley.
3. Boiled peas.
4. Corn.
5. Potato.
6. Dough.

You need to choose bait based on fishing conditions and time of year. So, in summer you should give preference to plant baits, in winter – to more nutritious animals.

1. Bait for fishing in closed reservoirs (no current). When there is no current in the reservoir, the bait will last longer. All of the above baits can be used. In such reservoirs the effectiveness of bait increases significantly. You can also get by with less bait. It is better to sprinkle it in small portions to allow the bait to do its job.
2. Bait for fishing in open waters (there is a current). In strong currents, the bait that is on the hook must be firmly set. More often, in a strong current, the equipment is carried away, the bait gets caught and falls off. A strong current can knock down the following baits: bread, potatoes, dough. Therefore, they are used least often in reservoirs with strong currents.

Techniques for catching crucian carp

1. In order to catch a crucian carp, it will be enough to wait until the moment when the float sinks or lies on the water.
2. After each cast, it is recommended to feed the area with a small amount of bait. This will help increase your chances of getting a bite. When the float assumes a vertical position, periodically you need to smoothly tighten the fishing line.
3. If a bite is visible, then you need to hook sharply. If the force is too strong, then it is not recommended to pull the crucian carp to the shore. Use a landing net.

Catching crucian carp with your hands

May is behind us - far from the most successful month for fishing. Perhaps the only fish that pleases the angler in May is crucian carp. But this time I would like to talk not about catching crucian carp with the gear we are all familiar with, but about the original method of catching crucian carp with our hands.

Does it even make sense to talk about catching crucian carp with your hands? Probably, there is such a meaning, and not only out of curiosity. Firstly, this in itself is interesting and, perhaps, useful information for someone. Well, secondly, it’s one thing to fish from the shore, and quite another thing to catch crucian carp directly in its habitat, where you can study it better. Maybe it is precisely because I have completed this science that, to the surprise of my friends, I almost always manage to catch crucian carp quite well. Sometimes it is difficult for me to explain in words, but with some instinct I understand where the crucian carp may be. And this intuitive knowledge consisted of a large and varied experience of fishing.

For me personally, catching crucian carp with your hands is not just some kind of “trick” that you can boast about. Almost all of my childhood and even many times in my adult life, I caught crucian carp with my hands, and this gave me, in addition to knowledge of the habits of crucian carp, also the skill that in difficult moments of life (who knows!), even without gear, with my bare hands I will always have fish. It happened once that I helped a writer friend work on a book and explained how his hero could catch fish with his hands. The fact is that when he himself wrote this episode and then read it, he realized that fantasy would not help here, the truth was needed. He invited me to visit and let me read his opus, and I laughed heartily, because in the opinion of amateurs, catching fish with your hands is, although a difficult, but doable task. I can tell you my opinion: without skill and some basic knowledge, catching a fish with your bare hands is almost impossible. And a person, in order to learn how to fish with his hands “from scratch,” can spend more than one day on this and die of hunger.

Any fishing by hand begins with the fact that the fish must put mud in its eyes and gills so that it does not see the fisherman and at the same time moves poorly or is generally paralyzed by dirty water. But this is only a fundamental nuance, and there are so many more subtleties in hand fishing...

The art of searching

I started catching crucian carp with my hands at a fairly early age - at about ten years old. After the flood, small lakes remained in the flood meadows in the ravines and lowlands - in common parlance, “puddles”, in which the crucian carp lingered. After the flood, he remained not in all the “puddles”, but in approximately half of them, mostly in those where there was an unsteady bottom. When the water in these puddles dropped to a depth of less than a meter, you could start catching crucian carp with your hands.

