Normandy’s Sporting Dogs and The Lost Art of Gudgeon Fishing - Jack Hargreaves

[@General813]

A time machine would be great, everything used to be nicer somehow...thanks for uploading👍🏻

[@ianwalker4803]

Ah , nostalgia ain't what it used to be 😉

[@DaveKnowlesFilmmaker]

My pleasure.

[@tutts999]

Wonderful watch from a time when life seemed a lot simpler

[@DaveKnowlesFilmmaker]

I am glad you enjoyed it.

[@terrymiller7272]

What a legend, I use to love watching Out Of Town on a Friday night. Jack got me into Fishing as a young boy. Life was so lovely back then, I was so lucky to of been born in the late 60s when life was still slow and enjoyable. Good times! Thank you for uploading this, it brings a smile to my face 😊

[@BarryEdwards-s7f]

Wonderful to see episodes of this incredible programme. Quality viewing..!

[@davidshaw5979]

I could listen to him all night, remarkable man. thanks for the post.

[@DaveKnowlesFilmmaker]

Glad you enjoyed it David.

[@lucycolwell949]

im 67 now, a hunter. i was brought up with jacks programs, he is a true legend

[@TKs3DPrints]

gudgeon fishing that was nearly all i ever caught fishing on the canals.. miss them days. just sitting on a bank all day fishing with nothing to worry about or to do

[@XFlaviousX]

Cheers Dave, much appreciated.

[@DaveKnowlesFilmmaker]

Very welcome

[@Andy_Holbrook332]

O my word, what an episode that was! Thanks Dave, fantastic!

[@DaveKnowlesFilmmaker]

Glad you enjoyed it Andy

[@robcarter55]

I'm 63 and I used to watch Jack every week. My brother and I also fished for Gudgeon in the river Colne in West Drayton.

[@jke360]

Thank you Dave . Taken me back to better times ❤

[@DaveKnowlesFilmmaker]

I al so pleased you enjoyed the programme.

[@ColonelMarlowe]

Thanks for uploading, since all the DVDs of Old Country and Out of Town have sold out and disappeared after Network went bust, this channel has been a great relief! Long live Jack Hargreaves.

[@DaveKnowlesFilmmaker]

Although I have now nearly finished putting up all the programmes when I have I will then start putting up some of the first ones again so as long as you do not worry about seeing them again they will just keep coming. Have you watched any of the programme I am now making with Andrew a New Forest Commoner. They are in a similar style. This is the latest kzbin.info/www/bejne/opCQhYGFe9WYorMsi=8tY4pWoRAen0ZM63

[@ColonelMarlowe]

@@DaveKnowlesFilmmaker Fantastic, thanks! I think those DVDs will become a very valuable collectors item for those lucky people that were able to buy a copy. I will have to check out your new show it sounds very interesting.

[@formicapple2]

@@DaveKnowlesFilmmaker many thanks

[@russelltaylor7779]

When I think back to when I was a child, we were out in the fields playing ,fishing and being children. We learnt about trees and their names, what you could pick and eat. People now have very little knowledge of the country and what species of plants or trees there are. If you mentioned eel fishing you would get a funny look now, how sad the world is now with children no longer playing in the fields or parks!

[@DaveKnowlesFilmmaker]

So try unfortunately but maybe its the parents that have changed as my dad used to take us as family fishing on the Thames often on a Sunday and we all loved it.

[@williebourke9962]

Isn't there always something to learn from jack heargroves ,Working dogs in France ,and gudgeon tansy in England,A mine of information 👏👏🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪

[@DaveKnowlesFilmmaker]

Even I learn new things every time I see the programmes again after 40 years.

[@Terrythemaker]

Is there anything that Jack didn’t know, this man’s knowledge is incredible, like an encyclopaedia. I used to love watching this first time round with my dad. Great program 👍🏼

[@roberthiorns7584]

A National Treasure 😊

[@tinkytinca]

Thank you for all your efforts posting these Videos, and making me feel very, very old

[@leonardjackman354]

Great video love watching and listening to Jack

[@DaveKnowlesFilmmaker]

Thank you Leonard. Have you also seen Andrews programmes I am making with him on his life growning up on a family farm in the New Forest. This is the latest kzbin.info/www/bejne/opCQhYGFe9WYorMsi=8tY4pWoRAen0ZM63

[@johnshaw5098]

such an interesting man with forgotten knowledge wish we still had tv like it

[@alanwakefield2453]

I remember this episode from the seventies, as a lad in the sixties I would fish on the river Avon at Keynsham. an old lady who lived in a bankside cottage would ask us to save her any gudgeon for her tea. It was on her advice that we boys cooked some up skewered on sticks over a campfire. As an adult I have eaten them and remember the flesh to be reminiscent of scampi but with many bones and not unpleasant. thanks for posting this

[@koratvinnie]

Cup of tea, a crumpet and Jack. Perfect Sunday afternoon!

