River Frome 18/06/06 A Gudgeon at last.

Greenheart · #1 06-19-2006, 06:05 PM

Decided to steer clear of the usual 16th June opening day onslaught on the local rivers & left it until the 18th instead. I was after some mini-species for the species hunt & was determined to break my duck & catch an elusive Gudgeon. The other target species were Bleak & Minnows.

Now as everyone knows, these are normally nuisance fish that you cannot usually get through when targeting larger fish, so I set off to the local River Frome with a fair degree of confidence. I chose a swim that I had fished before & that was normally heaving with the aforementioned species. It's a nice peice of water with a steady flow, overhanging trees & water lillies in the margins.

Downstream View

Upstream View

Set up a 12' matchrod with a wire stemmed stickfloat, size 20 hook & a single maggot. Then proceeded to feed a few maggots to attract the usual hoardes of Bleak & minnows etc.
Then the sun dissapeared behind the clouds & a cold downstream wind got up that made floatfishing very difficult.
2 hours & 2 bites later, all I had to show for my trouble was a couple of very small Chub. Time for a rethink.

Decided up pack up my gear & head upstream to some faster water below a weir & opposite a water outfall.

Upstream View

This is a very difficult swim to fish with steep banks & overhanging trees.

Downstream view

Set up the same rig again & cast to the outfall. Float didn't cock (Thinks, must need more shot!!!) Went to reel in & something pulled back hard. Definately not a bleak, Gudgeon or Minnow.
After a good fight, a 2lb Brown Trout was duly landed.

Not what I was expecting or targetting. Next cast, another smaller trout...

This set the pattern for the next hour or so, with a Trout virtually every cast. Very pretty & good fun, but not what I was after. After a while, the trout dissapeared & I started to catch some medium size chub & some very good Dace.

Still not what I was after!!! I had promised the missus that I would be home by 9pm & only had about ten minutes fishing time left, when the float sailed under & I struck into a hard fighting fish.....
After an epic struggle, I breathed a sigh of relief as I pulled this specimin GUDGEON over the rim of the net.

Points at last!!! & just time for another couple of casts.
Next cast, my favourite John Allerton, wire stemmed stickfloat decided to decorate a tree on the opposite bank. GAME OVER & time to head for home.
The next day I spoke to the owner of my local tackle shop & told him about all the Trout. He said that a local land owner down stream had decided to set up a fly fishing trout syndicate & had stocked a load of Brown Trout into his water. These had promptly migrated upstream into the Frome Town water & Guess who found em. Funny, you can never catch a trout when you want one... No sign of any Bleak or Minnows either. Most strange!!!