What a fascinating two days.

On Thursday I met up with the one and only Nick Beardmore, the long-time Environment Agency Enforcement Officer for our region and once my Sprowston High School pupil, as he never tires of telling anyone who will listen.

Then, I fish, dine and drink with James Buckley, now a river Test water keeper and once my 'Peter' in the TV series Fishing in the Footsteps of Mr Crabtree that I presented some eight or nine years ago.

How good that both have made a career out of fishing one way or another and that early association with me didn’t put them off for life.

But Nick first, and it’s good to hear that he’s still pulling out pike of extraordinary size. He was a kid of real piscatorial promise and the pike are finding that out! Of course, Nick’s job gives him unparalleled access to what is going on hereabouts and it was intriguing to hear his views on the Broadland pike scene.

There’s a lot that should remain between us for legal reasons, but I was surprised to pick up on how few 30lb pike anglers are aware of throughout the whole system. There must be biggies skulking off the radar and destined never to see the inside of a landing net, but the fact remains that a handful of the fish are so well known and such frequent captures that they have been given names even. We all know that such baptisings are common in the carp world, but pike? And pike on such a huge network of waters to boot. I’m probably being Crabtree-like here, but I can’t help but shudder a little at the thought of the mystery of these wild waters being compromised just a little.

What was more relevant to us all is Nick’s knowledge of how far these pike, a few of which are tagged, travel during the course of their annual wanderings. From what Nick said to me, some of the major boatyards might serve as a food rich base, but once the monster fish have fed themselves fat, they might travel here, there, anywhere the mood takes them.

Or is it the mood or something else? Nick has it on good authority that these big fish simply leave a boat yard, poke their nose into the river and follow whatever direction the current is happening to push at the time. They simply go with the flow, at the mercy of the elements rather than having any deep laid plan of their own. Perhaps they do have some traditional patrol routes they follow according to the season - or perhaps they do not. Either way, the conversation highlighted for me the true fascination of fishing, an evolving natural history story wherein we play the part of angling detectives.

James’ conversation was more about where our great chalk streams are going in their future. The EA is adamant that the stocking of brown trout is to be cut back drastically, supposedly to help the proliferation of the wild fish present. Hmm. One problem is that stocked browns attract anglers who pay hundreds of pounds daily and that money pays for the keepers who maintain the pristine nature of rivers like the Test. Take away this passionate, year-round tender loving care and you end up with a neglected, unloved ditch like the Wensum has become. Further, the EA would do away with mills, weirs, carriers and all the river structures that have been in place for centuries if they had their way.

It’s almost certain that the Test, the Wensum and all our lowland rivers would change fundamentally in this scenario and many doubt if that change would be for the better. It’s a big risk and given the track record of the EA and Natural England it’s hard to see why we would trust them with anything of any importance whatsoever.

I never take any delight in prophesying doom, but it is inescapable that our rivers are in a worse state than they were when I was a kid and that by and large they are getting worse. In my view, it’s guys like Nick and James we should be listening to, those who know about water from the bed up, who have hands on experience and are passionate about what they do. Buckley, Beardmore or the bureaucrats? Who gets your vote?