Crucians on Farm Ponds: Species Hunt (EPISODE 28)

[@kenobiworks]

This is so exciting to see.... its been years since I've seen an original one (since the 90s). Probably the most beautiful of all smaller fish!

[@andrewtaylor4627]

I fished many small farm ponds in the late 60's early 70's in the Fylde area in the north west of England. Many of these contained crucians and we used to catch small ones reguarly. Sadly most of these ponds are now gone. Also the introduction of common carp spelt the end for crucians in any ponds that remained. Regretably we used to use crucians as live baits for pike and lots were released into other waters (often in the lake district). However I never hear of crucians being caught in these waters.

[@julianthomas6899]

Only just discovered your channel, full marks for your enthusiasm for those overlooked and always fascinating creatures, fish

[@Chasingscalesspecieshunt]

@@julianthomas6899 thanks for watching !

[@tonycamplin8607]

Back in the 1950s there were dozens of farm ponds, mostly very small ones. They all had lots of fish in them, of all sorts, not just crucions. Our farm pond in Sussex was a typical example. Unfortunately nearly of them have now dried up due to abstraction, or filled in to grow crops.

[@birdie1585]

Most farm ponds were dug to supply water, not least for stock, and not least horses. No use for them, so they silted-up or were filled-in. I remember looking at OS maps back in the 80's and there were "farm" ponds marked everywhere. Very few actually existed even then - I checked plenty in case there were forgotten fish to be caught, although most were basically marsh or bogs then, so could have been dredged and reinstated.

[@tonycamplin8607]

Our pond and all the ones nearby were natural springs and definitely weren't dug.

[@patrickdaniels6829]

A sussex farm pond was where i started... string and worms catching smooth newts! 🙂

[@birdie1585]

@@tonycamplin8607 So are flooded gravel pits - either fed from springs or general ground-water. If they are fed from springs, they need an out-flow - a spring is a natural outflow from the ground over a small area.. Digging to find water is not really exposing springs, just the water-table. If general ground-water supplies them, the bottoms simply have to be below the local water-table. Apart from seasonal ponds, I can't think of any that aren't man-made, even if just digging a hole alongside a spring. Many are dew ponds. Finding ground-water of some kind can happen multiple times digging down. When they built the E Midlands Hub (or whtever they call it - right besides E Midlands airport), they moved one entire side of a large hill, exposing maybe 30-40 feet of "cliff" at one stage. The strata there were obvious, and different ones "wept", enough to produce very obvious but tiny trickles of water from various different levels in the cliff.

[@thefish9492]

Carl is a great bloke. We need more like him.

[@Chasingscalesspecieshunt]

he's lovely isn't he very passionate

[@johnfitchie9892]

I know of two ponds in Lancashire that had crucians when I fished them as lad several decades back

[@lucamotor4195]

As a boy in early 80's we would fish a farm pond outside hingham in norfolk. The only fish in there were Crucians and so easy to catch on bread paste...many a happy day

[@quill9105]

Thank god for people like this who care. English farm ponds and Crucian carp🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿👍

[@Chasingscalesspecieshunt]

carl is a legend

[@patrickdaniels6829]

Cracking video. One thing id love to see is crucians feeding compared to other fish, and why they give such tiny indications on the float which are often missed by us.

[@Chasingscalesspecieshunt]

I do have some feeding vids on the channel funnily enough

[@patrickdaniels6829]

@@Chasingscalesspecieshunt thanks... im working through them! :-) I didn't realise we had so many species in the UK.

[@bobseago1513]

Thanks Jack. I have been motivated by the Norfolk Ponds Project and Carl for so many years now. I am from Essex and I am delighted that Essex is now engaged in a similar project to that of Norfolk. Like you Crucian Carp were one of my top favourite fish, and we're in a lot of known farm ponds. A venture found all of my known sites in central Essex found the ponds gone, usually to scrub, with one dredge and full of koi. I know of no ponds with clear wild Crucian save perhaps in Epping Forest, where these mostly have all soers of aliens as well. I even caught a grass carp there once. This year I must really make sure to join Carl and UCL on one of their monitoring days.

