Mark Wintle

A Littlemoor AC book (which covers Oxford DAA waters plus their own at Sandford on Thames) is just £10 a year. Where I live a day ticket is more than that so cheap fishing. Anything more just ask.

If you get an Oxford DAA book from one of the Oxford tackle shops you can fish in Oxford (Folly, Donnington), Medley and at Clifton Hampden. Plenty of this water is good for waggler fishing, especially Clifton and Medley; the latter isn't too deep at about 6ft down the middle with a prevailing wind off your back. Top end of Medley OK for a stick float as is the Channel just below Medley. I fish this water in autumn and winter but prefer to fish a moving feeder with bread but in the past used to spend a week or two in summer and autumn every year floatfishing with stick or waggler. Lovely fishing with an emphasis on roach, and plenty of bank space. Too shallow on Medley for moored boats as well.

Big rudd often feed more confidently at first light or right into dusk. They are easily scared by sound and disturbance (like a float landing amongst them). Fishing from distance seems to make it easier to catch them rather than trying to get too close to them. I'd love to catch a big rudd again but sadly none about on my waters nowadays; plenty of small ones.

Bread punch on a 16, matching the punch to the hook, is a good crucian bait, and easier to use than flake at this size. I was catching them on little (1/4" cube) cubes of luncheon meat last week.

There's a John Bailey article on crucians in this week's Angler's Mail. Apart from the work on crucian conservation he mentions that feeding very sparingly and accurately - only baiting a very small area around the float (a pole pot?) - may help in preventing the tench moving in. Lovely fish anyway. I fished a commercial earlier this week as part of the project to see if it still held crucians but the problem there was crucian x goldfish hybrids which grabbed the bait though I did get three crucians in the end.

I'm not aware that carp are allowed to be imported into the UK; I'm sure we breed enough of our own. Certainly plenty of goldfish coming in and unlikely that the Angling Trust has enough clout to ban their import. The threat to crucians is more from their crowding out in overstocked waters, predation of their fry, competition for food by other species at fry and adult stage, stocking of the ugly horrible hybrid 'F1', predation from pike, otters, cormorants, habitat destruction etc. Interbreeding in the wild with goldfish and carp not that common, although unwanted goldfish introduction is common when people drain garden ponds or aquariums. Why not put your question to someone attending the conference?

Lovely fish. I'm involved with the project in as much as I (with a lot of help) am trying to get together a list of waters containing crucians which I'm hoping will be published next week on Peter Rolfe's crucian website. A lot of work to do as many waters list 'crucians' but have hybrids, goldfish or the poor crucians are struggling. I fished a commercial in Dorset yesterday to see if we could catch any crucians; ended up with 3 but also 30 crucian x goldfish crosses which were horrible things. help with the list will be much appreciated. The good news is that there are some fisheries out there who are intending to create proper crucian waters.

I can think of two truly natural lakes in the south of England; Slapton Ley and Little Sea at Studland near Swanage, both formed by the sea creating a sand/gravel spit. Don't get excited by Little Sea, just eels and sticklebacks and it's in a nature reserve - might have otters though.

I still have this 'itch' to fish the Thames one or two times more before the end of the season. I watch the river levels like a hawk; the ISIS level (OU rowing clubs at Folly Bridge Oxford) is an indication of what is happening; was 16" up but back up to 22". At the end of last week it was dropping day by day but on the up again. I'm hoping that once the rain from yesterday and today has passed through it will drop again and I can get my final fling. Back-end last year I had two blanks - lost one roach - and the year before endured one blank but last day of the season a special day amongst the roach. At present a possibility of fishing it next Sunday but we'll see; I can't see much improvement during this week. My local upper Stour is up and down like a fiddler's elbow; perfect yesterday when I couldn't get out and 6ft up today but that will drop by Thursday. Spot on a week ago and I actually caught roach and chub floatfishing, a first this year on the Stour.

I've not heard of golden perch but goldfish, golden orfe, golden tench, golden rudd and even golden roach all occur, either through selective breeding or as occasional freaks of nature. the trouble nowadays is that Photoshop makes it easier to fake photos!

