It’s that man Brian Bennett again as he seems to be winning loads of dosh at Stourport while poor Dave Harrell is drawing crap … so he tells me! This permanently pegged stretch, controlled by Lyttleton AA, is solid with roach at the present and fishing very well indeed with weights over 20lb winning matches. Some pegs hold loads of smaller roach and some are resident to shoals of bigger specimens, with 1lb samples common and the odd 2lb beauty to be caught. Tumeric smothered bronze maggot the bait, single or double on a size 16 or 18 hook, stick float the method, but make sure you run your float at the fish and use every inch of your peg. ‘Harry’ recommends you call into Mark’s Tackle in Raven Street, Stourport (tel: 01299 871735 to pick up the required 2 pints of maggots. Pegs 44 & 63 are where the ‘Merry Monk’ has been writing poetry and picking up the readies! Dave has sulked off to Upton-on-Severn, a deep and powerful reach of the river, where top and bottom work is needed to control any form of float fishing. Big roach, double maggot, and be generous with the feed in order to draw fish up from downstream. Back to Stourport, and if you fancy a dual purpose day’s fishing, take a lure rod along, as if you are bagging on roach, something very nasty is going to come along and eat its lunch at your expense! These pike go well into double figures and fight like fury when hooked on a lightweight spinning rod. Pitchcroft, close to Worcester racecourse, is another winter Severn venue worth a second glance as ‘Harry’ tells me it’s full of clonking roach and some decent chub. That’ll do for me! 

Midland Angler