[@SandrasSpicySpanishSalami]

@@koratvinnie A crumpet in the afternoon!? Are you quite mad!? 😆❤

[@wotjonsez2560]

In my grandfather's 'Boy's Own Annual' from 1903, one of the angling articles says that 'gentles' (maggots) will be available from the butcher's shop providing that you go to the back door and ask quietly!

[@davidtaylor8822]

Back in the early '80s I was the "Gudgeaon Kings of Pluck's Gutter". Or so my angling pal Simon dubbed me. We used to cycle out to the River Stour at Pluck's Gutter, just upstream from Sandwich, where our preferred quarry were roach and perch. But I always caught gudgeon. We might otherwise blank, but there was always at least one gudgeon. I tried eating them once, but probably didn't prepare them properly: so full of bones it was like trying to eat a fish-flavoured toothbrush with loose bristles! By the way, I love these old programmes. Always did and still do.

[@shirleydrury5565]

Thank you David always a pleasure to watch your uploads. Thank you so much for keeping are Jack with us on film❤ kind regards and thank you again.😊❤😊❤👍👍

[@billbarton9046]

Brilliant memories these videos 👍.I remember catching Gudgeon as a kid in the 70's at Odney island at Cookham on the Thames,with a old tank Ariel rod and a Winfield fixed spool reel from Woolworths.

[@EleanorPeterson]

Ah, Winfield... Was the reel a Black Prince?🤔

[@billbarton9046]

@@EleanorPeterson I believe it was.It was for my tenth birthday and my dad said it was decent reel. 👍

[@bigoldgrizzly]

I started with an old fly fishing reel from my grandfather and moved up to an Intrepid fixed spool. Ten shillings and sixpence from the local paper shop, and every penny hard earned.

[@keithflowers5229]

This brings back lots of memories, fishing on the River Stort. Thank i really enjoyed this one 😊

[@DaveKnowlesFilmmaker]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@Pureblood10000]

Made my Sunday evening,thank you🙏

[@edwardharrington678]

Great video and loved those dogs.

[@DaveKnowlesFilmmaker]

Thank you Edward.

[@user-kb5fi1hm3u]

Jack was an original outdoors man. A national treasure. 😂

[@PeteLewisWoodwork]

Amazing. As kids, we would fish for native brown trout, migratory salmon and sewin (sea trout in Wales) when they were in season. Eels were ok in small numbers on a bad day but were regarded as a pest on the whole. We knew about gudgeon but avoided them, not realising their worth. I'd love to go back 50 years and try those gudgeon that we ignored.

[@49mrbassman]

The first ever fish my daughter caught was gudgeon, down on the Medway at Yalding. She had just turned 5 and had been asking me to teach her how to fish, so for her 5th birthday she got s complete fishing outfit. Ive still got a photo of her with that fish. She was so proud of catching it.

[@DaveKnowlesFilmmaker]

I think that it was the same for me. My first fish I caught on a bent pin on a short piece of line attached to a small tree branch. I was staying with my grandparents who lived on the banks on the Thames and I used to go out playing on the bank and one day I though I woulkd have a try at fishing and low and behold to my amazement I caught a fish and as far as I can remember that was a gudgeon.

[@peterappleton5213]

We caught one at Yalding a couple of weeks ago

[@49mrbassman]

@@peterappleton5213 nice to know they're still about down there!