I fished the Frome last winter when it was across the fields on the Wareham DAS (my original home club) water upstream of Wareham. It took waders to get to the bank and it was only because I knew one spot (gear on a bait table!) where I might get fish that I bothered. I had some grayling on two occasions out of three. Not aware of a single coarse fish coming out at Wareham since Christmas, a far cry from the fantastic fishing that I enjoyed there so many times in the past. I prefer the Thames and Stour nowadays but this winter is proving frustrating. The upper Stour is fishable every few days as it drops fast but every time it settles it rains again. I fished the Stour yesterday in the rain and did well but it was coming up again by the time I packed up. It has come up 3' 6" since then!

There is evidence of carp getting from lakes (not carp commercials) in the Windrush valley which feeds into the upper Thames into the Thames.This happened in 2007.

Hard to be sure but I have the same feeling.

Glad I went yesterday as the upper Stour has risen 3'6" overnight.

Having posted I looked again at the river level and the weather in detail. All afternoon was predicted as drizzle and the river had dropped back 5ft so I went again, same conditions as Tuesday, not as good but 6 plump roach to 8oz and some fresh air. Didn't even get wet but rain has set in tonight.

The upper Dorset Stour is occasionally becoming fishable for a few hours before more rain hits it. On Tuesday it was OK at 18" up with roach fisher's green/brown, a special colour that says they'll feed, and I had roach to a pound on the tip and flake before a band of heavy rain brought it up 5ft again. Dropped again today but rain has set in and it will be out of sorts again. Previous time on the Stour was the 11th! I can think of one area on the Thames good for roach with current levels.

Now I'm intrigued!

I'm pretty sure it's a roach but ascertaining the true weight is far from easy. Getting the picture was the easy bit; the problem is there is no proof backing the weight. Tony Patrick-Davies claimed some enormous roach (to 4-8) from Denmark that are pictured in one of his books, and I've been impressed by some of the massive Ebro roach (to 4-7). English biggest is 4-5.

There haven't been significant changes since 1947 bar more building on the flood plain, the Jubilee River and more drainage. The 47 flood was different in that the ground was frozen, there was a huge amount of snow and then very heavy warm rain so a huge snow melt with no soaking in. Before WW2 there were still flash locks, weirs that no longer exist including ones at Medley and Folly Bridge but the shape of the river hasn't changed in decades. I've a 1954 detailed map that is the same as today. Roads cause a lot of runoff. There was more weed pre WW2 but boat traffic destroyed most of it.

I have noticed that the EA 'highest ever' levels a) only go back a few years, don't get updated when exceeded. The Dorset Stour had higher levels than just about every record in recent times just 2 weeks ago but nothing was updated. On the Stour the great flood of 1979 was much higher than this flood though, and one in the 1700s much higher still with other very high ones historically. The worst Dorset Frome flood was after the 1955(?) cloudburst when Martinstown got 11.5" of rain in a day. The most reliable flood markers are where there is a bronze plaque marking the level of historic floods. I know Godstow Lock on the Thames has one for the 1947 flood, and there is one on the Stour at Longham Waterworks, another on Sturminster Newton Mill. Most impressive one I ever saw was on the Rogue River in Oregon with a flood marker over 100ft above normal - all bridges swept away! Saw a bridge in Germany with a whole series of markers going back over 100 years. The river (tributary of the Rhine) was in flood at the time but many feet short of teh historic markers.

It's still 2ft below the historic 1894, 1929 and 1947 levels which makes you think just how bad those floods were. Glad my uncle, who's 91, no longer lives in Binsey Lane.

I got around to making 5 hollow tip (with the hole to let the water in/out) peacock wagglers yesterday. All glued, next stage varnishing. In the meantime it's full steam ahead on finishing Big Roach 2.

My local rivers a washout this Christmas but finally had an afternoon on an old clay pit that I've fished for decades, fishing well out in 12ft of water with fine gear. Nothing any size at all but a succession of small roach and rudd; watched by a pair of deer for half an hour from 20yards away. Peaceful!

Lovely roach, Andrew, and well done on following a hunch. My local Stour has been in the headlines for all the wrong reasons. Still very high and coloured though past its peak. The Thames seems very high too but maybe next month it will improve?

You're on the right lines. If the roach are ONLY quality ones then the pouchful every 20-30 minutes with maggots will get them feeding on the bottom. With the presence of tiddlers I think the caster approach is the first option, again feeding (but less feed than with maggots) at long intervals and laying on with DOUBLE caster on say a 20 or 18. Only you can find out what works so some experimentation is in order. Good luck.