In addition to natural reasons, Soviet land reclamation, which began on the eve of perestroika and ended with the fact that when many lakes were drained and the lands were prepared for crops, “wild capitalism” came, gave us an extra reason to catch crucian carp with our hands. As a result, all efforts turned out to be meaningless and even harmful: no one needed the new lands, and there were no good fishing lakes. But we took advantage of this period and caught crucian carp in the drained lakes with our hands. Why with your hands? - in shallow and drying lakes and “puddles” crucian carp almost never bites on a fishing rod. It happens that sometimes a crucian carp bites in still “untouched” water, but as soon as someone stirs up this puddle (and you don’t have to wait long for this) - and there will never be a bite in it. Networks in those days were not a cheap consumable, as they are now. Nets were of great value for adults, and, naturally, we children had no nets at all - so we caught crucian carp with our hands.

The lakes gradually dried up and became smaller in size, and fish were caught and caught in them. The water in the lakes was already so muddy that the color resembled asphalt. In the end, all that was left of the lake was a hole measuring 5x5 meters. So what would you think? - even from this hole, we and our friends caught crucian carp for another two months, and caught it well. This is me talking about how much crucian carp there can be in one place and how difficult it is to determine its true quantity. The crucian carp somehow disperses in this “puddle” (hides in pits, your tracks, buries itself in the silt), so that if you walk through it, you are unlikely to come across a crucian carp. Moreover, even if you feel the entire bottom with your hands, you are also unlikely to catch it (“you also need to learn how to press” a crucian carp) and in general you may not even touch it.

If there are so many crucian carp, where is it hiding? How can more than a hundred specimens of this fish live in such a dirty and very small “puddle”? It is impossible to answer this question simply and definitely. Catching crucian carp with your hands in muddy water is a symbiosis of experience and intuitive knowledge and guesswork. This skill can only be transferred directly to a body of water. The “learner” needs to observe, repeat and ask. You can compare this activity, for example, with picking mushrooms.

We all know about the vitality of crucian carp: unlike all our fish, it can literally live in wet silt. It can feed on everything that is in the reservoir: insects, larvae, worms, plants, bottom suspension, and can even simply filter water through its gills to feed on lake “plankton”. If dirty water for many fish means instant death, then crucian carp, in the worst case, only burrows deeper into the silt, or with such skill crawls out onto the shallows with a water depth of 5-10 cm and hides there so that it is difficult to notice. He buries his belly into the mud, and his back remains in the water. It is difficult to notice such a crucian carp hidden literally on the very shore, even knowing that it can hide there. In order to see it, you need to look attentively and without stopping for some time at the area of ​​​​water near the shore. By the light, almost imperceptible ripples in the water, you can understand that the crucian carp is standing in exactly this place - it slightly moves its dorsal fin, and a ripple is formed on the water that gives it away...

Together with crucian carp, small pike or even burbot often remain in such puddles. If the “puddle” is large enough and the water remains in it until autumn, then the pike has time to grow over the summer to a size of 200-300 grams. There is a lot of food in such puddles for small pike, and they grow by leaps and bounds. But pike cannot withstand such turbidity as crucian carp, and after the water has become agitated, it simply floats on top of the water with its head sticking out. I understand that this type of fishing looks like “knackery” to the average person, but for villagers it is a natural activity, since they never let anything in nature just disappear. In any case, the fish in these reservoirs die, and no damage to the environment is caused by hand fishing.

Skill development

Catching with our hands itself began almost spontaneously; this skill was not passed on from generation to generation. We practically invented this fishing ourselves and improved it ourselves. At first we tried to catch crucian carp in puddles with a small drag, and more often it was a piece of thick patterned gauze, which our grandmothers used to decorate windows and doors. But crucian carp was caught poorly in drag and gauze; in general, it is not caught in the best way in “seine” gear. Moreover, if the “unafraid” crucian carp still got into the first sink, then in the second and subsequent sinks there might not have been a catch at all. The crucian carp, sensing danger, begins to bury itself in the mud or lie down on the bottom so that no nonsense can take it. Therefore, we, the children, knowing this feature of crucian carp, did this: we did not catch it with a drag, but placed it across the “puddle” from shore to shore (or blocked some section of the reservoir in a semicircle from shore to shore) and began to walk around and “stir up” crucian carp “Muddy” - in our slang this was catching crucian carp with your hands. Wandering around the reservoir, we kicked up mud from the bottom, the dirty water got into the crucian carp's gills, and it either stood closer to the shore in the shallows or began to bury itself. While burrowing, the crucian carp raised a turbidity in the water, which can be used to track it visually. Next, you had to carefully approach this breaker and with two palms folded together with fingers spread out, feel and press the crucian carp to the bottom. In most cases, we were able to grab it with our hands and throw it ashore. But such a grip required a skill that we developed day after day.

