The 63-year-old left his job as a national accounts manager at Carquest Auto Parts in Virginia and moved to Florida for the sole purpose of casting and reeling.
But he remains a snowbird and spends his summers up north and his winters in White Springs in Hamilton County.
“The whole area has been impacted,” he said Thursday while fishing on the banks of Lake Eagle in White Springs, “and I’m just not catching fish.” Yet after the 2.74 inches rain so far this week, a number tallied at the Gainesville Regional Airport, fishing conditions seem to be looking up.
Chandler and his friend Robert Wolf, 71, headed straight for Eagle Lake Thursday following the rain.
But this may change thanks to the rain.
“We love sharing the lakes so that people can use them and so all these things,” he said, “but we have to temper that with making sure we don’t mess up anything environmentally.” The rain comes as some parts of North Central Florida have been seeing severe-drought conditions, said Amanda Holly, a WUFT News forecaster.
But those parts are now in a moderate drought at worst, she said.
The only counties still in severe droughts are in southern Central Florida.
“Fishing isn’t a matter of luck.
“But you can’t fish if you don’t have water.”