[@EleanorPeterson]

I remember fishing for gudgeon with my dad in Diana Fountain in Bushy Park in the '70s. The pool dates back to the 1600s and the central statue is of the Roman goddess, not the modern princess. Fishing on a Sunday morning was always a thrill for me; the serious local anglers targeted the middle of the pool for 'proper' fish and were always wonderfully friendly and supportive. They'd even share their tea, crisps and sandwiches with me. I suppose I was a bit of a freak - a little girl with her dad, float-fishing for gudgeon, or 'baby barbel' as I liked to think of them. We used either No. 20 or 22 barbless hooks and let the fish go immediately. It was strictly catch-and-release. The gudgeon were very obliging quarry for a keen but unskilled kid; they gave clear, simple bites and (unlike perch) were always lightly hooked in the lip; they never swallowed a hook so there was no difficult stuff with a disgorger. Bushy Park is one of London's old royal parks (Henry VIII and all that), stocked with deer for private hunting. Like Richmond Park, I imagine it saw its fair share of poaching in mediaeval times. I don't know what the penalty for poaching gudgeon would have been, but it would probably have involved a good deal of violence. I'd have been horrified if I'd known about Jack's gudgeon tansy back then; I loved each and every one of the fish I caught and was extremely careful how I handled them (dad taught me well). Hold the fish in a wet hand, TURN the hook out gently, check for damage, look for parasites, take a mental photograph, slip it gently back into the water... I'm certain that taking coarse fish from any venue was (and still is?) illegal; game fish - trout, salmon, grayling - are a different kettle of, er... fish. I know that some waters have different rules for pike, but I've never been interested in pike or game fishing. These days I can't afford a rod licence or a book for my local waters (I'm based in West Yorkshire now). It's a pity. I'd love to try my hand at gudgeon fishing again.

[@clivemilner]

David Knowles, once again great video 😊

[@mozdickson]

great edit, filming Dave - loved the cutaway to that fat.....herd of steers! I guess all those small tree scattered fields have been amalgamated into huge swathes of monoculture, with pesticides galore poisoning that then 'pristine' river?

[@m.brizzy5407]

Jack often talks about people that I know about and then I think about people today just have no idea who is talking about. They would only get their phone out and go "Oh I see." The loss of language and general knowledge kicked into the UK - when the 60's 70's not really sure. :D

[@patavinity1262]

Which people in particular that he mentions are you referring to?

[@robcarter55]

@m.brizzy5407 Hi I know it seems that long ago but I think it was later in the early 80's. I was born in 61 and remember watching Jack on tv although tv was not a major part of our lives. My father taught me much of the the old fishing techniques including for making whipping and float and ledger making. He gave me my first rod he had made from a WW2 tank Ariel . Other country type things I learnt from my mother like about Gin traps . Even into the early 80's when I started working for my father's building company there were older brick layers and carpenters who taught me techniques that are mostly lost today but still useful. My father taught me plumbing techniques not used today but in fact better than today. I think it's as these people died off and Jack when these things were actually lost. Even with horses you might have an escaped horse with no equipment on you and knocking up a head collar from baling twine was easy and it tightened around the nose if the horse pulled. Today so many people know nothing and can do nothing practical which is sad but perhaps we are just getting old 😇

[@deerohdeer8000]

Dave thanks as always for spending the time to put this out for all of us to see !!! Just outstanding!!! Thank you 🤩 👍👍

[@DaveKnowlesFilmmaker]

I enjoy seeing them again after so many years.

[@liamperry7095]

A treasure trove of old knowledge and wisdom. Thanks for sharing it with us.

[@daviecrocket9160]

Me and my 7 year old watch this and love it thank you

[@DaveKnowlesFilmmaker]

Thank you. That's about the age I started watching Jack and never thought that one day I would not edit his programmes "Out of Town" but produce 60 with him for Channel 4.

[@daviecrocket9160]

@@DaveKnowlesFilmmaker Amazing! What a wonderful legacy. The information is invaluable. I work on Poole harbour and was so chuffed to see Jack out on the water there in one of your programs. Where exactly did Jack come from?

[@DaveKnowlesFilmmaker]

@@daviecrocket9160 Jack was born in Palmer’s Green a suburb of North London in 1911 to James and Ada Hargreaves (née Jubb), Jack (christened John Herbert) was one of three brothers. The family was rooted in Huddersfield in the West Riding of Yorkshire, but James Hargreaves based himself partly in in Palmers Green on the outskirts of London for commercial advantage and to allow his wife the benefit of the capital's midwifery. Remember in those days Palmers Green was not all built up and certainly not like further into London. Jack went to study at the Royal Veterinary College at London University in 1929. He learnt about farms when his mother sent him away to stay on a farm when he was young and it was there he learnt his passion for the countryside.

[@davidlarter8231]

A like given as usual and a link shared with my brothers who love Jack Hargreaves and Old Country programs as much as I do

[@DaveKnowlesFilmmaker]

Thank you David.

