Crucian carp, or Carassius (lat.) – fish from the carp family. There are two independent species of this fish – Carassius Carassius, or golden carp , and Carassius Gibelio, or silver carp.
They differ in the color of scales, the number of scales in the lateral line (the goldfish has at least 33 of them, the silver – less), the habitat and reproduction. These two species can live together, separately or form joint populations, their behavior in the reservoir is almost the same. The body shape of a crucian is wide, slightly oblate from the sides.
The mass of gold carp is somewhat larger – it reaches a weight of 2.5 kilograms and above. Silver carp is slightly smaller, but grows faster. Its maximum weight is two kilograms. The usual weight of fish of both varieties, which the hook gets for the angler, is from fifty grams to a kilogram, the catch of larger individuals is a rarity.
The crucian feeds at an early age by zooplankton and crustaceans. Growing up, it goes on food by aquatic insects, eats larvae, worms, and other small animal organisms. Large individuals are almost omnivorous and may even show habits of predators – this is evidenced by the experience of some anglers who managed to catch a crucian on a drop-shot in Yakutia. However, its fishing is usually limited to plant and animal baits.
In what reservoirs the crucian is found
The usual habitats of this fish are small ponds and quiet backwaters. The shape of this fish is not very conducive to overcoming the power of the current, so the carp is more common on the ground without it or if it is very weak. A crucian is quite thermophilic, so it often keeps there where the water temperature is higher than in the whole reservoir – near the confluence of warm drains, near places where rotting plants give off heat, where the water warms up well.
This fish tolerates poor oxygen regime, especially the golden crucian carp. Often it occurs where any other fish cannot survive.
In the ponds and lakes of Siberia freezing almost to the bottom, silted with small stakes in Ukraine, which dry up almost completely in the summer heat, he manages not only to survive, but also to multiply when the conditions for this are favorable. Therefore, purely crucian ponds, where it is the only fish, are not so rare. However, in such pressed conditions the crucian usually becomes shallow.
The depth at which the crucian is found is usually small, up to three meters. Even in deep ponds and lakes, he prefers coastal shallow water. However, if the total depth of the reservoir is small, it can be found both in the coastal zone and in the very middle with the same probability. He has a strong body that allows him to wade through the thickets of aquatic plants and look for food there. Often this fish prefers to stay in the thick of underwater thickets, where it finds food and shelter.
Habitations of crucian throughout the year
As you know, nature in our strip lives by its own laws, and the year is divided into winter, spring, summer and autumn. And fish, too, is no exception. The behavior of the crucian carp and the catch largely depend on the season.
Winter
At this time, most of the fish is inactive. The temperature of the water goes down, it becomes covered with ice. The processes of photosynthesis are slowed down; therefore, the amount of oxygen in the water decreases. Plants, which began to die off in the fall, fall to the bottom by winter and begin to decompose, forming a thick layer of silt. As a rule, if the reservoir does not have underwater keys, the confluence of streams, currents, crucian in such places will be inactive or inactive. He buries himself for wintering in silt, where he spends the cold months under the ice.
If there is a small current in the wintering place of the crucian carp, which carries away dissolved carbon dioxide from the rotting of plants, the carp can remain active in such places. It revives in those days, when during the winter thaws melt water falls under the ice. These days come in mid-late March, then the most successful carp fishing from ice occurs.
Spring
Comes with the release of the reservoir from the ice. At this time, the pre-spawning crucian carp begins, which is preparing to spawn. Fish congregate in flocks, which can be either offsuit or shaped to fit. Carp populations can have different sexual composition, sometimes hermaphroditic individuals are found, sometimes carp is represented only by females, sometimes there are heterosexual populations. Anyway, before spawning, the fish in the reservoir tries to stick together.
Catching occurs on sufficiently heated areas. The warmer the water, the more active the bite will be. Just before spawning, in May, the largest crucians come across. Fish prefers a fairly large active bait. You can catch a summer mormyshku, float fishing rod, bottom gear. The most successful in areas with shallow depth, but a little further from the shore, where the fish are not afraid of the angler.
Summer
A characteristic feature of the summer period is the overgrowing of water bodies, and in the late stage water blooming. The carp begins to spawn at the beginning of summer, with warming up of water to 12-15 degrees. Its spawning occurs in shallow areas, in bushes and thickets of reeds, where there is something to rub against in order to free the caviar bags. Often, artificial spawning grounds are abandoned tires in city ponds, fragments of piles and concrete products, supports for walkways in parks.
The spawning of a crucian occurs for a long time, the same individual spawns several times. The largest crucians spawn first, then smaller ones.
At this time, its biting is rather capricious, a crucian can be caught on different nozzles during the day, rarely giving preference to any one.
