Brian at Mal Storey’s tackle shop in Kidderminster (tel: 01562 745221) sends us to the BAA stretch at Stourport this month for a touch of roach fishing on the float. With fish averaging 12oz and plenty well over the pound mark, they are certainly worth a go, and although bronze or tumeric covered maggots are all the rage, don’t be frightened to try the bread in either liquidized and punch form or running a piece of flake through over mashed bread. Arley, another BAA day ticket water, holds redfins in numbers but also provides excellent winter chub sport. Maggot feeder may well be the ‘main man’ here but I’d be inclined to take along a ball of smelly cheesepaste and sort out one or two of the bigger ‘rubber dubs’. As we move into March and the final two weeks of the river season, you might find a few barbel willing to put on a spurt in the feeding stakes, and these Arley ‘whiskers’ run into double figures. Hair-rigged Halibut pellets are boss but I just wonder about that smelly stuff made with cheese? You never know your luck in this game.