As April draws to a close and we are in the sixth week of lockdown my archives get visited to see if there are any videos that need editing or have been forgotten about. Together with a dusting down of and cleaning poles,  checking rigs and tying copious hooklengths,  the making of new floats seems a way to fill the time for a day or so but ultimately there is only so much you can do/want to do!

Bowood still features, as it is so close the wife and I walk there every other day rarely seeing more than a handful of dog walkers/ joggers/ twitchers out for their exercise like us. The sight of various deer at close quarters tends to lift the spirit somewhat and makes us feel extremely fortunate to live so close as to be able to visit so regularly during the lockdown.

In many ways this year has all been about Covid-19 for us as Gareth and family were stuck with us for 6 weeks during the height of the lockdown in China and returned a month before the lockdown here. From what we know once the central government discovered the situation they took control and acted decisively with a total lockdown not just in Hubei province, but across all provinces where there were cases. Gareth’s in-laws at the height of their lockdown were able to leave their gated community once every two days (and only one of them) to get food. Temperatures were taken on exiting and on return and shopping consisted of handing a list in at the front door of the shop and the shop keepers then making up the items in bags before bringing them to the door. No public transport was operating and cars were not permitted on the road. Even now masks outdoors are compulsory and only the secondary schools have started to reopen for some year groups. The nature of the society there meant that the people were compliant and tracking of infected people was more straightforward and diligently undertaken with subsequent testing for those who had contact with an infected person.

I suspect it will be July or later before any limited angling is allowed again but all credit to the Angling Trust for putting forward a phased plan to help get us back on the banks again. In the meantime I have rediscovered Fishsim 2, which for those uninitiated is the best and most realistic fishing simulator for the pc. I was fortunate to have several of the venues I created during the beta stage included on the original cd. Gareth had asked for an old laptop of mine to take back as he was unlikely to be able to go fishing in China on his return and was looking to use the laptop for work and also Fishsim2. Anyway this has resulted in me creating 12 new chinese venues over the last month and having virtual matches against Gareth on a weekly basis, I do well if it a small fish venue, he enjoys the big fish ones!

Anyway the archives threw up two items to include – a cheeky visitor at Rolfs, and what I will be missing at Bowood! Stay safe.