Gudgeon .....is it just me?

[TrentFisher]

The humble Trent gudgeon,once very widely spread across this great river in huge shoals.
I have won matches with nearly double figures in years gone by.
There was a boom in the shoals in the late 70's into the eighties.
Average fish size of 3-4 ounces .but where have they gone?

The standard practice when fishing the Trent was to run your float through your chosen swim adjusting the depth until you located the gudgeon .You knew then you had your depth right and then plot the rest of your days campaign for those plump roach.

We then had the explosion of roach/bream hybrids ,followed by Barbel ,growing number of Carp ,the increased size of the average Chub.Now the large shoals of Bream ,bigger and fewer Barbel .Some great perch......and Pike has all this led to the decline of this goggled eyed fellow?

Back to the gudgeon will they return,are they already here?Perhaps this season I will see some more than the handful caught in recent years.

So from me lets hear it for the humble gudgeon and here's hoping a return.

Any other members fishing the Trent with a similar experience or does your stretch have a healthy supply....

All the best
Nige.

[Troydog]

Ive never fished the Trent Nige, but I do love gudgeon. I kept a large aquarium in our living room for many years, and every September I would net the river for some new inhabitants. The collection of fry from the first coloured water of Autumn always contained beautiful tiny gudgeon as well as chub, dace, roach, barbel, minnows and stone loach.....

[Gudgeon Basher]

Ive never fished the Trent Nige, but I do love gudgeon. I kept a large aquarium in our living room for many years, and every September I would net the river for some new inhabitants. The collection of fry from the first coloured water of Autumn always contained beautiful tiny gudgeon as well as chub, dace, roach, barbel, minnows and stone loach.....

Oooooo gudgeon in a tank why have I never thought of that! I have kept roach and rudd with no problems, until they out grew the tank after eating all the plants greedy little gits

GB

[Luga00]

A barbel in the lounge aquarium is an intriguing prospect.

[Troydog]

Gudgeon are fabulous in an aquarium and so are barbel. I remember the first autumn that the barbel fry showed in the Wye. It was very exciting; when they are only an inch long, they are spotted and we didn’t recognise them at first. But once in a jam jar it was easy to count the four barbules.
I changed the inhabitants every year. The least attractive are silver bream, they just don’t move vey much, but the best aquaria have a mix of predominantly bottom feeders, including the delightful stone loach, and surface fish like chub, dace and minnows.
Fish to avoid, or to keep in a separate tank, include the bullhead and the stickleback.

[Santiago]

I used to have bullheads and small dace with no problems. A friend of mine bought a few stickleback for his tank and didn't seem to settle so he gave have them to me. Once they settled they became very aggressive towards the other fish so I removed them to a tank at work that didn't have any fish in. Yer, I would avoid sticklebacks.

[DaceAce]

The peak of the gudgeon on the Trent was 1975 hence the 'gudgeon' National, the div 2 event of that year. Gudgeon are short-lived and went into a sharp decline though in a 1977 national I had over a 100 from Shelford. Not sure about the 3 to 4oz average, at best I guess the average was 1oz which is a pretty big gudgeon, and that 110 I had went about 3lbs so about half an ounce. The most gudgeon I had was in 1981 on a Medley, Thames at Oxford open when I had over 300 for 8lbs. When the perch came back the gudgeon vanished.

The hybrids you refer to on the Trent were almost certainly silver bream, though hybrids aren't unknown on the Trent.

[Aitch]

Back in the 90's the Grand Union at Hunton Bridge was called Gudgeon Alley..... an Angler in a club league match won there with 8lbs of Gonks, they used to love a Fluoro Pinkie down there

[Barbelseeker]

From fishing the Trent, both Tidal and non-tidel, and Newark Dyke, I have to agree that the gudgeon shoals of the late 60's 70's have gone. Also during this time, and into the late 80's - 90's the river peaked for its Chub Catches, where chublets and larger chub could be caught nearly every swim down.

I think this was due to several factors:
a) The peak of the Power Stations emitting hot water into the Trent - Willington, Wilford, Staythorpe A & B to name a few. The water was warm enough in mid-march to stand in with flip flops on the feet.
b) Much more raw sewage or poorly treated sewage was being allowed into the Trent in the early days.

The above 2 factors, I believe, led to a beneficial broth to feed and allow the smaller food chain critters to thrive and hence provide food for the smaller fish.

At these earlier times very little chub and fewer barbel were present, but it was often possible to catch large chub, trotting gudgeon intended for perch, or often in my case using whitebait.

The Chub thrived in these conditions and grew large and plentiful.

I then think several other factors came into play in the late 80's 90's:
c) The power stations started to limit/lessened the amount of warm water they could discharge, and over the years, nearly all the Trent power Stations closed. If memory serves right, power stations in the early days were allowed to discharge water 5C greater than they took it in. (Yes, I know it is diluted with the main flow when it re-enters) and now I think it is 2C but I could be wrong in that. Whatever, there was a lessening of the average temperature.
d) Sewage plants had tighter restrictions placed on the effluent discharge - reducing the beneficial (to smaller fish) broth.
e) Barbel became more numerous and given their bottom feeding habits, I believe, started to vacuum and eat what was available on the bottom, be that fish eggs, little fry and small fish (Gudgeon).

Given that we have all caught Barbel on large halibut pellets, luncheon meat, steak, white bait, crab stick portions ( in my case) it is obvious that they will practically become carnivorous given the opportunity and need for food.

The only chance for Gobio gobio to return to the Trent is the demise and number of the larger vacuum machines (Barbel)

[StefanDuma]

The last time I caught Gudgeon in any number was at Holme Pierrepont at the bottom of the rowing course in the late 80's when I took my son.

There used to be loads of them in the 60's when I fished at various spots at Clifton. When we had a fish, excitement was replaced "oh its a Gudgeon"

Happy days not caught one for years and as my river fishing is now limited it might be years again.