[@iainolney5003]

Great program loved the dogs bit as I now work Braque D Auvergnes, and grew up catching Gudgeon on the River Roding. 👍

[@alancheshire3464]

Wonderful! Thank you for posting this. Better than any of the rubbish we get on television these days.

[@terrystokes7047]

Great episode; we didn’t realise how good many programmes made back then; compared to the rubbish spewed out Today; thanks again for sharing

[@peterkelly9102]

I remember fishing with a bamboo cane at Wallingford on the Thames as a kid on holiday from London. We used to catch Gudgeon all day long. Sometimes the odd Perch or small Roach but mostly Gudgeon.....Happy days in the early 70s......

[@Al-iv3mb]

Like many, I always look forward to watching Jack, and going back to my childhood. Thanks for posting, Dave

[@DaveKnowlesFilmmaker]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@shauncorless8965]

The knowledge he had was incredible ,,u hang on his every word 😊

[@ravingnutter1698]

I remember the hot summer of 76 the same time as this was filmed, sholes of Gudgeon, Dace & Roach glistering along the source end of the Adur, sadly due to the river being neglected with fallen trees and the idiots who released the mink they are few and far to be seen now days. Jack reminds me of early Friday evenings sitting in front of the telly hoping the 50p in the TV meter doesn't run out while eating jelly Totts

[@etinarcadiaego3296]

Once again thank you for these wonderful broadcasts , what a pleasure to see the the deep Normandy of the time, and I learned a lot about gudgeon fishing! Hi from France, Olivier.

[@JonathonSmith-c5g]

Sublime, thank you.

[@malcolmhill691]

Thank you. Once again my Sunday is made complete by your perfect broadcasting

[@DaveKnowlesFilmmaker]

Thank you for your kind words Malcolm.

[@tedthesailor172]

Old Jack Hargreaves used to be on panel quiz show for Children's TV called "HOW...?" I learnt a lot of obscure things from that programme...

[@petercarney56]

thank you for another great video. i watched this even though i have purchased the dvd collection which i highly recommend

[@alant5335]

Brilliant thanks!

[@DaveKnowlesFilmmaker]

You're welcome!

[@juliegraham5033]

My mum lived in rural France, and the dog fair was the highlight of the year for the local hunters. They don't keep them as pets like we do, they're working dogs. The locals all had fox terriers, gorgeous but quite stubborn little characters.

[@DaveKnowlesFilmmaker]

Thanks for sharing Julie.

[@keithrose6931]

I had a smoothie. Nutter !

[@HomeSickAlienJayman]

I had 2 pet gudgeons in the 70s. Kept em in a tank in my bedroom. But the summer was too hot for them so me and my dad dug them a pond in the garden. They lived there for many years.

[@DaveKnowlesFilmmaker]

Thank you for sharing. It reminds me of our garden pond built by my dad and myself when I was about 10 years old. We then went fishing and caught a small cat fish. We hadn't intended taking it home but we did and put it in the pond not realising the size catfish grew. Many years later though when we drained the pond due to a leak we found out as by then it was already very big.

[@HomeSickAlienJayman]

@@DaveKnowlesFilmmaker ha ha! That's brilliant, similar story different fish. Beautiful.

[@DaveKnowlesFilmmaker]

@@HomeSickAlienJayman It was quite a shock when we saw the fish.

[@bigoldgrizzly]

When I was about 7 one of our neighbours asked for a jar of tiddlers for her garden pond - maybe 10 or 12 years later she asked me back to rehouse the bloody great carp she'd been feeding for years. I was more worried about keeping the fish alive as I moved it, but I have often wished I'd weighed it before release.

[@Jdgdrdjd]

As a boy fishing the Thames at Kempsford Glos ( one of the lower part of the Thames) Gudgeon was all I managed to catch , but without the raking Jack does , so easy for me in the 1960s just a small worm on a small hook. And put them back as Jack says lots of Roach and also Rudd they were so easy to catch.

[@seanH1768]

How fascinating. I’ve not seen this one before, glad I voted for it.

