With the opportunity to get out – the wife is the substitute teacher for home-schooling today. I popped out for a few hours on my local river. I am armed with maggots, casters and some method ready pellets.
I need to sort the kit out first, as I just didn’t have the opportunity to get it sorted beforehand.
With no joy in the first swim I moved on.
I had one nibble of a maggot and that was it. I was wearing my new suit that had arrived just as lockdown set in and luckily we could still day fish locally.
I can say with out any doubt this is my best purchase. I was warm as toast inside it. I only had a polo neck t-shirt and my boxes on underneath it. When I got back in the car (4 hours later), it was reading 2 degrees and I would have been pretty cold by then normally. Unfortunately, I do suffer with the cold and just carry on regardless. But not anymore! The other interesting thing, was that my feet stayed warm, which is another issue I have.
No fish today, but I will be hopefully out again soon.
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
