Divorced carper turns wedding bands into handy net clip

A carp angler who fished so much his bored wife divorced him melted down her wedding ring to form a net clip.
Alan Curtis admitted he was on the bank ‘almost every night’ before his partner ditched him. Not wishing to waste the valuable jewellery, he decided to turn the metal into a useful clip to keep his net in place when not in use.
“I just wanted to fish,” said Alan. “I was a bailiff at the time and fishing almost every night.
“She left me on the grounds of abandonment and I thought I’d melt the ring down, add a bit of gold and turn it into a net clip. It gets a great reaction on the bank when people see it and I tell them about it.
“There’s been no contact between me and my ex-wife so she doesn’t know about it.”
Alan’s quirky piece of tackle was spotted by carp tutor Adam Penning when the pair fished together at Ladywell Fishery in Essex earlier this month.
“I asked Adam what he thought it was made of,” said Alan. “He couldn’t believe it when I said it was the old wedding ring.”
The clip was created 15 years ago and Alan, who has since remarried, says his fishing/life balance is much more in check these days.
“I was just desperate to go fishing at the time,” said the Cambridgeshire rod who grew up carping in the Lea Valley.
“I still love it and was recently working back down in Essex and doing two nights a week in between, but it’s a bit trickier now the nights are drawing in.”