Gudgeon Archives - Flyfishing FWSW

My goal for the weekend’s fishing was to check out the chub section of the river.
The coming Saturday would be the warmest day so far with a whopping 22 degrees C.
Alas a terrible headache kept me from going out.

Instead I went out on Sunday with a 180 degree change in weather.
Light rain showers and a considerable drop in temperature.
My first fishing spot was at the entrance of the stream to a village.
I had not been there for a long time and noticed some pretty drastic changes.

Two of the large willows on the stream where in the process to be chopped down.
No cover thus but access to spots otherwise inaccessible.
And despite the sprinkles and strong wind I could see fish moving about.
Unfortunately they where not in the biting mood and the only bite ended in a lost fish.

I finally ended up in a forested stretch of the stream.
Some of the big trees leaning over the water looked pretty dead and dangerous in these windy conditions.
With the drought going on the water was extremely shallow and I could not see any fish.
Only hits from the tiny bottom feeders aka gudgeons.

Not many insects around so surface fishing still out of the question.
Nymphing was again unproductive so the squirmy came into action again.
Only managed one roach, a dace, a gudgeon and a small brown trout.
Even the spots where I was not supposed to fish where empty…

Around five in the afternoon I called it a day and coincidentally that was precise the time
when you could order something to eat at the pub.
So while it started to rain again I sat inside and chatted with the landlord and the usual suspects.
The landlord provided me with some high octane drink to flush away my fishing sorrow.

Germany 10-11-2024

11 November 2024 admin

Last weekend the best day to go fishing turned out to be Sunday as the weathercast actually predicted a rare appearance of the sun.
In the morning though the weather gods could not decide between fog or continuous light drizzle.

Temperature predictions where around 8 degrees C, so not particularly comfy.
Opted for inner village fishing as I expected the most fish to be present there.
My old hotspot that used to be a pool of some depth was apparently filled for the most part with sand. Having said that I spotted several moving about at the edges where it was a little deeper.

I opted to fish with a double nymph setup and tied on two pheasant tail patterns to gain some depth. That worked out pretty well and it was the first time ever that I had several double hookups. The fish species moving about where roach and dace.
Another first was that I caught a little chub at this spot which should not be possible as the
weir in the next village downstream poses an impassable barrier.

Of course, catching so many fish from the same shallow spot soon proved to much and the bite stopped. The upstream section was a straight shallow stretch, lifeless with the exception of one spot where the current had scoured a deeper hole.
A lot of dace were around that even went for the indicator.

After a while I got tired of all the dog walkers behind me with their barking mutts so I tried the mill pool for pike or perch … nothing to be had though.
In the end I went for the solitude of the forest but not much was moving there with the exception of one small gudgeon and a small dace.

In the mean time the solid cloud cover had finally broken and a glimpse of the sun could be seen.
I fished a small rapid next that usually only produced tiny fish due to it’s shallowness but this time I hooked a solid brown trout. A hanging offence as trout season was closed but interesting nonetheless as the red markings on adipose fin almost made me believe it was a wild fish.

That trout was the icing on my fishing day and with a late start on this day time and daylight
would soon run out so I called it a day.

Germany 26-10-2024

28 October 2024 admin

Some unseasonably warm weather begged for an outing yesterday.
With the shorter days my timing was a bit off as I arrived at the water at first light.
With fall in full progress the clear water and fallen leaves where a challenge.
So was finding fish and it ook quite a while before I finally located some.

The spots that normally produced fish where awfully quiet but some change
in tactics brought some small roach to the surface.
Instead of dragging the squirmy through the pools I opted to fish a team of pheasant tail
nymphs.

With trout season officially closed oct. 20th. I concentrated on fishing for roach and
dace with smaller flies.
That did not prevent me from hooking a rainbow trout that immediately went ballistic,
luckily the lighter tippet held.

My favorite dace spot was empty, with the sunny and warm weather I had expected
to see some fish in the surface but that was not the case.
Fishing the nymph yielded surprisingly a tiny brown trout.
Another dace spot yielded another brown trout but this time larger.

The last spot of the session was a rather shallow pool formed by a small feeder

that entered the main stream.
I noticed dace feeding in the surface and fished a sedge.
I spectacularly missed all the strikes … I was to darn slow.
Switched to nymphs but only got some gudgeons.

I called it a day after scaring all the fish and opted for an early dinner.
Surprisingly not many people where out and about of what could be the last
warm day of the year.
I took my time for dinner and subsequently missed the sunset on the way
back home but the skies colored nicely just after the sun was gone.

Germany 20-05-2024

24 May 2024 admin

On Monday I was in a lazy mood and choose to fish the mill pool of the nearest stream over the border. I had misjudged the amount of rain that had fallen in the previous day or at least the effects on the water clarity. The stream had risen a few inches and visibility was very poor.

