Warwickshire Avon - Quadragenarians and Quomodocunquize

Now the gudgeon is a little fish which takes the bait as eagerly as the most impatient angler could wish, all through the hot weather when no other fish, except chub, can be persuaded to look at the most tempting morsels, can only be described as a friend of man. 

The friendliness of the gudgeon extended to the table in the 60's , where, after having been carefully egged, bread-crumbed, and fried, they apparently made a most delicious dish, as any visitor to a Thames-side 'hotel or restaurant on the banks of the Seine, can no doubt testify. 

A gonk bait for large perch he is unrivalled, and is by no means despised by our friend Esox Lucius. In shape, the gudgeon is something like a barbel, with two barbs and an overhanging upper lip. 

His colour on the back is brown, with slight silvery sheen over the sides and belly. The flesh is delicate and semi-transparent and sometimes as shown in these pics from the weekend, they can be very vibrant too. 

He rarely grows longer than 6 ins. or 7 ins, the fish that is. Now Gudgeon spawn in May, and are very prolific in some waters. So numerous were they in the Thames in times gone by that it was not uncommon thing for twenty dozen to be brought in as the result of a day's fishing. 

Find those pockets of fish on the Warwickshire Avon and you'll have fun catching with the simplest of tactics. I use either a light float set-up or like I fished for them in this short session with a scaled down link ledger with a quivertip rod. 

What's not to like when the conditions are tough. No PB beaters but not far off but with a few just over the ounce, so >28g's or so. They are very bold biters indeed and were keen to get the maggots before the perch and small dace did. 

Maybe I'll wear my gonk t-shirt next time, I might be missing a trick and the larger ones may appear. Get yours here from creator Brian from Pike Blog. As an old git  (49 in November) on the countdown to retirement, I wish I never tire of catching gudgeon, such a lovely species.