I fished a lot from the early 70s to the late 80s in West London. Mostly on rivers but also canals, lakes and gravel pits.
And then I stopped due mostly to a lack of time and having a young family.
Later, in the mid 90s, while living in the West of France I took up small river fly fishing for a short time but, again, work and family got in the way and, again, I stopped.
So now I’m heading towards retirement and my work doesn’t take up much of my time, so I have a plan.
I now live in Plzeň in the Czech Republic – the only place I was ever going to retire to after my first visit (first of many) back in 1991, soon after the fall of the socialist state.
I consider myself very lucky to live here – it’s the only place I’ve ever chosen to live in, all other homes have been due to birth, family or work.
So Plzeň is my home.
My girlfriend owns a chata – a country holiday home variously translated to the english language as cottage, chalet, etc. But I think that it’s better translated as ‘cabin’ as in the American idea of a country cabin.
The chata is in a forest about 30km from Plzeň and has a small river running past it.
The river is named the Radbuza
A quick sidenote here: I mentioned fly fishing in France – and I did spend a small amount of time casting flies on the river Couesnon, but (hefty confession) I never once caught anything.
So in reality I wasn’t fishing, I was casting. However, I was casting home tied flies – a lot of which I still have and intend to use in unorthodox ways.
So, in reality, I haven’t fished for 40 years or more.
Let’s get back on the river bank and see what we can do!