Spawning ends only with water blooming in August. By this time, the fish begins to move away from throwing eggs, actively eating aquatic insects and larvae, which multiply in abundance by this time. August is the best time for angling.
Autumn
With the advent of cold weather, light day is reduced, the water temperature decreases. Crucian begins to move away from the coast, where the water for the night has time to cool down much. However, it is not too far, as it is usually not so easy to see and get food at depth. The fish goes to places where they are going to winter. In contrast to many types of fish, crucian continues to be caught on the usual float fishing rod until the most frost.
The author in his childhood caught a crucian instead of school until about October. The case usually ended with the selection of fishing rods after complaints to parents. Now no one takes the bait, and you can catch it until December itself with fly-fishing gear.
Still, it is necessary to recognize that in the autumn time, carp fishing on bottom gear has the greatest interest. They allow you to effortlessly deliver the nozzle far enough and not too complicated. The main obstacle to the use of the donkey in Karasin places is this aquatic vegetation. By the fall it becomes smaller, and catching Donkey more accessible.
With the advent of ice edges, the crucian practically ceases to peck. Its bite can only be activated with the complete formation of ice, when the surface of the water stops being cooled by the wind and the water becomes warmer.
Ways to catch
In the summer, the crucian carp is usually caught on bottom and float gear. At the same time, in some reservoirs he pecks at the donku better, and somewhere – at the float. The way of catching itself matters only for an angler, for a crucian carp, bait and the place of catching are the main factor of biting.
For example, in heavily overgrown reservoirs, in the windows of aquatic vegetation, where the bottom is densely covered with thickets of rovolomnika, it is not possible to catch a donk. On the contrary, where the bottom is relatively clean, even, without koryag, and the crucian does not want to come close to the shore, catching on bottom gear will be more convenient and bring better results.
Often used by samolovy. This is due to the fact that on an unfamiliar reservoir it is difficult to reliably determine the time of the fish to a certain place. Therefore, trying to reach a fairly large line of the coast, setting the self-contained gear. Crucian has fairly constant habits. When the time and place of the exit is determined, it is much more effective to go on this section with catching by weeds to active gear.
Fly fishing rod
Tackle number 1 on the crucian. Since this fish more often prefers coastal areas, there is usually no need to make a long-distance cast, use a coil. You can do with a light and relatively inexpensive fly fishing rod, which consists of a rod with a fishing line rigidly attached to its tip, equipped with a float and a hook.
Fly fishing rod can be used in various lengths, but for angling, it is better to use a rod of 4-6 meters. Longer ones will require constant use of coasters, as it will be hard to hold them all the time in your hands. However, when fishing for crucian carp, the use of stand for the rod is not a problem, as it is caught on a stand-up rig. On stagnant water 2-3 rods are most often used, they are cast at different distances from the shore, various nozzles are used. This significantly increases the chances of biting fish. It is the ability to catch from the stands that the fly fishing rod is the best choice, even with a large, heavy fishing rod, the angler will not be tired and you can use several tackles.
The main plus of the fly fishing rod is that it allows you to very accurately cast equipment, perform a high-quality hook-up, use a thinner fishing line and, as a result, a lighter float with a smaller load under the same fishing conditions. Catching in the windows, catching on the lightest tackle, fishing with a very accurate release of the fishing line, which allows you to clearly put the nozzle on the near-vegetative carpet, allow you to achieve great results with the fly fishing rod when catching carp than with other gear.
Fishing pole
Not too popular tackle, and absolutely in vain! At cost, such fishing is not much more expensive than catching on feeder. However, for crucian places match fishing is preferable. It allows you to throw the tackle accurately enough, to catch at a very heavily overgrown or overgrown bottom, to fish in littered urban and suburban ponds, where when fishing on bottom gear there will be a lot of hooks and cliffs.
At the same time, the match rod allows you to fish long-distance sectors from the shore. Using modern match pop-up floats and accessories, you can clearly see the bite at a great distance from the coast, to keep the float from being shifted by the wind with the help of a system of sub-plots lying on the bottom.
You can successfully throw in large windows at a distance from the coast, while at the time of pulling out the fish to collect much less grass than it would have been with bottom tackle.
Bologna fishing pole
Not often used for angling. Fully such a tackle is revealed only in the course, where it is rarely caught. But sometimes, when fishing for goldfish in the ducts, it is the lap dog that becomes the best choice. Usually, the Bologna fishing rod for crucian carp is used in stagnant water, where they want to make a long-distance cast from the shore. At the same time, it significantly loses in the convenience of catching, and in the range, and exactly throwing the match rod. And when fishing from the coast without a throw with a reel, the tackle will be much harder and rougher than a fly rod with the same capabilities. However, if there is no other fishing rod, the Bologna tackle will do.
