Mark, I'm envious, but despite never having met you, I am genuinely pleased for you. I started fishing again last August after a 30 year break. About the third time I went out, I caught a 9lb mirror carp. I'd never even seen a mirror carp before. Since then I've been trying to improve on that, without success. But whilst trying, I have had a roach over 2lb, and four 5lb tench. As for carp, I've caught five more 9s, plus a few 8s and several 6s and 5s. I've not got my double yet, still less a 20, but I'll get there. Over the last 3 weeks, I've sat next to 3 blokes who caught good doubles, the biggest 16, all new pbs. Good luck to them all. I only hope that they've had as much fun trying as I am having!
Seriously though, I'm sure the main reason why anglers are (almost all) such decent and friendly people, is that we are all optimists. A pessimist could never live in hope as we ALL do.
