RIP Kieth My last memories of him are us sat in the crown ? pub in
Horten chewing the fat about the lakes in the area and finally myself handing him a large envelope full of papers and photographs of Wraysbury for his book. Sad loss

So I must say some people live in a different world to me.
I remember the rivers running funny colours as dye from paint factories of clothes dyers leached in.
Toxic Chemicals were common place in rivers across the UK. The Seven Trent water catchment was the one I saw the most and it was so polluted in the 50/60s that there were regular fish die offs, I saw this on the Tyne, tees, Derwent, Trent, Colne, etc etc.. Yet now rivers like the Trent and Derwent etc have salmon! well if thats what pollution does, great.
The Rivers are full of BIG fish, I have a friend who was born and raised in south london/kent, reached the age of 70 without a single Barble or chub over 2lb, in the past 6 years he has had his first 6lb chub a a few fives, also he has managed 4 Barbel, all double figure, that would never have happened in the 50s,60s,70s,80s.
Carp fishing has changed beyond my wildest dreams and its not for me the modern form, but they are still waters out there that can be targeted.
New places like Sonning, Yately and Wraysbury are harder to find, but not impossible, I was one of the first on W1 and a few more since and its the type of angling I loved, I dont fish these types of places now, not because they dont exist, but because Im too old to do it.
The Biggest threat to angling now is the over abundance of fish predators and disease in carp. What I will say is this, in my lifetime the fieldsports I have followed and practiced have been eroded by well meaning but deluded politicians following the advice of cranks. They have already stared on Angling and will not stop till all fieldsports are gone.

As above.