Prussian carp

Quick facts

How to identify it

A deep, moderately compressed body with a small, toothless, barbel-free mouth and large silvery scales. The back is grey-green to olive-brown, the flanks silver with a faint brassy sheen, and the fins grey rather than red. The long dorsal fin has a straight or slightly concave edge with a serrated first spine, and the tail is clearly forked. The crucian carp is golden with a convex dorsal fin and an almost square tail; the common carp has barbels. Opened fish show a black peritoneum, a reliable check. Feral goldfish look similar and hybridise freely.

Where it lives

Prussian carp are found in almost every type of lowland water: lakes, gravel pits, reservoirs, ponds, canals, drainage ditches and the slow reaches, backwaters and oxbows of rivers, and they tolerate brackish lagoons. They are extremely hardy — surviving low oxygen, high temperature, pollution and eutrophication — and often dominate silty, nutrient-rich waters where other species struggle. They feed mainly on and near the bottom over mud and soft sediment in 1–4 m of water, along reed beds, marginal shelves and the edges of weed, and shoal densely. In rivers they hold in slack water behind groynes and in harbours rather than in the current.

Season and behaviour

The Prussian carp is an all-season fish, but activity follows temperature. It starts feeding properly in April as the shallows warm, is at its most reliable from May to September and stays catchable on mild days in October and even through winter in deeper, still water. Spawning runs from May to July in several batches at 14–20 °C, usually over vegetation in the shallows; many populations consist largely of females that reproduce gynogenetically using the sperm of other cyprinids, which explains their astonishing abundance. Feeding peaks at dawn and in the evening, but Prussian carp bite through the day too, especially under overcast skies or a warm breeze.

Fishing methods

Any coarse-fishing method works, and this is the ideal species for learning them. Float fishing with a waggler, pole or Bolognese rod, bait on or just above the bottom, is the classic approach and gives the best bite detection; a size 12–16 hook on 0.12–0.16 mm line is right. Feeder fishing scores on larger lakes and rivers: a cage or method feeder with sweet, fine groundbait and a short hooklength lets you draw fish in from a wide area and pick out the bigger ones. A simple running ledger with a bread or worm bait also works at night for the largest gibel. Bites are bold, often a positive lift or a slow slide, and a decent fish pulls hard for its size on light tackle.

Baits and lures

Prussian carp eat almost anything, so the choice depends on what else is in the water. Sweetcorn, maggots, casters, red worms and bread are the standards; soft pellets, small boilies and dough with vanilla or anise are excellent on well-fed waters. A bunch of maggots or a worm-and-corn cocktail selects bigger fish. Groundbait should be sweet, fine and slightly sticky — bread crumb, biscuit and corn meal — laced with a few free samples of the hook bait. Feed generously: shoals are large and competitive.

Tips from the bank

1. 01Look for soft, silty bottoms next to reeds or a marginal shelf — gibel love mud and hate clean gravel.
2. 02Feed a firm bed of groundbait at the start and top it up every 20–30 minutes; competition in the shoal speeds up bites.
3. 03Move up in bait size — two grains of corn or a worm-and-maggot cocktail — to get past the small fish.
4. 04On rivers, fish the slack water behind groynes, in harbour mouths and along the inside of bends.
5. 05In cold water slow everything down: smaller baits, lighter hooklengths and a longer wait between recasts.
6. 06Check the dorsal fin edge and belly colour before claiming a crucian — most "crucians" in stocked waters are gibel.
7. 07Where gibel are considered invasive, don't move them between waters and follow the local rules on releasing them.

Where to catch Prussian carp

Waters where Shoalmap's fishing reports list Prussian carp.

• Tisa
• Rumenački kanal
• Veliki bački kanal
• Ugrinovački kanal
• Devojka sa krčagom
• Tisa
• Tresetište
• Čik
• Akumulacija Svetićevo
• Csertői halastó
• Begej
• Kikindski Kanal
• Čik
• Beli vir
• Ločka Provala
• Majdan
• Rokov potok
• Veliki bački kanal
• Akumulacija Panonija
• Kanal Zlatica
• Dunav
• Kapitanski rit
• Šumensko ezero
• Čik
• Malokamenički potok
• Ludaško jezero
• Jarkovačko jezero
• Skenderevo
• Mali Begej
• Čukarički zaliv

Related species

• Crucian carp
  Carassius carassius

  The golden, shy little carp of weedy ponds and forgotten backwaters.

• Common carp
  Cyprinus carpio

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

• Roach
  Rutilus rutilus

  The silver shoal fish that keeps float anglers busy all year round.

• Common bream
  Abramis brama

  The bronze shoal fish of big rivers and lakes — the feeder angler's bread and butter.

Frequently asked questions