My good friend Andy Sliwa and his lovely wife visited Sue and I last week and apart from the absolute pleasure of their company Andy brought a real treat with him. We met Andy at the Antique Fishing Tackle Fair in Redditch too many years ago and he has stayed in touch with us and he and his wife came came to the opening of an exhibition of my print work in Ledbury many years ago too. Andy makes and restores beautiful fishing rods, he made my two Pike Rods but they're carbon fibre.
Anyway, Andy stayed in touch all through my Cancer treatment and recovery mentioning during one phone call a rod that he'd been given by someone who was going to throw it away and he thought I'd like it. He was dead right too.
It's a real thing of beauty, twelve foot six inch Spanish Reed with a spliced split cane tip made by H.A.Searle in Leicester and it's called the Victoria, probably by someone working out of the back of a tackle shop and perhaps just pre-or maybe post war. It's light and has a fantastic tip action and it's going to be used for Roach and Rudd in the drains and rivers where we live, it's got a new life now so we should get on well! Many, many thanks Andy.
