Simple Match Fishing Forum

yesterday i had a different sort of Wednesday to most ,i had arranged a meeting with John Ellis i know bill knows john well but for those who don't know John is the the top man at British waterways and a down to earth bloke
after reading the angling times a few weeks back about inner city canal i thought i'd see if this was just propaganda or just paper talk so i sent a email to john ,within days i had a reply it wasn't the reply i expected it was very detailed and honest and whats more at the bottom of the email john himself wanted to come over and see some of points i'd pointed out about the river and canal .
after a few changes of dates for the meeting we finally arranged it for yesterday
during the meeting we walked and stopped off at 15 different places across fields looking over canal bridges walking along lots of stretches of river and with me firing questions and ideas along with Brian Holmes you could tell without responding or giving away too much it was all going in
John had never seen our part of the grand union and told me and Brian loads of interesting points.he is the first person that i have met from the waterways that i can honestly say cares about whats happening to the angling side of the waterways
the increase in boating and mooring water levels of or canals are massive issues in the future weed is going to be another
we ended the day at pilling marina www.pillingslock.com and was simply gobsmacked at the amount of boats in there at least 300  i will thank John personally on a very interesting day     

John's official title is National Fisheries and Angling Manager

Pilling marina looks great

They have just built a massive Marina by us....http://www.astonmarina.co.uk/ I have been meaning to go and have a look. I bet Bill has been

Pilling marina looks great 

hopefully i have permission to hold my 50th birthday match there :o30 pegs i think i can get around it and at the moment it is solid with fish normally its no fishing fingers crossed i'l know later to day

Yes I have been to Aston Marina. I walked from Stone to Sandon along the canal then back to Stafford the other week, took nearl four hours.

Funnily enough unless you go down to the actual marina you don't see much of it from the canal. It looks huge though, there is a way in and further along the cut a way out. Cut looks very barren though.

I have only seen it from the road and it looked massive.
It's still settling in(the landscape) I bet Bill

If you look from the cut there is a great big fooking hill in front of it!

my 50th birthday match there