I would go fishing quite regular especially during the school holidays, and when I took my holidays from work. Living in Walsall, there was no shortage of canals to fish. My mate Paul Hitchcox also liked to fish, and we would strap our fishing gear to our bicycles and head off early morning to either the local canals or off to Sutton Park, we even cycled with all our fishing gear strapped to our bikes all the way to Burton on Trent to fish the River Trent, all we caught was a couple of very small fish (I cannot remember what they were), as always we just enjoyed each others company and being out for the day.

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When I moved to Andover, my fishing continued, going to numerous venues with my new friends Paul Ryan and one of my walking friends Ray Blake to name a few.

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One venue which we kept going to, was a small pond called Golden Pond near Chilbolton near Andover. This pond looks like someone has got a section of canal and damed each end. It has 16 swims. We spent some great days and nights there, catching regulary. For a change we would also fish Charlton Lake, also in Andover.

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Then for some reason I stopped going fishing, this went on for a number of years, then I was short of cash, and decided to sell my fishing gear, which was just taking up space in the shed! I put it all on ebay with a low start price, thinking it would attract attention as there was well over a £1000 worth of gear, in the end some lucky bugger got all my gear for £150.... I was gutted, but needed the cash!

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So move on 20ish years, and I decided to get back into fishing. As you can see above, fishing gear isn't cheap, so while still on furlough due to the Covid pandemic, I started to buy some gear, starting off with the esentials, rod and reel, and then buying other gear over the space of around a year. I have this year (2022) started fishing again, oh how I have missed it!! I do not care if I don't catch anything, it's a bit like my outlook on walking, being able to relax and forget your worries,and lose yourself in your own thoughts.

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My favourite way to fish is using a feeder quiver rod, this is where you pack a feeder cage with groundbait and have your bait on a hook length, or using a method feeder, this is where you compress your hook bait into the groundbait, and when this has settled on the bottom of the lake/pond, the groundbait disperses, and leaves your hookbait in amongst the dispersed groundbait (a much more accurate way of feeder fishing).

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The 1st place I tried in Leeds was a complex called None Go Bye Fishing Ponds, I was told of this place by a coworker. I enjoyed my days fishing, but only caught a very small Roach.