Crucian Carp (Carassius carassius) - under construction

Take nothing for granted

The rubber maggot + real maggot ruse that worked so well (for a while)

Crucians can be the most frustrating of all fish. Once you have figured out how to catch them they, much like the Carp, change their behaviour - making your method useless. I had one successful summers fishing using Enterprise plastic maggots, popped up from the bottom. I assumed it would work as well the next summer, but it was impossible to buy a bite using it! It can take years of prebaiting only to make them look at a hook bait. At one place we prebaited with sweetcorn the grains actually floated to the surface, after fermenting, a few weeks later. Usually they will accept maggots from the start, but try to fish with one single maggot on a tiny hook in a lake that is boiling with small rudd!

Where are the large ones?
Sweden is full of good Crucian lakes. Not even a fraction of the lakes that hold Crucians have been fished. On top of that most bays in the archipelago hold at least some Crucian in good sizes. Crucians are extremely sensitive to predation, so they are only found in numbers in lakes where predators are rare or absent. Large specimens are, normally, only found in lakes with predators that reduce their numbers. In lakes with a good head of predators, the Crucians are very, very rare. The largest ones are probably found in these lakes, but actually finding and then catching one is nearly impossible. The solution is finding a lake with predators, but not that many. In Sweden good lakes are generally either shallow or acidified, or both (like the most famous lake, Lake Ursjön). In the lakes that are shallow most predators die during harsh winters (due to oxygen deficiency) - during the years before they recover the crucians can spawn. Crucians are able to "breath" alcohol instead of oxygen and survive even the coldest winters - they actually make their own alcohol (very crafty!)...

Location - stay in the margins
Lagoons in reeds often about a rod length out from the margins.

At times they can be hard to tempt with a single maggot. This one took an 18mm pineapple boilie without further ado!

Bait
Maggots or tiny red worms are my favourite baits for Crucians. Unless there are roach or rudd in numbers I see no reason to use anything else. If there is a lot of small fish, then I would try to teach the Crucians to eat sweetcorn. As very few of the lakes in questions are fished by anyone else, you will have to do it yourself - and it can take years. A cocktail of sweetcorn and maggots or sweetcorn and redworm can improve your chanses. Bloodworm would probably do wonders, but they are a bit too frustrating to use for me.

Tackle
Go as fine as you dare. Large Crucians (approaching 2 kg) can put up a surprisingly hard fight - so don't overdo it. I have been broken on a few occasions when I have been out-witted by large specimens. I generally use a Drennan Ultralight Waggler rod and a size 12-18 spade end hook, attached to as fine a line as the situation permits. If there are a lot of snags a braided hook length is a good option. Drennans hair braid is reliable and very thin. If you do use braid, then it is usually best to present the bait hard on the bottom - as braid sticks out like a sore thumb in water. The use of braid increases the risk of foul hooking crucians by at least a 100%.