[@anthonycrumb5753]

When I was a kid a few millennia ago, I used to catch a lot of gudgeon on the Thames, the biggest one I caught was just over 4ozs, a real monster, a genuine specimen fish equivelent to a + 30lb carp or pike or so I told myself. In fact this is about the only specimen fish I have ever caught. My mum had an old copy of Mrs. Beeton's Cook Book where there was a recipe for fried gudgeon with bacon if I remember correctly, so after a particularly fruitful fishing session on a local Thames backwater where I caught more than 20, I took some home for the pot. From what I remember they were 'alright' but it was something I never bothered to repeat. Listerning to Jack Hargreaves brought all this back to me - great memories of a childhood on the River Thames.

[@burniemaurins2382]

Thanks again Dave.

[@DaveKnowlesFilmmaker]

My pleasure. Thank you for watching

[@davidbaxter4910]

VERY INTERESTING....

[@davidbaxter4910]

ABSOLUTEMENT...

[@davidbaxter4910]

YESS........

[@davidbaxter4910]

Can't go to France for shopping NOW!!!

[@philmurphy5584]

Lovely man

[@SiGmund63]

A couple of times in the early 70s as a youth I cooked a few gudgeon from the Severn exactly as Jack describes. Enjoyable; the occasional perch too. I wouldn’t eat anything non-migratory from an English river these days, sadly.

[@smokingkippers1173]

Likewise. But I've a feeling it wasn't a good idea then either.

[@smhorse]

Depends on the quality of the sewage in the river nowadays

[@kymvalleygardensdesign5350]

Used to go Gudgeon fishing with my father in the river Wyd, we used to catch loads of them on light tackle using a quill float some were very impressive fish we often said that there was record Gudgeon in that river they were so big.

[@FranssensM]

I remember the old porcupine quills. I had a sandwich box as I didn’t have much tackle or money. I had a few spare hooks and cut up polystyrene to fit the sandwich box. When off fishing I’d sometimes pass a man in his garden. I’d walk past with rod and sandwich box. Occasionally he’d ask where I was going, tell me what it was like fishing with old cane rods. When he passed away his daughter said he wanted me to have his tackle box. I couldn’t work out why the quill floats had no eye on them to attach the line. Someone on the water showed me you use small rubber tubes to attach line at the top & bottom of the quill. Old guys passing on their gear & knowledge to young people. I don’t think it happens as much anymore. Maybe because people were poorer they handed down things, including knowledge.

[@Mark-xl8gg]

Reminded me of when I was a boy,catching roach and gudgeon on the river weaver and the flashes, a perch was always an exciting hope

[@warrenstanford7240]

A Northwich lad then? 🤔

[@robertcotton9091]

Thanks so much for sharing as always, very enjoyable to watch thanks Mate .

[@koalameat9523]

Cheers Dave

[@DaveKnowlesFilmmaker]

Glad you enjoyed the video. Have you seen any of the programmes I am making with Andrew. Similar syle to Jacks and it is early days but we have some interesting subjects in idea form such as The Cunning Folk of the New Forest. This is the latest kzbin.info/www/bejne/opCQhYGFe9WYorMsi=8tY4pWoRAen0ZM63

[@koalameat9523]

@@DaveKnowlesFilmmaker Yes ive seen it , good episode , your videos take us all back to better and simpler times , if i havent said it already Thank you so much .

[@DaveKnowlesFilmmaker]

@@koalameat9523 I am filming with Andrew on Thursday although we havent yet decided what we will cover so that one should be up soon. Take care Dave

[@RichardHealyCoffey]

So thankfully to you for up loading these old documentys I love them it takes you way back to a time when the world was full of characters and a far better lifestyle I really wish I was born away back then don't like the way the world has become so fast no one speaks to each other face to face anymore were always in a rush at least back then most people hadent much of anything back then but they shared what they had with each other happier time

[@SoonGone]

I'm glad he's not here to see how dead and poisoned our waterways have become. Things were getting better for a while but not now.

[@kete3690]

In the late 60s early 70s my pals and I used to go fishing on the river Severn, catch lots of little Gudgeon, minnows, and roach and taken them back to my house. My mother would then cook them like whitebait and we would sit around the kitchen table and eat them thinking we were real hunter gatherers. Great memories.

[@IanCampbell-px4iu]

I remember fishing the River Gowy at Mickle Trafford with my dad in the late 60s/early70s. He would float fish bread flake between the streamer weed for roach,but I would fish a little sandbank just below the road bridge and catch many many gudgeon on maggots. Very happy carefree days😊

[@warrenstanford7240]

Did he buy you a shandy at either the Shrewsbury Arms or Nags Head after fishing?

