John Weddup

Correct about SSSI It is designated to be one because of dragonflies. Everything done there has to be cleared with Natural England before hand. They have more control than the owners in certain things. The problem is the waters are stagnating with fallen leaves silt washed in from river and rotting vegetation. I don't think this will be a good environement for dragonflies but I am not sure what they require. John

Wonderful roach Mark thanks for sharing John

Thanks very much for all the info very interesting. Have arranged a meeting with Natural England to discuss the future of the pits and will endeavour to do the same with Local EA fisheries man whom I met there 9 years ago. The pits are going downhill both in fishing terms but more importantly in their ability to support the varied wildlife there. In particular they are a SSSI for dragonfly. I presume healthy clean water is important for them rather than stagnant silting up pools. John

Hi Matt I know the river very well from wixoe (near Haverhill) all the way through to nayland and a bit beyond but not so well. Colnes are not really a river club and just have the bits at bures and nayland. The bures stretch however is a very good stretch. Sudbury club have a lot of the river around Sudbury and long melford. The bit through Sudbury is a lot wider and deeper than any other stretch until you get downstream of Dedham. It is therefore a better summer/autumn fishery than the other bits. If you intend fishing the river then a clubcard is the way to go. Colnes don't do daytickets but Sudbury do. However the cost soon adds up. What sort of fishing do you like and for what species?. John

Hi Matt you need to amend the title to Suffolk stour as there are many river stours. I recognise it because of the mention of bures and I live local. Most of the river banks are privately owned hence clubs agree rents and use the waters. Some have daytickets some don't but none are too expensive. Its a bit early for pike at present and the Suffolk stour is very much a winter fishery. I can help you loads if you want and give me more details John

Its in a SSSI so no carp thankfully. Roach rudd bream and tench mainly with a few perch and pike. Very low stock density and natural. stock levels are very low and have only been added to with roach skimmer bream and a few small tench. We wonder about predation but I am more thinking about poor water quality. It is surrounded by tree's and full of weed and algae. Also silty area's as its an old water and the river floods in regularly. John

Mines an oxygaurd handy alpha if that makes sense. It is hardly used but the tip was corroded under cap. The kit came with new parts which I fitted and a bottle of electrolyte. It then calibrated easily. I tried it in the Stillwater at a depth of 1ft and waved it around. I played with the calibration up and down to see if it was that critical but it didn't make too much difference. I then did the same in the river incase my readings were not usefull but could act as a comparison. I did the same and hence the huge difference in readings. The Stillwater is a problem one with loss of fish (although no bodies found) and no one now fishes it as nothing comes out. I am not sure if fish are dead or there and hard to get. John

Has anyone studied the levels and affects of dissolved oxygen levels in ponds and stillwaters. What measurements should be achieved in a healthy water. I measured a Stillwater this afternoon at 5.5ppm and a river at 10.2. I realise that early morning as sunrises the level will be less. Thanks John

Further to the Kevlar rod post Anderson started I have some old rods to dispose of for a poorly friend. They are as the title and seem in very good condition. There is a 14 ft and a 15ft. What should I do with them. Are they collectible and good rods. Oh and I can't seem to edit the title to read Hardys iPads predictive spelling is fun sometimes!!! John

I am selling a few old rods for a friend of mine who is terminally ill. One of them I am having myself is a fly rod. Always fancied having a go for dace chub etc. It is a Daiwa boron procaster. So obviously used for fly rods aswell. I know nothing about the rod at all other than it feels good quality. John

Smartcast doesn't work under 4ft of water. It shows loads of fish and a depth deeper than it is so can confuse things easily. I do use one as said in previous posts but for river work can be confusing. In answer to your question no it would show nothing as the waves would bounce back off bucket. Probably would show as I said above it would say 10 ft and full of big fish. Almost any bend were the water has a good flow has the potential to be undercut to a certain degree. I think physically checking with a made up stick device is the best way. Or maybe a pair of diving rods. LOL John

The old boys who taught me made a real point of the feeding. A few regular rather than a load all at once. And I mean regular very frequent. Its that getting them in the frenzy that they make mistakes. That's when you get the big ones but its so hard to judge. The good seed anglers are really very good anglers. John

Anderoo with any flow and deepish conditions I would personally have more weight down below to get the bait down to where the bigger fish are quicker and be able to keep it down there. I am very nervous about catching lots of small fish amongst the bigger ones for fear of spooking the big fish. However as Leon says hemp and tares work for bigger fish when you get them in a feeding frenzy by proper feeding. They then all become easy to catch. Having said that I rarely get hemp feeding/fishing correct. Oh and tiny droppers down the line do get attacked as fish think they are hemp giving loads of false line bites. Not good for fooling the big ones when you keep striking at nothing. Thanks for calculating length of roach for me John

remarkably similar to this little fella I caught sunday. It weighed 1lb 6 ozs looks to be similar length

funny you should mention getting in. When I rented the bit of river that I had for a while I used to do exactly that. What I discovered most was how deep area's that looked shallow really were. Often those you thought were 2ft were 5 and so on. Many a time I was over my chest waders. With a stick you could check out undercut banks easily aswell. Great fun that also inspired me to fish very light floats whilst wading in there. I experimented with adding colour to the river with my feet and it really worked a treat. John

Missed out a bit on my chub stalking the last couple of seasons having been thinking zeds and pike but there was a time when it occupied all my winters for several years. I rented a particularly streamy stretch of the upper stour (Suffolk) for myself at considerable cost. I learn't a lot about chub as being narrow and shallow for most of it with typical deep holes on bends overhanging tree's etc. it made finding chub and learning watercraft on this sort of venue easy. What i did find consistently was after a flood when the river had settled down the chub were not in the ususal deep holes and swims. They were out in the shallows. Almost as if they had been restricted in there for the flooding and wanted to get out and have a look around. Obviously there would be fresh food supplies washed out and covering the shallow glides.. Bankside cover seemed to be the most consistant requirement for chub on my stretch . The depth seemed almost secondary as long as it was sufficient. John Ps with autumn coming it does wet your appetite for a bit of chubbing.

