LAST DECEMBER when I asked our three-year-old daughter what she would like Father Christmas to bring her, the instant response was “a fishing rod”. I immediately donned my ‘worker elf’ hat and retired to my workshop, both delighted and relieved that the request had not contained any reference to Peppa Pig. Taking the top section from an old Hardy eight-foot split-cane spinning rod that had suffered some damage lower down, I fashioned a toddler-sized tiddler-catcher, complete with full wells grip shaped from champagne corks. On