[@jamestregler1584]

LOVELY look back , thank ever so much from old New Orleans 😇 !

[@FabulousWanderers]

What a wonderful & beautiful story, thank you for this 🌟🧡👍

[@rayglover8697]

I enjoyed watching Jack as a boy and it is so nice looking back on these programs. As an avid fisherman when I was a young lad I ate the odd gudgeon(and they are tasty) - but Jack has got a couple of things wrong(which I think is rare) - and that is gudgeon are NOT green at all - they are BLUE - a very distinct blue that shimmers - infact 18.14 minutes into this video we can see this 'blue' as jack handles a gudgeon he has just caught. The record for gudgeon was 4oz 4 grams for decades and only increased to 5oz in 1990 from the river Nadder(Wiltshire) caught by a Mr Hull. As a pike fisherman I use to fish for gidgeon in many rivers - they are top livebait for pike and big perch because as they are tuff and stay alive a long time(a moving bait can quickly attract a pike). When tired out we use to set them free.

[@davidberlanny3308]

Hi Dave, That book was a real gem. A great anecdote about Gudgeon Tansy. All the best!!

[@GIBBO4182]

15:33 Jeez…that old blue plastic Shakespeare (I think) tackle box brings back memories! My Grandad had one just like it for years

[@FranssensM]

I had one I’m not that old. Apologies. Come to think of it I am. I’m 56. seems quite old when I look back.

[@bigoldgrizzly]

Watching that has taken me back well over half a century. I was musing about a small local angling competition out on Pevensey marshes. I was the only one to catch any fish that day and won with about 3 pounds of gudgeon ... all caught on muck heap worms with the lightest line I had. Given they were all tiddlers, that was a lot of fish, and a lot of fun.

[@RichardHealyCoffey]

I realy hope that who ever put these old vidios up can find some more ive watched every one at least 3 times brings back the gest memories of my life when kids were free do do what kids should be doing today just having fun god them days are gone forever so sad and all the characters back then are well gone we learned more fom them than any school god where had the time gone life goes so fast what i would do just ti go back un time just for 1 summer fishing stealing apples from a orchird climbing old buildings making buggies collecting pigeons and making sheds for them hunting with every stray dog in the estate just causing mistouf dossing school 😢miss them so much happy days its a time that hss changed fo ever such a pity my man always said enjoybwhile uoh can because one morning you look in the mirror and your young and look again and you got old she was so right

[@zerog5041]

I'm in my seventies now, and when I used to go fishing with my old mate we loved Chub, Bream and Roach fishing down here in the southeast of England, and we often referred to the "Gugon" (slang) as the pest of the river! Whatever happened to that "Jack o' nine pins" Jack played with?

[@cycleSCUBA]

I often think that if Jack had been around during the dreadful Covid lockdowns, he'd have done a daily show to give us advice and guidance in his usual calm and reassuring manner.

[@michaelmiller641]

Fascinating! I suppose that's what they call in printing using a spot colour, in addition to the CMYK inks

[@jamessones4044]

I love this. Seeing the maggots took me back to the first time I walked into ‘West Hendon bait shop’ .. can smell it now. Nostalgia ay

[@johnbailey8012]

Nostalgia, not what it used to be.....

[@paulhoward1895]

Fantastic 😊

[@newprimitiveart]

All those lost arts, from printing, dogs bred for more than just looks, tools just why they were made that way to that form, and of course great photography without any need for CGI. thank you PS Was tanzy used in gudgeon tanzy?

[@raclark2730]

Great documentary. We have a group of fishes that were assigned the common name Gudgeon here in Australia. Always been curious about what there original name sake was. Nothing alike of cause, Australian Gudgeons are related to marine Gobies. 😎👍

[@EleanorPeterson]

Strewth! Watch yourself, mate - those Aussie gudgeon will bite your arm off! 😁

[@raclark2730]

@@EleanorPeterson Hehe maybe if you happened to be a Yabbie. Some of the larger species can be pretty spectacular. But unlike others they may share the water with, they only have little peggy teefs.

[@stevewilliams5428]

I first watched this as a kid. I went straight out and caught some gudgeon from my local canal and cooked and ate them... I won't be doing that again!!!

[@DaveKnowlesFilmmaker]

I would have thought they had a lot of bones.

[@stevewilliams5428]

@@DaveKnowlesFilmmaker They were like whitebait, fry them well and the bones just disintegrate.