Donka
Bottom fishing rod shows itself best in the later period, with the onset of cold weather. At this time, aquatic vegetation dies, donke will carry less grass. Usually in the summer, along with the fish, half a pot of aquatic stalks is pulled out. Therefore, the gear must be strong enough to withstand all this. A cheap fiberglass spinning rod is used as a rod in the “Soviet” sample donk, an inexpensive inertial reel is put into the coil, a fairly thick main line is used, usually caught without a feeder. Tackle is very simple, but it has many drawbacks that other bottom tackle – feeder – is devoid of.
Much more often, instead of donkey with a rod, a kind of a zakkushka is used – angling for crucian carp. Eraser is a donka in which there is an elastic band with a length of 3-10 meters between the main line with hooks and a sinker. This makes it easier to re-tackle with frequent bites, always returning the hooks to the same place. Of course, the catching distance will be shorter. But when catching a crucian, long casting is rarely required.
Feeder and Picker
They are a further development of bottom fishing rods, more modern and convenient. The main features of these gears are the use of a special flexible tip as a bite alarm. They make it possible to perform a more accurate and distant casting with a lower weight of the load, which is significant when fishing in the grass. In the end, a tackle with a light sinker less collect it. Both fishing line and cord are used, while fishing line for crucian carp would be preferable.
Fishing usually occurs at a shallow depth, a small distance from the shore. Catching a crucian on a piker, a kind of feeder, allows you to get more pleasure from pulling fish to a thinner and lighter tackle. In addition, in such conditions, a picker itself will be much more convenient, since often the coast is overgrown with bushes and trees.
Very often, when fishing for crucian carp, a flat feeder is used. Carp feeder type “method” is less immersed in silt and better gives the food on its surface than the classic feeder “cell”. But at the same time it is more demanding on the quality of bait and kneading. The banjo feeder allows you to catch even from the carpet of aquatic plants when the load does not sink into its thickness. Quite often, when catching a crucian, the hooks remain in the bait in order to give less hooks. The same principle is implemented in the nipple’s self-feeding gear.
Cork, Nipple, Fantomas
All of these names refer to self-guiding gear, when hooks with levers on leashes are loaded into a feeder filled with bait and completely open from one side or another. Leads are usually tied to the sinker. And it is attached to the line and thrown at a distance from the coast. Thus, the hooks are almost completely protected from hooks for the algae.
Crucians, approaching the trough and eating food, can in the process retract and hooks, falling for them. Therefore, they will not catch on even when the bait is eaten – because they will sit on the fish.
The main disadvantage of this gear is that you need to use the smallest hooks, almost swallows. This leads to the fact that the main prey will be small fish, as it will feel and spit out a large hook, because the tackle is self-contained, and there is no timely hooking here.
It also becomes impossible to catch on the principle of catch-release, catching a crucian on live bait. The fish deeply swallows a small hook, so you have to take it all and then fry. It is best to remove the leashes to remove the fish from the hook at home. It is much better then, in a relaxed atmosphere, to see the fishing line sticking out of the fish’s mouth, and pull it out along with the hook when gutting. Than while fishing to pull the hook, cut it off, forget it in fish and eat it after yourself. Such a tackle in modern fishing can not be seriously considered, since by catch, the fascination of fishing and the quality of the fish will be inferior to all other tackles.
Summer mormyshka
For fishing carp used very successfully. In the spring, when the water is cold enough, it allows the game to attract fish to the nozzle. In this case, it is best to use two mormyshki – one more heavy, which often plays the role of just ogruzki, and the second, lighter, is mounted higher. This allows you to “slow down” the game, putting the lower mormyshka on the bottom, as the crucian carp takes a standing nozzle better. Instead of the upper jib, you can tie a simple hook with a nozzle.
Another “specialization” of the summer mormysk is fishing in heavily overgrown places and windows. Here the fishing line practically does not deviate from the vertical. Therefore, it is possible to catch even in the smallest windows, between the reed stems, avoiding hooks. In other ways, this is unlikely to work out, except for a fly fishing rod, but there is still the risk of catching or tangling the gear above.
Winter gear
Winter fishing for crucian is no different from fishing for roach, except that the tackle is taken more durable. Apply mormyshku and float fishing pole. It is best to use rods that allow you to stop the game with bait and at this moment there is a biting of fish. Often caught on several fishing rods, playing bait alternately or even doing without the game.
The second group of winter gear – various autocrats. Popular fishing for crucians on crosses, zherlitsy, especially on an unfamiliar body of water, where they still do not know the place of its most active biting. Worms are used as nozzles for samolovs, sometimes vegetable nozzles, pellets or even dog food sachets.
