Big Gudgeon - Attempt No 3 (Shropshire Union Canal, Christleton)

Although I've just had the hassle of moving house again, the silver lining is that the Shropshire Union Canal runs right through the back garden of the new house. There is a nice overhanging willow and some close in rushes as well, so my own private peg looks very promising....

I've had a first go a couple of days ago for an hour or so and there was plenty of bits about but tonight's the official record attempt for Big Fish Diaries' first gudgeon. I've raked the swim an hour before fishing with a double headed dredge made from two aluminium rake heads from B&Q and baited up with 1/4 pint of red squatts and the same again of fluoro pinkes. No groundbait today as it's the mighty gudgeon we're after, rather than hoards of micro roach or skimmer bream. I'm to be ably assisted by the family Westie, Derek, who is an experienced fisher dog.

It's about 2.5 feet deep at 8-10 feet out and I'm using a 4x14 fine bristle pole float with the styals all bunched at 3/4 depth to get the bait down. A size 20 B520 Kamasan microbarb hook to a 12oz hooklength finishes off the rig and I've bronze maggots and some floating casters for hookbait backed up by squatts and pinkies if it gets tough.

First put in and the No 7 elastic's straight out to near max so I've either broken the world gudgeon record or something quite different is on the bait. After a short but enjoyably dogged fight up props a bream of about 1.5 lbs. Interesting start.

From then on, it's roach of 1-3 oz; perch to 3-5 oz and the occasional little runs of micro gudgeon which I'm too embarrassed to consider weighing. Quick change of plan with a few casters flicked very close in on the edge of the margin reeds and we're in business, a couple of monstrous gudgeon looking every bit of 10g are "landed" and we've our second PB for the big fish diaries.

Five minutes later the big moment comes though, with an absolute horse of a gudgeon taking a caster and weighing in at an epic 23g (3/4 oz). It's twice as big as any of the others so merits a trophy photo shot for the website...

Job done, so the pole goes away and out goes a 3 swan chubber with a 2oz roach on a size 6 to see if we can break the perch PB of 1lbs 4oz. I fish for another two hours until 10pm but surprisingly not a sniff...

Finally, another PB then and with a two day trip to Hampshire coming up in two weeks to fish two of the UK's top big rainbow trout waters, hopefully we can start a bit of a roll!

Cheers

Mr Fish

Big Gudgeon - Attempt No 2 (Shropshire Union Canal, Chester)

Today's task was to catch one gudgeon and this time suitably supplied with a pint of squatts and half a pint of pinkies, it was down to the Telfords Warehouse basin again for round two. Simple, as the merecat would say...

I'm fishing an inch over depth, with a 4x14 styal float, size 20 Kamasan micro barb nipped down and 3/4 pound Smart bottom. First put in and I bump a decent bream and there's slime all the way up the line. I'm only giving this 2 hours as it's all the time I can skive off home for. It's surprisingly much harder going with maggots on the hook than bread punch, but there's still a steady stream of silvers, mainly roach but the odd micro dace. The perch start to come as the sun goes down, with most put-ins producing 1-2 oz specimens. Not a gudgeon in sight though and when a vast shoal of mammoth roach (see below) moves in it's time to pack in as they take the bait every put in. Now this is no longer funny - I've not resorted to weighing a micro dace yet to get a pb, but give it another gudgeon blank and I'll be very tempted...

Change of venue next time - think I'll try the canal at Christleton, to see if the great gudgeon migration has moved them all to the east.

Big Gudgeon - Attempt No1 (Shropshire Union Canal at Chester)

After finally starting to get to grips with it, I've had to postpone the Grayling fishing for now, as it belatedly dawned on me that I could be fishing out of season for the little rascals while they are spawning....sorry....I got a bit carried away after countless blanks to be finally catching a few.

Technically, I suppose I am trout fishing, but I'll hold my hands up and admit that bumping the world's heaviest bugs along the bottom is more likely to catch a Grayling than a trout. Rather than look a total goon on the net, it's a change of tack today until the river coarse season starts again.

I'm confident that we've got a 50/50 chance of a pb today though, as I'm going for gudgeon, or the freshwater shark as it's known to big fish anglers. I have caught a few hundred over the years but never weighed one, so all I need to do is catch one of the little blighters that is big enough to register on my most sensitive scales. Now, I haven't fished a canal for 15-20 years, so the dust has to be shaken off the old Garbolino Pegasus pole and a couple of new rigs with fine wire size 20 mircobarb hooks and 0.06 bottom to 0.08 are made up on winders before I'm off to Telfords Warehouse basin in Chester, which I scouted out a week ago.

Good couple of hours fishing today but no gudgeon show up for the big party. I didn't manage to get to the bait shop to buy pinkies and squatts, so fished punch over sloppy mixed Van Den Eynde Secret groundbait, in about 2'6" of water. Plenty of Roach; a few skimmers and a bonus Bream of about 1.25lbs. I used to fish punch to avoid Gudgeon when I match fished years ago, so probably a bit of a "Dime bar" tactic employed today when actually trying to catch one, but I did try chopped worm a few times with no joy and really was more interested in getting into the pole again. I'll pick some pinkies up this week and hopefully land a supersized Gudgeon one night after work this week.

Let me know if anyone out there know a good stretch of the canal at Chester as it was good fun today!

Mr Fish