Certainly most of the Thames is fishing as well as I can ever remember it and seems to be getting better every year. Seems , down south at least, to be the small rivers that have suffered the most but signs for optimism there as well. Local stretch of the Colne has been pretty much big fish or bust for a few years but last summer to a small extent, and far more this year , there's lots of tiny dace and chub around which we haven't seen in years
As for the anglers going back, sure some will never return, but just may be some signs of an upturn. The club of which I'm treasurer, after five years of slowly falling membership ,stayed level last year and this year we have a 25% increase in member numbers. And we don't have any waters that could remotely be said to offer the facilities (or big weights) of any commercial (other than one lake out of our eleven waters that you can park behind half the pegs..)
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