A Thames Oddity

A Thames Oddity - Gudgeon On A Fly By Alan Ward 

“I bet you a fiver, that I can catch one of those Gudgeon on that fly rod of mine” 

These were the words jokingly uttered to my father as we peered through the crystal clear water, at a school of perhaps a dozen fin-perfect Gudgeon. He laughed. What a ridiculous thing to put a wager on.

“Seriously?” he inquired

“Yeah, go on. It’ll be a challenge” little did I know just how challenging it would be, if it was ever going to happen though, this was the time. The river was perfectly clear; the Gudgeon were in plain sight. Also one of the most important considerations, they were feeding. Conditions were perfect.

A good old fashioned handshake and the bet was on.

But there was one technicality that was going to make things a little bit more interesting. The simple fact that the Gudgeon is a fish that feeds almost exclusively on the bottom. These fish were no exception, the odd puff of silt and the occasional root around in the gravel, signs of feeding, promising.

A shrimp imitation seemed perfect. I flicked it out; the shrimp landed with a gentle plop and began its journey towards the gravel bottom. The fly sank slowly, intercepted at various intervals by the hoards of bleak, none big enough to take the size 12 hook, but each one was like a slither of silver, shining in the late summer sun. The shrimp sank further, through the masses of bleak and eventually settled on the golden gravels beneath. The Gudgeon ignored it. A few twitches, nothing. They just continued rummaging around. Probably feeding off of the millions microscopic invertebrates, too fussy to take an odd looking, green piece of fluff that merely suggested food.

This scene took place for 2-3 hours, until after careful observations I devised a technique in which I cast beyond the Gudgeon, let the Gammarus imitation settle and gently hop it over the gravel, towards the feeding fish. I repeated this several times until at last the fly bounced right onto the nose of one of them. This triggered an incredibly aggressive response; the Gudgeon pounced and in a puff of silt engulfed the fly. The hook was set and I was, for a split second anyway, into a Gudgeon taken on the fly. However disaster soon struck, the hook dropped out, profanities were said and I had missed my only chance so far. The newly developed technique saw several more Gudgeon take, only to fall off.

My father kept reminding me,

“Gudgeon almost caught don’t count y’know”

His mocking spurred me on and after 4 hours of trying without success with a shrimp I finally decided to change tactics. As I stared into my fly box one fly in particular caught my eye. A red buzzer type fly. Of course, the colour red, Gudgeon love to eat those small red worms I find in my garden, they’ll surely respond to a red and essentially wormy looking fly. This was the last ditch attempt.  All or nothing; the final few minutes before I gave up.

The buzzer quickly sank. It hit a patch of gravel near to a large Gudgeon, one twitch of the buzzer was all this fish could take, launching itself onto the fly. I struck in disbelief. It stayed on and was landed after a spirited, albeit very short fight.

The look on my dad’s face was priceless; he’d just lost what was probably the most certain bet in angling. Just proves though, that any fish can be caught on the fly, you’ve just got to stick at it and adapt the technique to the situation. Was that the first ever Gudgeon deliberately caught fly fishing? Who knows, it’s definitely the only one I’ve ever heard of.

Maybe I’ll try for a Bullhead next, now there is a real challenge...