Crucian carp

Quick facts

How to identify it

A short, very deep, laterally compressed body — almost round in outline — with a small, toothless mouth and no barbels. Colour is golden-bronze to olive above, shading to buttery yellow on the flanks and belly; fins often carry a reddish tinge. The dorsal fin is long and convex (rounded outward) and the tail fin only slightly forked. The Prussian carp is the main confusable: it is silvery-grey, has a concave or straight dorsal edge, a more deeply forked tail and a black peritoneum. The common carp has barbels. Young crucians often show a dark spot at the base of the tail.

Where it lives

Crucian carp are specialists of small, still, shallow and heavily vegetated water: farm ponds, village ponds, oxbow lakes, marshland ditches, peaty pools and the reedy margins of slow rivers and canals. They thrive in silty, low-oxygen water that would kill most fish, surviving even under winter ice in mud-bottomed ponds, and they are most numerous in waters with few predators and no carp. They feed close to the bottom among lilies, reeds and soft weed, usually within a rod length of the bank in 0.5–2 m of water. In large lakes with pike, perch and Prussian carp they are scarce or absent.

Season and behaviour

Crucians wake up late: they feed little until the water passes about 12 °C in April, and the best fishing is from May to September, peaking in warm, settled weather in early summer. Spawning takes place from May to July in dense shallow vegetation, often in several batches, and fish feed hard on either side of it. They are notoriously delicate feeders — dawn and the last two hours before dark are the prime times, with fish bubbling and dimpling among weed on calm mornings. A drop in pressure or a cold wind can switch a swim off completely. In late autumn they bury into soft silt and are rarely caught until spring.

Fishing methods

This is fine float fishing at its purest. Use a light waggler or pole float rig fished exactly on or a few centimetres over the bottom, with a small hook (16–20) on a fine hooklength of 0.10–0.14 mm. Shot the float down so only the very tip shows: crucians lift and hold the bait, and the bite is often a slight rise or a half-centimetre dip rather than a pull. Strike at anything unusual. Feed little and often — a walnut of groundbait or a pinch of casters every few minutes — to keep fish in the swim without filling them. A short pole or 3–4 m whip works well in ponds because it lets you hold the bait dead still. In waters with big crucians a small method feeder or a light bomb with a short hooklength also produces.

Baits and lures

Crucians take almost every classic coarse bait but prefer small, soft, sweet items. Sweetcorn is the number one, followed by maggots, casters, bread flake, a small pinch of paste and dendrobaena or red worms. Micro pellets and small boilies (6–8 mm) work on carp-style waters. Groundbait should be fine, dark and sweet — a little bread crumb with a hint of vanilla or caramel — and used sparingly. A single grain of corn on a size 16 hook is where most successful sessions start.

Tips from the bank

1. 01Fish close in: crucians patrol the margins, and a rig two metres out often beats one cast to the middle.
2. 02Dot the float right down and strike at any tiny lift or dip — the bite is rarely more than that.
3. 03Plumb the depth carefully and fish the bait just touching the bottom, never suspended.
4. 04Feed tiny amounts often; a big bed of bait fills them up and kills the swim.
5. 05Warm, overcast, still mornings are best; a cold north wind can stop them dead.
6. 06Learn the differences from Prussian carp — a convex dorsal fin and golden colour mean a true crucian.
7. 07Handle them gently and return them: wild crucian populations are shrinking almost everywhere.

Where to catch Crucian carp

Waters where Shoalmap's fishing reports list Crucian carp.

• Devojka sa krčagom
• Tresetište
• Čik
• Čonopljansko jezero
• Akumulacija Svetićevo
• Begej
• Begej
• Palićko jezero
• Šodroš
• Šumensko ezero
• Mali Begej
• Matyér–Subasai-főcsatorna
• Homokbánya
• Lekma
• Lekma
• Tisa
• Bezыmяnnый
• Meleg-víz
• Timiș
• Horgásztó
• VII. (Büdös-tói)-csatorna
• Arroyo Codosero
• Dong-éri-főcsatorna
• Kígyós-főcsatorna
• Sárvári-horgásztó
• Krivaja

Related species

• Prussian carp
  Carassius gibelio

  The tough, silvery all-rounder that fills every lowland water in the Danube basin.

• Common carp
  Cyprinus carpio

  The heavyweight of still and slow water that built a whole branch of angling.

• Tench
  Tinca tinca

  The olive-green, red-eyed summer fish of weedy lakes and misty dawns.

• Rudd
  Scardinius erythrophthalmus

  The golden, red-finned surface feeder of weedy lakes and summer evenings.

Frequently asked questions