This was my very first landed carp. I had hooked a few before but was ill-equipped to land them; between myself and the tackle! Back then, I was happy to catch anything that came along, if memory serves me correctly I had had a nice pike on that day as well. I had been fishing the river which was close by and riding there on my pushbike, I then progressed to doing nights on the lakes and have never stopped since 1981.
Then I moved on to Weybread Middle Pit for a year or two.
Then back to Barham Pits for a year, until they, unfortunately, had a fish kill over the closed season and that was it.
It was then I ended up on Weybread again and stuck there until I moved down south in 1996.
I did fish the odd place in between for a short period of time but it never gave me the searching for the ‘unknown’ feeling, I’d become accustomed to.
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
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