During mowing, collective farm tractors helped us “muddy up.” The tractor driver drove into a “puddle” and, after several passes through it, stirred up the water, jumped out of the cab and, rolling up his sleeves and rolling up his trousers to the knees, literally in half an hour to an hour “harvested” the first and easiest “harvest” of crucian carp. Some tractor drivers even made something like nonsense from a caterpillar track. The tractor pulled this track behind it and scooped the crucian carp along with the mud onto the shore. But all this was somehow “without a soul,” and it was impossible to catch a lot of crucian carp this way. Tractors had another “benefit” for us: there were ruts, and it was convenient to squeeze large crucian carp or carp into them (this fish, although occasionally, remained in such “puddles”). One of our friends “saddled” a carp weighing almost 10 kg. We managed to catch crucian carp with our hands up to a maximum size of 2.5-3 kg. It was possible to squeeze such giants only in a tractor rut, and in order to pull them out of the water, you had to completely insert your palm under the gills of these crucian carp. This is my personal record for catching crucian carp in general, since I have never caught crucian carp with a fishing rod larger than 1.5 kg, and I don’t know many anglers who were able to catch crucian carp with a fishing rod even weighing 2 kg. But why large crucian carp is practically not caught with a fishing rod, although there is a lot of it, is a big question. It is quite possible that such a large crucian carp changes its feeding system and feeds on something unknown to us, which means that it is not interested in our baits and attachments.

Returning to catching crucian carp with your hands, I would like to talk about the significance of a nonsense or net standing in the water. All the walking around the lake and the torment was associated with driving the crucian carp to the net or nonsense. Crucian carp, encountering an obstacle, perceived the net as a shore or another shelter and burrowed or hid near it. Sometimes we managed to “muddy up” the lake and approach the nonsense and take literally a bag of half-kilogram crucian carp along it in 10-15 minutes. And in a few hours of such “fishing” it was possible to catch so many crucian carp that you couldn’t even carry it away. And, interestingly, even after us, crucian carp were caught and caught in this “puddle” for a long time.

Autumn tricks

Our skill grew, and we began to catch crucian carp with our hands in the summer in large lakes. We did this in the same way, but the strategy needed to be adjusted due to the scale of the reservoir and the deconcentration of fish. Therefore, in large lakes we caught crucian carp only in bays, branches or peaks, where it was possible to somehow limit the fishing area. And really good fishing in large lakes came in the fall, when the water decreased even more and underwater vegetation died. The very idea of ​​catching crucian carp in such large and fairly deep lakes may seem unrealistic, but it didn’t come to us out of the blue either. We tried to catch crucian carp in a drag on large lakes, but we achieved success only when we placed a drag near the shore and again caught the crucian carp with our hands. On one of our fishing trips, we couldn’t manage to drive the crucian carp to the river, and we unconsciously began to catch crucian carp with our hands without any trouble, simply moving along the lake’s shallow water. Looking ahead, I will say that such fishing is only possible in the fall, and the closer to the freeze-up, the better. Imagine a Chinese landscape, when the inhabitants of the Middle Kingdom walk through rice fields in knee-deep water and do something with their hands. This is probably how we looked from the outside.