I tried all the tricks in the book but only got nibbles from the tiniest of tiny fish.
Tried streamers for pike and perch but none of those around or in biting mood.
All I could get was a dace, a gudgeon and a ruffe which I never had caught on the fly before.

I had the pool for myself for most of the time and only saw one bait angler for a few hours.
He caught one or two fish but nothing spectacular either.
The move to the adjacent pub was an easy choice.

Germany 11-05-2024

12 May 2024 admin

This Saturday I choose for the lazy option to travel the first leg to my fishing spots.
I opted for the first train to Germany.
The train however was late and when I settled in the train driver walked by and notified
me that where not leaving any time. The reason … a dead body on the tracks.

So rather than waiting for service to commence which usually takes several hours I opted
to bike the distance. Since early fishing was now off the cards my first port of call would be
the mill pool at stream nr 2 as it was the closest and probably void of anglers.

Luckily the mill pool was empty and at first I dragged a streamer with a trace through the
shallow water in case any pike had remained after the mill weir was pulled permanently.
No response from the pike so next step tying on a small black streamer with an orange tungsten bead.
That yielded a tiny perch and off course nibbles from small gudgeons.

I then tried the squirmy and got a good hit right at my feet from something big.
Turned out the be a carp and frankly that carp showed me all the corners of the mill pool.
With the light tippet I could not exert any pressure on the fish other than the bend in the rod
and the line dragging in the current.
In the end the barbless hook came out, otherwise I think I could have landed it.

I fished downstream from the mill pool in the now very shallow water and caught some
dace and roach in the remaining deeper pools at bends and under tree roots.
I noticed that by now a lot of sediment that had filled the mill pool after the weir pulling had moved downstream into the river.

I tried the mill pool once more with the squirmy and got one roach and actually missed the
take of a trout, quite unexpected.
Next I headed to stream nr. 2 where I caught some roach and had a go a rising dace with the sedge.
Caught one nice dace on the sedge but could not find more rising fish despite numerous
big Danica mayflies on the water.

The rest of the stream was pretty quiet, no action until I arrived at one spot where a small brook enters the river. By now the stream was shallow as hell so spotting fish in the open was rare.
At the inflow rising fish got my attention, one rising fish was quite aggressive so I thought it must have been a trout.

I entered the stream somewhat ungraciously due to the steep banks but luckily far enough downstream not to cause fish to flee.
The sedge did not work so I tried a small mop fly that was not too heavily weighted.
That did the trick and I could hook a spunky small brown trout.
Called it a day after that trout and went to one of the local restaurants for dinner.

Germany 06-04-2024

7 April 2024 admin

The weather prospects for Saturday where very good.
26 degrees C and sunshine should have counted for lots of activity.
However as on many occasions this season the day before it had rained… heavily.
So once again a blown out stream to deal with.

Looking at the nearest measuring station on the stream I was in doubt to even
go seeing the high level, in the end I went anyway.
As predicted the waters where high and discolored and whatever I tried I just
could not get any hits.

In these high water situations I usually would stick to spots that held fish
most of the times but that did not work out.
I moved up further afield and after a long time I finally hooked a fish be
it for a short while as it came off.

The salvation for the day came when a gudgeon nailed the squirmy and
actually stayed on. Fishing the squirmy normally means that you get a lot
of tail bites where the fish hang on until the last moment.

One fish was good as it saved me from a blank but still it was somewhat
dissatisfying as I had expected more action on this warm day.
After lunch I tried a second stream, this particular stream had a mill pool
which always had fish in it … or had.

Due to a mechanical failure the weir gate of the mill had been removed.
That resulted in an almost dam break situation where tons of sand where
deposited in the already shallow mill pool.
Now the water rushed in a straight flow down the opening of the mill
making fishing very difficult due to the odd current conditions.

I tried the end of the pool and surprisingly got many hits from small fish.
Caught a lot of the small stuff and they all looked very battered so it
could be that those fish came from above the weir when the gates where pulled.
Had hoped to run into some larger stuff but it was not be.

Germany 20-08-2023

26 August 2023 admin

I skipped fishing on Saturday because of rain showers and extremely muggy conditions.
Sunday seemed a better choice with mostly sunshine mixed in with a few clouds.

In the morning I hardly got any bites but in the afternoon things changed.
Caught anything from trout to dace and rudd with squirmy’s, mopflies and
small sedge’s.

Ended the day as usual at the pub and was guineapig for a new dish.
Penne with cheese, vegetables and ground meat covered in cheese.
Liked it very much, as usual they overfilled my plate but I managed it in the end.

Weather and nature wise it seems that fall is around the corner.
Fields are harvested, the swifts that hovered over the city have gone on their way to Africa.
In the morning fog sometimes covers the fields, summer is ending.