With a few family things on this weekend, I was limited to just one night. This is no real issue, as I have a week coming up soon, I wasn’t 100% sure of my chances as there had been 13 anglers here last night and only a couple headed for home. It was looking quieter for Saturday night, but still plenty of time for others to arrive, but hopefully i’ve picked an area that had been left alone for a few nights.
With the margin in this swim being pretty deep and the pads had more or less died away. There’s a good chance I can pick up a patrolling carp, the other rod is 15 wraps out in a lovely smooth area. Both rods have a good kilo of Catalyst boilies and I have chosen to fish a pop up over the silty area and a wafter on the harder margin spot.
It was a completely bleep free night, with only the Canada geese to disturb me. The early lads where off by 7am, which is a great alarm clock and it gave me some time to watch the lake, otherwise, I would still be asleep. The temperature had dropped down to 6 degrees for the first time in a few weeks and this could be the first real signs of Autumn temperature dropping.
I didn’t think my chances where that high, but you never know with fishing.
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 