I am on the river again, this time with a friend as a guest. I like to give my guest the choice of the swim. We ended up opposite were I was catching the pike in the Winter, as the bailiff had advised that there had been good bags of Dace had along that stretch. This was my guest’s chosen target fish.
I opted to fish just up stream from a fallen tree and hope some Chub may be held up in there.
I also found a clean run on the far back, just above another fallen tree. This also looked good for the odd Chub and maybe just maybe a barbel if I am lucky!
As there were no signs of any chub or barbel, I ended up getting the float rod out, with my center pin reel a trotting for some Dace. I had about 8 Dace, 3 of which were a nice size (even they were hard work to catch!), by 7pm we both had had enough and headed home.
Richard
50.930132
-1.783014
About richardhandel
I would like to give a brief snap shot of my life and introduce myself;
My name is Richard Handel and was born in 1965 in Suffolk. I have worked as a UK Operation & Intermodule Manager for a shipping company. I live in Hampshire now and am married with 2 young children, both girls so I am a bit outnumbered even the cat is a girl!
I have been fishing since I was about 7 years old. I started on small local rivers in Suffolk, then moved onto gravel pits and then carp fishing. My personal best is a 39.08 mirror, over recent years I have started river fishing again, on the Hampshire Avon, this is a nice break from the carp lakes.
My life has turned a big corner this year, the company I was working for relocated their Operation centre to Estonia. I was offered a job at the head office in London. This would have meant a 5 day commute and working in Stratford. As a family, we did not fancy this, as I would hardly spend any time with the children (and the Mrs). So after 22.5 years, I was given a nice redundancy package and with my wife is working full time. I became the house husband.
This has meant a complete turn around in my fishing, as I can pick and choose when I go. I have found a splendid new syndicate to fish this year, which includes 5 lakes and some 8 miles of river with only 150 members. It's an amazing change to the way I am able to fish.
I am now trying to start my own tackle business and make a bit of a name for myself in the world of fishing, as I have retired from real work.
Richard
UK Carp & Coarse Fishing 