But in the fall, the water is so cold that after an hour of fishing, my hands sometimes froze so much that it was impossible to do even basic manipulations with them, for example, lighting a cigarette or buttoning my fly. Therefore, after some time, we began to press the crucian carp to the bottom not with our hands, but with a net with a short handle. We made a net from thick wire, and its handle was bent at an angle of 90 degrees so that the net covered the bottom and the handle was raised up. Next, the place under the net was either felt from above with one of the hands (at least one hand was warm) or felt with the foot. The capture of crucian carp was sometimes felt and conveyed through the handle of the net into the hand. This way, we not only saved our hands, but also caught more fish. Moreover, sometimes up to six crucian carp were caught at once in one “batch”. Depending on the size of the crucian carp, up to 6-8 crucian carp weighing 100-200 grams and up to two crucian carp weighing 500-700 grams could accumulate in such a “bed” (as we called small pits at the bottom). But more often, large crucian carp stood alone, and small crucian carp, on the contrary, were most often in pairs.

Crucian carp was caught only in these very “beds”, from which we can conclude that the closer to autumn, the more crucian carp is concentrated in these depressions of the bottom. The depth of these “beds” is only 5-10 cm. There are places where these depressions are on almost every meter of the lake bottom, and somewhere the bottom is flat over a long distance. Crucian carp were not in every “bed” and were more often found at great depths (the limit of entry in waders). In some parts of the reservoir there were significantly more crucian carp than in others. Sometimes in a section of a reservoir with an area of ​​10x10 meters it was possible to catch a whole backpack of crucian carp. Often we missed and covered with the net not the entire “bench”, but only half - then we missed part of the fish, but nothing can be done: you can’t see the bottom through the water.

A little later, another ingenious replacement for a net with a handle was invented - a bucket without a bottom (instead of a bottom - a net with a hole for the hand). It was convenient because the fish had to be pulled out from under the net by lifting its edge, and some of the catch would be torn out of the hands. And from the bucket, the crucian carp actually had no opportunity to hide anywhere, and it was much more convenient to get crucian carp out of it from above.

In order not to go ashore with catch every time, we made special hard backpacks on our backs (there are many options, the simplest is a flattened oval-shaped bucket in a backpack) and threw the fish there. This is how we caught crucian carp in the fall on small but fairly large lakes. Without nonsense, although the catches were not large, 10-20 kg of crucian carp could be caught in a few hours of fishing by just one angler. By that time, we began to regard hand fishing as a completely sporting activity and, whenever possible, we tried not to use nonsense and nets when catching crucian carp.

Catching crucian carp with your hands continues until freeze-up. But even on ice, crucian carp in Siberian villages are also not allowed to die a natural death from freezing. Puddles that freeze to the bottom are periodically checked for “burning” (lack of oxygen in the water). These puddles begin to “burn” when there is literally 15-20 cm of water left in them. The lack of oxygen is not enough to catch crucian carp, and some puddles never “burn”, and the crucian carp in them burrow into the silt and die there in the winter .

I hope that my experience will be useful to someone, and that someone will even decide to catch crucian carp with their hands. Good luck on these primeval fishing trips!

Konstantin Fadeev

Hooking and landing fish

The hook must be done sharply and forcefully. This will help the hook to better grip the crucian carp. After the hooking has occurred, the process of retrieving begins. It is best to do it continuously. In this case, the crucian carp will not be able to take a breath of air and create strong resistance.

However, if you feel that the crucian carp is pulling strongly, then it is best to let it go and pull it up. This can be quite a long process if the fish is very large.

Nuances when catching crucian carp from a boat. If fishing is carried out from a boat, then you need to take into account several features that are important in this process:

1. In order to fish from a boat near the shore, you need to approach from the clean side of the bottom, maintain silence and not hit the water again.
2. If fishing is carried out close to the boat, then it is better to move less in the boat itself.
3. You need to choose one place and fish only from it, so as not to create unnecessary noise.
4. If the boat is inflatable, then avoid snags.
5. In summer, you need to release excess air from the rubber boat.
6. Position the boat so that its bow is facing the wind.
7. Take a ladle just in case. In case of a breakdown, you can scoop out water.