With small specimen species still firmly on my mind I started to pay a few short evening visits to Marsh Farm to see if the Crucian carp had started to wake up from their winter slumber.  The weather around this time was still unpredictable and the cold weather was still holding on.  During my first session I was joined by Duncan Charman who like me was keen to see if the venues residents would decide to play ball.  Armed with Sonubaits excellent Supercrush Green groundbait which is by far the best groundbait I have used for this type of fishing.

Several tench found a liking for my S-Pellet hook baits and after dark a few Crucians started rolling in my swim.  Knowing that they would find it hard to resist the Supercrush Green I kept the swim topped up and caught a few Crucians with four weighing over 2lbs the best at 2lb 9oz, 2lb 9oz and 3lb 7oz. 

The weather was still not improving however, I had a feeling that one of the venues big Crucian carp could appear very soon.  My next two evening sessions brought lots of tench.  They loved the Supercrush Green and I alternated between sweetcorn and S-pellets hook baits on each session to see what the fish preferred on the day.  During these two short evening sessions after work I landed 27 tench, the best weighing just over 7lbs whilst anglers struggled using more traditional techniques.

My next evening session produced the specimen I had been hoping for and after several tench I received a typical Crucian bite on a 8mm S-Pellet.  After a short fight a big fish was led over the waiting net.  It looked a good fish and weighing 3lb 12oz I had landed what I had been hoping for and was awarded a weekly award by a weekly paper.