My kids tell me that we are living in the 21st century. Fair enough, I will have to take their word for it. And one of the benefits of living in these enlightened times, they tell me, is that our lives are enriched by technology.
I´ve noticed this myself. If you find yourself in a social situation everyone seems to have their head buried in some little hand held device checking emails, finding out about the bowel movements of their favourite celebrity on Twitter, or just surfing the web. Boring old farts like me, who like to regale fishing stories to whoever happens to be sitting nearby, have our work cut out for us.
I don´t know what moron invented the mobile phone but this is the technological “enrichment” that I can, frankly, do without. This stupid thing makes you accessible 24 hours a day. It can come to life when you least expect it, and least want it. Down at the river I am happy with the calls of the birds or the quiet percussion of the water itself. If the phone goes off it drags you into the world you had escaped.
Today I managed to drown the damn thing. I had just released a fish and heard the splash as it fell from my breast pocket. It is not the first time the phone took a swim and it managed to revive itself the last time. Things are not looking so hopeful now. Pippa tells me that it is a good idea to put it in a bowl of rice. The rice is supposed to draw out the moisture. We´ll see.
And how was the fishing? Pretty good. The fish are holding well in the shallow inlets of pools. I managed to catch a few and I missed a few too. All the fish took little nymphs.
There were a few tethered horses standing around on the riverbank. I guess the grazing is pretty good here. I am pretty much on first name terms with some of these horses now. It was good to see a couple of hares too. There seem to be a few more of them around than there used to be, a good thing surely.
Ready to land
There were four or five fish in the shallows of the opposite side. I managed to catch two of them before the commotion put the others down.
Once hooked this fish went flying off downstream like a rocket.
fishydreams 