Try as I might I just don´t seem to be able to catch carp on my river any more. I have consulted the Guinness Book of Plausible Fishing Excuses for Failing to Catch to try and find some justification for my repeated failure but there really isn´t anything suitable among the 150 billion entries in that compendium.
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If you only allowed me one month a year to fish the Río Grande I would probably ask you for March, or maybe April. The heavier rainfalls of the winter are pretty much done but the river holds a good volume of water and, if there has not been a recent shower, the river runs clear. I have never fished a chalk stream but my friends who have tell me that the Grande has many similar qualities at this time of the year. Who could ask for more from a river than that?
View full article »I noticed that a piece that I wrote was published in Fly Fishing and Fly Tying December 2020 and I had completely forgotten about it. When I looked into it I realised I had sent it to the magazine in 2010!
I´m sorry about the format. I have tidied it up a little but it still looks a bit odd. I don´t wish to blow my own trumpet here but the subject of mentors is a chapter in my book where discuss it in greater depth. It was the most personal part of the book for me.
Anyway here´s the article as published in the magazine:
View full article »I once worked with a guy who used to be in the boy scouts. He told me that his troop had to go on some long trek that involved camping and all that. In preparation the scout masters gathered all the scouts together. First up, the scouts were instructed to empty the contents of their rucksacks onto the floor. Then they were told that they needed to leave half the stuff out and to repack again. Once this had happened they were told to to the same thing again – empty the rucksack, take take half the stuff out and re-pack again. In the end they had only the very minimum needed and were not carrying an ounce more. No doubt the scout masters thought that they were imparting meaningful life lessons with all this palaver, but I don’t know if this is true. I suspect that when these boy scouts grew up they might never have got very far in terms of career progression. I can picture them turning up to job interviews wearing only their underpants.
View full article »We have this dog called Paris. I know what you´re going to say! What a dumb name for a dog! Who would even think of calling a dog Paris? Well, let me clear this up straight away. That naming business had nothing to do with us.
View full article »I came across a guy on the banks of the Río Grande on Christmas Eve who was looking after a large flock of goats. I asked him how many goats he had. He didn´t tell me. Instead he said “guess!” And so I did.
250?
He shook his head. I had to try again.
View full article »A friend of mine, Johan, has just gone and bought himself a sport fishing boat! She is christened “Impi” and is moored on the Island of La Gomera, one of the Canary Islands, sitting way out there in the middle of the Atlantic ocean. Johan´s idea was to create a charter operation to allow people like himself to have a chance to get out into the ocean and fish for some of the most iconic sport fish that you can find anywhere.
View full article »This article was published under the heading “Feet on the Ground” by Fly Fishing and Fly Tying monthly, August 2020.
I remember seeing an advert for a pair of wading boots one time. It was in a magazine, this one maybe, a few years ago. The details have receded a little into the mist but I remember clearly enough that the advert featured a picture of a particular brand of boots worn by some guy who happened to find himself in some kind of social setting, maybe a cocktail bar or somewhere similar. You couldn´t see who was wearing the boots because the picture spanned only the distance between knee-level and the floor. The guy wearing the boots was not alone in the photo. Just in front of him and facing towards him was a pair of slender and shapely legs supported on elegant stiletto heels.
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