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In their eyes if they are given the power to decide it can show it has power by not doing what others want! English heritage has such power so they close the bridge in the village for repairs for far longer than necessary just because they can! Give worthless bits of skin power and they WILL use it

I agree with both cameraman and phone, it can be fantastic, but would advise a degree of caution. I would talk it over with your wife, check your finances, and how much early retirement would impact your final pension. I don't think you drive, so check where you can get to a water either on foot, public transport, or have a fishing friend you could travel with. I didn't have transport, having had the use of a company vehicle for so long. I bought a car to enable me to go fishing, and carry my grandson, (who was born a month after my retirement), to the many hospital visits he needed in his first couple of years. Without my grandson, or the car, I think I would have stagnated at home, but they got me moving, and gave me something to focus on. My wife is one of the 'waspies' that got stung over her retirement age, and is still working. I run her to work and back each day, but she has the option to retire this year, and is undecided whether to go part time, or retire completely. It's partially the money, but unlike me, she loves her work, and the social life with her workmates. That's another thing that I would consider, whether you would prefer to take a small part time job, to ease you into retirement, it's worked for a few people I know. We are all different, and have different needs, and lifestyles. I, for instance, have always been a bit of a loner, with just a few people that I would call friends, and I was mostly fine with my own company. Over the years, I have lost contact with many people, especially angling friends who chose a different 'commercial' path to me. I now find that I sometimes miss having them around, it's probably an age thing. I might sound all 'doom and gloom', but I've known many people over the years, who have longed for retirement, but found that the idea, and the reality, don't always match. They have found themselves 'lost', and have fallen into depression. Some have eventually found something to focus on, be it part time work, a hobby, and in the case of a widower neighbour, a new lady friend. Other have not been so lucky, and have deteriorated both physically, and mentally, into a 'different' person. I hope it doesn't sound like a 'trying to teach my grandma to suck eggs' thing, I genuinely believe it's not always an easy thing to adapt to. Whatever you decide Martin, I hope it works out well for you, and your missus. John.

There's a bit about the new licences here --> https://www.anglersnet.co.uk/news/angling-legend-john-wilson-mbe-honoured-with-new-rod-licence-images/

Yup, that's the one Ian. The fish we used to catch in the Leeds Liverpool canal when I was a kid, were nearly all afflicted with this parasite, and in severe cases, they were blinded. Some were blind in one eye, some in both, and other than the blindness they looked healthy enough. It used to fascinate us how a completely blind roach, could still find our baits, but they did. The canal was almost over run with snails. If you picked something from the canal bed, it always had several snails on it. Leave a keepnet, or landing net in the water for a while, and you would find several attached when you lifted it out. The water also had a lot of gulls patrolling the lengths, so had all three of the requirements to complete the life cycle of the worm. When I've fished it in recent years, I've found that the snails are not there in such numbers, and the black spot is seen on fewer fish. There are also some waters I know, where there are loads of snails, but few fish with that with black spot. I don't know if there is a specific snail that is prone to carrying the parasite, or it's the water quality that curbs it's numbers, but there seems to be fewer waters that have are as affected as the canal used to be. John.

Thanks Phone, the black spot on the gill plate is some kind'a wormy parasite that lives in the fish's guts.i think the black spots are cycts containing young worms, maybe eggs, I don't know antthing else about them. You often see the spots on roach also. As far as i'm aware it doesn't kill the fish. Maybe if they get infested with the worms it might become serious...? I'e just looked it up on google and apparently its a worm that lives in birds, they crap out it's eggs which hatch as worms, then the worms go and penetrate snails etc. The fish eat the snails and the worms attatch to the fish as cycts. When the fish is eated by a bird the cycle repeats itself.

Everything Mr Phone says is true. Absolutely. Except I wasn't on 6 figures unless you included the pennies.