[@Chasingscalesspecieshunt]

I'd been talking to carl for years about joining him and finally got round to it, he's a true gent and its great your doing it in essex to. I'd love to do the same in my local area also

[@spiller3214]

We had a pond near our home north west England it was absolutely full of crucians you could fill your keep net with them .we started puting them in different ponds we used wet grass in bin bags to carry them glad we did as the pond has now sadly been filled in

[@Chasingscalesspecieshunt]

its a sad story that seems to be all to common

[@anthonymcnamara4002]

Favourite fish. The rounder shape is a response to predators such as pike and perch being present in the water, without the predators, they have no need to adopt the rounder body shape.

[@lennybryan8099]

I haven't caught a crucian for over 30 years ,they're not in any lakes I fish anymore, which is a great shame they great fun to catch.

[@ryandoherty6174]

This is a fantastic survey crew. Well done! Epping Forest ponds have some Crucians, I wonder if they have been surveyed ever..

[@Chasingscalesspecieshunt]

they are a well oiled unit!

[@ryandoherty6174]

@Chasingscalesspecieshunt indeed!

[@TheWobblyFace]

Great video Jack and great work being done by the team. I use to love catching crucians in my teens, sadly the mill and lodges where I fished are now a housing estate.

[@Chasingscalesspecieshunt]

yeah its a sad case of them disappearing all over

[@birdie1585]

Superb!! Maybe my favourite freshwater fish? I only ever caught maybe 3-4-5 in over 20 years of fishing as an obsessive (work etc. put an end to that, or more accurately, the requirement to earn a living). Maybe the scarcity adds to my liking of them, but they are fabulous-looking fish. Back in the 70's one of the Colchester angling clubs had a stock pond "full" of Crucian that they netted and stocked to a large farm irrigation reservoir, but mostly(?) to the (Suffolk) R Stour................................ That was when I caught my very few. They were all large maybe averaging 8-10oz and there were certainly larger. I had not realised that hybridisation was a major problem that can ultimately mean them disappearing.

[@Chasingscalesspecieshunt]

yes simliar to scottish wildcats

[@birdie1585]

@@Chasingscalesspecieshunt LLOL - the only ones of those that I have ever seen, or am ever likely to see, have been part of the captive breeding program.

[@chriselson7413]

Excellent work 👏

[@Chasingscalesspecieshunt]

thanks!

[@deividas_kimontas]

Awesome job mate! 🔥👏

[@Chasingscalesspecieshunt]

cheers really appreciate that

[@CarpMan34]

These videos are great. Keep up the good work, mate

[@Chasingscalesspecieshunt]

Thanks so much that means alot

[@samuelgarrod8327]

Cracking to see. I'm a Broads person but have never been able to get a Crucian, but an F1 apparently tho...

[@Chasingscalesspecieshunt]

your in the right spot must be a few ponds near the broads with them

[@mattgoodchild8215]

Cracking video 👍🏼🎣🎄

[@Chasingscalesspecieshunt]

thanks matt!

[@peterwisebooks]

Lovely video as ever!

[@robertgoddard565]

Hi jack, I’m Norfolk based and would absolutely love to get involved with this research. I know of a couple of ponds that I caught crucians from as a child that might not be know. Bob.

[@Chasingscalesspecieshunt]

they would love to know bob message them here norfolkponds.org/

[@jj-kiwi-shadow]

Wow the should doo this in the North West I fish a pond full of crusians however I've not caught any for the last 3 years since someone put a load of small mirrors commons ghosties and koi in there 😢

[@Chasingscalesspecieshunt]

the carp do push them out a bit

[@alanthecat59]

😻😻😻😻😻

[@shauncorless8965]

When does a pond become a lake ,,u never really know what's in a pond 😮

[@mathewking7466]

Those nets are the wrong tool for these fish

[@samuelgarrod8327]

No they aren't.

[@436799]

The nets looked ancient and not very fish friendly.

[@matt01506]

I don't know if it applies to survey nets, but keepnets in general have to be mesh. Knotted nets are ilegal. Either way, these nets are bloody awful, and the crucian being "hardy" is no excuse for the use of them. This aside, i wholeheartedly agree with this project and think the work is invaluable.