[@DaveKnowlesFilmmaker]

@@stevewilliams5428 Sounds OK then because Jan and I love whitebait

[@billy10100]

The good old days...now gone and never coming back:(

[@KevinRudd-w8s]

That swing tip Jack was using on his rod for legering brought back happy memories, but to be fair although I still have one stored away somewhere I much prefer using modern feeder rods, I think when this program was made most people where already abandoning them in favour of the quiver tip. Love watching these old programmes, I don't get too nostalgic for the past, but is nice to be shown what it was like in my youth and be reminded that I didn't just dream it was like that.

[@beatglauser9444]

In Switzerland I loved to see Gudgeon, I loved the way they looked , but I never ate any of them. I tried to keep some alive in my pond with some oxigene pump. But they died after a few months. When you say that only trout and sometimes perch are delicious freshwater fish that people are catching regularly, I have another game fish that I love more than anything else and that is Greyling, I love it ev n more than brown trout. They got extzremely rare by now. I grew up a few hundred yards from a river that was a greyling river known all over Europe. They got very, very rare and cormorans did their share as well reducing their number close to zero!

[@Peter-sk5vg]

Love Jack!! And listen to Jonathon Coudrille's adaptation of Tarrega's Recuerdos de la Alhambra. It has turned a wistful beautiful piece of guitar music into the perfect soundtrack for a haycart clattering over the hill! Good work, Jonno

[@garybrownsword-xq1um]

thanks dave love it more more made my day

[@briansearle4138]

Different traffic now I'm afraid jack , 🇬🇧

[@pictlandpickers1171]

I love these but we need more 😢

[@DaveKnowlesFilmmaker]

I am almost at the end of all 60 programmes but when I get to the end will start again. In the meantime have you seen the series I am doing with Andrew a New Forest farmer and commoner about his recolections of life in the forest. It is early days but they are very much in the style of Jack's programmes. If you haven't This is the latest kzbin.info/www/bejne/opCQhYGFe9WYorMsi=8tY4pWoRAen0ZM63

[@nigelbarrett3602]

Excellent as always Dave, Jack is always interesting to watch really looking forward to the next one .

[@paulAnthony7236]

I remember in the 80s fishing a local pond in the northeast it had loads of big gudgeon in I had a 8.0z 3drm record and a 6.oz 2drm record gudgeon never claimed the record.Good times as young angler.

[@GARDENER42]

I won a few matches 'gonk bashing' on the whip before something wiped them out in our club pond. Could sometimes catch five or six with the same pinkie on the hook. Never very big, averaging around 40 to the pound, so 300 plus was the minimum needed.

[@davevincent5453]

It’s sad that the gudgeon has been reduced in number as they used to be , I remember catching these when I was a boy along with roach normally

[@raclark2730]

That's a shame, loss or decline freshwater fish is often a indicator that the wider eco system has been damaged.

[@zworm2]

Used to catch Gudgeon on the River Gade, early in my fishing career. Never knew they were edible or I would have tried some. I liked cooking sprats. I took perch from the river and enjoyed them and also enjoyed smaller Carp.

[@DaveKnowlesFilmmaker]

I bet they are just full of bones though.

[@zworm2]

@@DaveKnowlesFilmmaker they might be light enough to break down like with small sprats?

[@peterturnham5134]

When I was young, 1960s, I fished the Thames often around Hampton Court. You could catch 60 bleak off a pier, yes my mother did fry them, like a sardine but less salt/taste. When that got too repetitive I would put on a big split shot, or light ledger weight straight down the line, size 16 hook, maggot and ledger. Always got some Gudgeon. Little fish that would brighten up a Saturday morning. Never ate them, I put them back. If I went back today I'm sure I would catch their great great great great offspring and put them back.

[@anthonycrumb5753]

I have always thought gudgeon were a game little fish, I have often wished they would grow much bigger, can ypu imagine the scrap a 20lb gudgeon would give.

[@EleanorPeterson]

When I was little I used to think of gudgeon as baby barbel. Made me feel really special! 😁

[@m0ngo]

Every frame is an English oil painting.

[@DaveKnowlesFilmmaker]

Thank you.

[@oldhippiejon]

Back in 60's this little fish was the staple weight caught in most canal contests once put over 4lb on the scales but alas today with stocking of canals with carp,bream and chub the poor little gudgeon is pushed aside, I personally think they are a bonny little fish though never tasted one or wanted to if the truth be told.