Fantastic mate wouldn't be without them now. Love using them too. Only really work well with delkims like any open bail arm fishing as not enough line friction to turn roller alarms. John

My feelings about the small overstocked commercial roach and perch is they wouldn't be there without the huge intervention by man. You could try and bring Wingham into it as you did earlier as the same could be said. The big difference is the stocking policy at wingham is not one that will harm the fish. far from it. The stocking policy on a lot of commercials is way over the excepted level and often needs drastic measures to keep the fish alive in low oxygen levels. Any losses are rapidly replaced with yet more stock fish. Taken to its limit no doubt a hand reared perch could be grown in perfect temperatures and food supply and easily beat the record perch at present. I didn't say any commercial fish was worthless or that the commercial aspect is black and white because it is clearly not. However catching 2 lb roach from a commercial, where I can go and catch one after another, is ok now and again but to me not as much as an achievement as catching a 2lb roach from the river. Its not the fish that's different its my pleasure and sense of achievement. It was those that I thought we went fishing for. John

So is lynch hil a small muddy hole in the ground stuffed full of fish and water the colour of clay because of it as in most typical commercial waters. Or is it a big natural water being called a commercial because it is operated on commercial grounds such as my reference earlier to Suffolk water Park specimen lake. John

Dales as always you seem to make the most sense of any posters on here. You are right about south Essex but get a bit north of that and things return to normality. Its a shame travelling costs so much in this country. Our European cousins get it so much easier. Funnily enough the EE's, we shouldn't mention, that I have had trouble with netting the fens and others as well all seem to come from Enfield. That is where the pnc checks on vehicle regs show them from. Maybe they know something too. John Oh and before Dave makes some smart Ar** comment I have paid my latest Dales appreciation society subs . I think?. LOL

Dave I wish you lived nearer to me. I could rekindle your love for fishing fully. I could get you onto decent bream tench roach rudd chub perch dace pike zander in rivers and stillwaters. Not a fish a chuck or huge PB's and angling times front page fish but quality fish that you have to work at to get the best from a given water but one that you don't have to blank at either. Too many anglers set either their sights to high and cannot meet their expectations. They loose track of that boyhood fishing trip. I spent last weekend fishing the slider. Not because its the greatest big fish method but because I love float fishing. Yes I spend hours behind bobbins aswell. I truly do fish many methods on many waters and that is what I like to do. Move north of London Dave and I can do for you what I have also done for others. Get them catching and more importantly lusting after the next session. John

Dales for some reason you have got some pretty bad bits of fishing around you. Yes there are a few head banging waters near me but there are also lots of club waters that offer good catches to the general pleasure angler at a reasonable price. Some have seen plenty of stockings some are natural. Its only really the small ones that get boosted with bought stock as trying to increase stock in something over 10 acres costs a lot of money to have any real affect. The river stour local to me can be difficult. General pleasure anglers struggle due to low water levels clear water and predators. There are fish there but they are a bit nervy and hard to catch. The broads and fens are within driving distance for a days fishing and offer plenty of sport. None of these waters offer guaranteed big catches but they don't need you to blank ten times on the trot either. Commercial only actually means making it pay. Most are small dug waters but some are larger and totally natural. These waters are generally for the more specimen angler and charging upwards of £24 for 24 hours. The small waters stuffed with tiny carp are actually getting less now. Many are allowing the silvers ,roach and skimmers, to thrive as it offers sport all winter and something for the match anglers to book the water for. I think things are maturing and anglers changing back a little from the catch loads of small carp brigade. If they at least get a young angler or old one for that matter hooked on fishing as his or her skills are gained then they may well progress to different more natural waters knowing they can go and have a bag up session on the commies when they fancy it. A bit of moral boosting helps to break the blanking routine. John

Got lots of small waters near me with perch over 3lbs and might well try myself. Prefer the rivers for them but if they are in flood I might well give them a go. John

The other thing to consider with proper commercial small carp waters that the perch are now famous for is the water clarity. In these waters they are always well coloured. Something that must help the perch to feed and chase about less for their food. It certainly makes catching all species easier too when the water is well coloured including rivers. John

Totally different to the river perch you fish for. The river perch is not surrounded in all directions by small roach and rudd that a commercial water is. The commercial water perch will be a lot younger than the river fish and grow quicker. The commercial fish will not be as wise as a big old river fish. The commercial perch will have no other predators after it. The smaller man made commercials that are dug at 4ft deep or less and stocked do not have natural perch in them they are introduced to keep the numbers of small fish down a little. These quickly grow on much as pike do when introduced to a new water with loads of bait fish. I shared my pictures, not too impress fellow AN members as I don't give a flying fig about PBs etc as I already stated, but too express an opinion. I could go to several small waters around here and catch 2lb roach all day but I do not consider that a great angling experience as its easy to do. Catch one from a small river and that is a proper catch. John