After my last trip and seeing all the carp in the bay, that was clearly not interested in feeding. I felt the only option was to come back that night and find out if they feed in there once night arrived.
As its quite close to home, I took the youngest and left the eldest with one of her friends and the wife came by and collected her. This gave me the ability to set up in daylight without rushing around or with a head torch on. I just hoped this would make a difference.
Now, that was a real learning curve. I really expected to catch and they were certainly a few fish about when I got there and a few crashed out early evening. Then they must have just bugged out.
And a pleasant night on the bank was had, with a 6 am pack up.
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