I had originally planned to fish the Dane river but some heavy storms over the weekend meant the water was running through a little too sharp and high so decided in stead to make the 20 minute cycle ride to the west bank of Lake Ekete.

The water was a good colour but despite the reservoir style overflow that drops excess water into the Dane the lake was a good few inches higher than usual rendering my swim submerged.  Determined not to be deterred I decided to sit with my feet ankle deep in the margins (really wish I had remembered my boots) and have a crack with both float and feeder rigs.

I set up the feeder first and baited with a half lob worm setting it to the edge of the pads about 20 to 25 feet out.

Worm has been a real disappointment in Lithuania but having seen it used with some success on my previous outing I had decided to give it another go. I was still setting the float up when the first bite came and moments later I had a nice Bream of about 12oz.

The session then seemed to lapse into what is the standard for this swim, Skimmers and Roach to 5oz and a number of Bleak and small Rudd on the float (single maggot, size 18 hook, 4LBs line straight through) fished tight, almost under the rod tip (13 foot carbon match). The Ledger wasn’t exactly buzzing but I missed a powerful run and brought to hand the odd Roach, nothing outstanding but I kept the feed going in and was confident things would change.

Of course when things change they never do so in the way you anticipate and sure enough it was my float rod and not the ledger that saw the first big fish action, the line tightening as it went straight for the pads to my left. I breathed a sigh of relief as I managed to turn it only for seconds later to have that gut wrenching ache that accompanies the float doing the impression of a Polaris missile as it springs loose from the water and tries to lodge itself between your eyes. The hook had pulled out!

Not too much later and the ledger moves steadily out, I strike and with joy I have something big and it’s on the right rod. But again my happiness was to be short lived, the fish is heavily weeded and despite everything I cant shift it and soon after it’s my feeder that is doing the impression of a Polaris missile.

I was not to be undone though, with 30 minutes left I switched to worm on the float and not long after I was again bending into something strong… it goes left, then right then left again but I have lost two and I am a big believer in third time lucky!

The result of my efforts was a 12oz Crucian Carp, my first in Lithuania and only 1oz short of my all time PB. Better still, I have caught Crucians in ponds and commercials but never before had I managed a ‘wild’ fish so went home very happy!

I only had time for three and a half hours so was pleased with a return of 94 fish but the Crucian, one of my favorite species was the jewl in the crown and ironically just hours before, when updating my home page, I had written that Crucians were to be one of my target species for July!