I’d never caught a gudgeon. In the summer of this year, I thought I’d seen a few of this species in the fast water coming out of a culvert in south London’s own River Wandle. I returned to this location with my improvised coarse fishing equipment: a telescopic rod I take travelling, a few heavy weights to ledger the bait in the fast flow, and some bait (worms from the garden, bread from Sainsburys).
No gudgeon were to be seen. A shoal of skittish chub disappeared as the lead hit the water. The fish were far fewer than the summer and didn’t seem to be in a feeding mood. I moved onto another section of the river.
***
“What? No Fly Fishing!” This was one of my favourite stretches. I wasn’t happy about this. I read the notice again. “Ah! no Fly TIPPING!” It’s that kind of place. That’s a relief.
As usual in this tree-lined part of the river, I could see a few large – and out-of-season – brown trout. A few chub too were present, but were similarly skittish and uninterested in either worms or bread. Time to move on again.
***
Lastly, I tried an old favourite spot. This yielded a fish a least, albeit an out-of-season brown trout.
Total Catch:
- 1 Brown Trout
A Fishing Diary 