Wintle's World

I could not agree more with Mark's insightful and thought provoking article.

I well remember the River Reports from years ago and I have to wonder why these were discontinued.
Surely it is not that difficult to establish a network of good anglers to contribute regularly on their local rivers?
Of course, it is recognised that this would take valuable space in the weeklies, but I would like to see a response from AT and/or AM on this point.

In addition, whilst it is very entertaining to see, for example, Andy Little's exploits after big Chub on Throop, the next weekend (the last of the season) did produce a "forest of rods" along this stretch and the majority of their owners went home disillusioned. So, I think Mark is totally right when he suggests that maybe a degree of less hype is necessary in these articles.

Clubs like the CAC do hold a junior teach-in once a year, but why only once?
Is there not a case for offering these sessions to local schools and youth clubs as well, on a more regular basis?

So, what do others think on this topic?

Peter - I agree with you about the reports but the problem with a network of anglers to provide up to date feedback is what Mark was getting at? As has been said before in both Mark's articles and other threads, you can fish a river and see no-one for miles. The Throop will always have feedback as will the Royalty etc as they are always hammered.

I visited the Throop a few days after AL's article (not fish chasing I promise - was a planned trip way beforehand) and pretty much all the bankside vegetation from school bridge up and beyond the copse was flattened. There'd been so many on it that week that it must have been crowded.

Nigel,

Last Sunday Mark Wintle, Nigel Connor and myself fished a feeder on the Hamps. Avon at Winkton (day ticket stretch) as the main river and the Stour were pretty much unfishable.
Given that the fishable waters on that day were few and far between you might havbe thought that we would have seen a good few anglers. We actually only saw 2 other anglers all day long, one fishing for Roach and Dace and the other a Pike angler.

We all had a reasonable days fishing with masses of small Dace and a few decent Roach as well.
Mark attacked the water "match style" and took about 90 fish in a couple of hours.
The Dace came in 3 class sizes of about 1/2 oz, then 4/5 ounces with a few about 7/8 ounces proving that the Dace are recovering well in some areas.
Of course, there are no Barbel or large Chub to speak of so the venue does not get the attention it deserves, IMHO.

Well done Peter - dace fishing is great isn't it and they have made a big comeback in the Thames this year.

Nigel,
I love to fish for Dace on the river, but it is only in this last season or two that they have begun to show in decent numbers.
A few months ago Nigel Connor had a couple of beautiful specimens fishing with me on the Hale.

With the numbers and class sizes that we had on Sunday it certainly bodes well for the future.

What a pity that so many people never get to experience days like that.

Oh well, each to their own as I've said before.

Couldn't agree more Peter. Worrying thing though is that those left to do their own thing on the commercial waters won't hang around in angling if anything amiss were to occur with that branch of angling. If waters like that were to become unavailable to them they'd leave the sport and vast sums of money would then be spent elsewhere. Tackle shops would suffer and the licence money would drop too.