The Traditional Fisherman's Forum

As the new river season approaches,I get my usual desire to out on the river.
With this in mind I will trying one or two new things and one will be the quest to catch a few more Trent Gudgeon.
Once prolific in numbers and now few and far between sadly.
So I for one will be trying to search out this little fellow from my local stretch of the Trent this season.

...a waste of time.....not for me each one ,if I am lucky will bring a smile to my face as they always do.

All the best whatever your plans.

Nige.

Don't forget to post some pictures!

JW

I wish you every success in your search for the elusive Trent gudgeon as you say they used to appear in numbers many years ago. I think the water being much cleaner and clearer now (I caught a Grayling from the river last year) has had an impact along with an increase in the numbers of Pike and Zander.
The last few years I have noticed the fish on the stretches I frequent seem to be all gathered together in very large shoals with the Pike and Perch in amongst them. Catching twenty or more pounds of Roach and Dace on the float is not uncommon if I can manage to locate the fish. However revisiting the same swim a few weeks later can result in a total blank. Quite frustrating really. The odd gudgeon does turn up amongst them so they are still about!

Used to love Gudgeon bashing on the Trent at Farndon when younger but again there was a big decline in them

Amazingly I ended up with a shoal in my spring fed garden pool (in the Trent Valley) that I had never stocked and it had been several years since I'd last introduced any water plants from elsewhere. It was a very young shoal probably no more than a year old. Nature is a wonderfil thing.

Firebird wrote: ↑Wed May 30, 2018 10:24 pm Gudgeon have disappeared from the Thames too - at least I haven't caught one for years. But I remember perch were very rare in the Thames way back; now the river's full of them. I'm sure they'll come back one of these days.

Seems to be the case. Used to catch loads of them in the middle reaches when I was younger. Not seen one for years now.

MGs wrote: ↑Thu May 31, 2018 12:45 pm

Firebird wrote: ↑Wed May 30, 2018 10:24 pm Gudgeon have disappeared from the Thames too - at least I haven't caught one for years. But I remember perch were very rare in the Thames way back; now the river's full of them. I'm sure they'll come back one of these days.

Seems to be the case. Used to catch loads of them in the middle reaches when I was younger. Not seen one for years now.

My River Thames fishing experience is limited to the last 3 seasons since I joined LAA. However, I caught a couple of Gudgeon on their Appleford stretch in Oxfordshire last summer. It also has Ruffe, a fish I have an odd love of from my youth.