Gudge match.

I popped to Magiscroft last Wednesday with my mate Keith for a friendly gudgeon catching competition. It was quite a blustery day but the Birch Ponds where the challenge was to take place were quite well sheltered. Fishing pinkies and maggots on #22 hooks under very sensitive wagglers it didn't take long for us both to catch a few gudgeon but Keith seemed to locate a shoal of tiny perch that were beating everything else to his bait so I took an early lead.

My first fish out was a roach. A few gudgeon soon followed.

By the afternoon I had built up a fairly comfortable gudgeon cushion and whilst I was happy to fish close to a small island feature in front of my peg, Keith decided to move around the pond and try chucking his float into a few different swims. This soon produced a nice bonus fish for him.

I stayed put all day, clipped up and fished close to the small island.

A nice common carp.

This would turn out to be the first of three carp and while I continued catching lots of gudgeon and extended my lead Keith seemed to have forgotten about our little competition and was happily exploring. His efforts were soon rewarded again when he caught a rather nice perch.

Keith surveys a rather plump perch in very good condition. A new PB in fact at 13.5 inches and probably about 1.5lb. 

Having by this point racked up what I considered to be an unassailable advantage in the gudgeon match I decided to scale up my hook lengths and fish double maggots to try and land myself a carp or a nice perch. Alas this change of tactics only resulted in less small roach and gudgeon being caught. I did however land what I'm pretty sure was a juvenile bream. 

A quick count of rays in its anal fin led me to believe this small fish was my first bream from a Scottish water.

It was soon time to pack up and the results were as follows...

My gudgeon tally : 58
Keith's gudgeon tally : 17

...a pretty comprehensive victory!

A trio of my match winning gudgeon. 

Regardless of the result we both enjoyed a good days fishing and I'm sure the gudgeon match would have been closer had Keith decided to focus on catching them but I think he was fairly pleased to catch a few carp and the nice chunky PB perch. All just a bit of fun anyway and I'm looking forward to more not very serious course fishing competitions with Keith over the summer months.

Tight lines, Scott.