Land of Monster Gudgeon.

 Leading on from yesterday's tough day of angling I set about targeting some different species, the species I wanted to go in search of was a good sized Barbel (hopefully a double), a river King Carp and also find one of the few shoals of specimen Gudgeon that inhabit the river. First of all I started at the top of one of my beats and for this stretch I set about ledgered bread flake for King Carp, a small gathering of them exist in this beat but are seldom found as they have a large amount of water to hide away in but with the knowledge that I have of the river it didn't take long for me to locate a couple, one a Common of roughly 7lbs and the other was a stunning looking large plated Mirror Carp of what looks anything between 15-18lbs but it could be pushing 20lbs, my only difficulty was where they were stationed as the water was pacy added with lots of sunken trees on the far side and inside bank, if I had hooked one a whole new challenge would then be faced.

 Within the first 45mins the larger of the two Carp had picked up my ledgered bread twice and managed to not get hooked on both occasions, how?, God only knows, I thought the way it had been taken was a nailed on hooking, I was certainly wrong but these Carp aren't big without being clever, then out of nowhere I had a sharp tug and the rod absolutely slammed around, such tenacity has been rarely seen, the culprit was a large brown trout of what looked about 5lbs in amazing winter condition, not what I was fishing for but it was a great fight and it was fat!, but I suspect some of it has to do with it spawning soon. I had spent nearly three hours stalking that large Mirror but it wasn't to be and I called time on it as I had other species I wanted to attempt at catching.

A belter at roughly 4.8-5.0, proper Brownie.

 The large one might have evaded capture but I was to get my chance as I watched a lovely Mirror churning up the bottom in search of snails I assume and on the second cast my peacock quill cocked and headed upstream, the bread obviously was just what it was looking for, at first it felt very weighty but it looked short but most river Carp are like rugby balls and this one turned out to be just that, a real deep thick set Mirror that looked like it had been partying with Arnie in his hay days......after a couple of good hard minutes the steroid abusing Carp was resting up in the net.

My river King Carp, weighing at 9lb 10oz.

 On my way down I decided to roll some meat for a Barbel and I was surprised by a spirited little Barbus on the first cast, a fish that I didn't even see so it was a nice surprise indeed which was followed quickly by a 3lb Chub and then a nice Trout of 3.15, after a mile or so walking at pace I came up to my first Gudgeon spot and within 5 minutes of settling in I had a good tug on my 4BB avon wire stem in the main flow and the resistance wasn't great so I was pretty sure it was a Gudgeon and I was spot on as a large Gudgeon cruised straight towards the awaiting net, finally something had gone right for me, this was a big Gudgeon too, my target was a 4oz Gobio Gobio and had managed it on probably my fifth or sixth trot, measuring the length of my flyweight scales and weighing bang on 4oz if not a fraction under, it was close enough for me and within an hour I had bagged up 4 Minnows - two of which were enormous and a lovely Roach at roughly 8oz, not big but nice to see.

Monster Minnow.

A 3.6oz Gudgeon.

The largest at exactly 4oz...monster.

Certainly a specimen fish.

Can I find a 5oz specimen.

 Out of the eight Gudgeon that I had four of them were over 3ozs with the biggest at around 4oz, monster Gudgeon, previous to my arrival this morning a fellow angling friend of mine found it quite strange that I'd be trying to catch them, no bend in the rod?, Gobio's at that size are well worth catching, a British record is possible as these are all young fish too with a very healthy eco-system, just a matter of time before one comes out. But until then these big'uns are well worth catching.

 It being nearly Christmas eve day, I would like to wish everyone a merry christmas and hope the fat man in his red suit brings everyone some new fishing gear.