I tend to use the car radio as a predictor of the quality of the fishing. If Kiss FM comes up with a string of decent tunes I feel confident that the fish will be biting and things are going to pan out just fine.
Today I slapped on the radio and out came Material Girl by Madonna. I should have just done a U turn there and then.
“Some boys kiss me, some boys hug me
I think they’re O.K.
If they don’t give me proper credit
I just walk away”
For Christ´s sake, what a load of crap!
You may gather from this that I am not a Madonna fan but that´s not quite true. I believe that Madonna is a source of inspiration to young people and, better than anybody, demonstrates that lack of talent need not be an impediment to fame and wealth.
If Madonna is reading this blog, and I imagine she does, I hope she is not upset by what I have written. To be honest I really don´t think that Madonna and the me would ever be best buddies anyway. After all only “boys who save their pennies” make her rainy day.
The fishing on the river turned out to be hopeless. The carp and barbel showed not the slightest interest in my nymph. I don´t imagine fish are able to laugh but I pretty much got the impression that that was what they were doing. I couldn´t blame them. Madonna had earlier sealed my fate and there was nothing that I could do.
On the way back to the car I bumped into a man out mountain biking with his son. He was a really nice guy. We nattered a little about the river and he pointed out that he and his son had seen a biggish darkish thing with four legs that he thought might be an otter. I guess it could have been although I have never seen an otter here. I thought maybe it was a mongoose but did not suggest this because I had forgotten the Spanish work for mongoose which I thought might come in handy in communicating this idea.
At the celebrated Cafetería Europa the lady who served me my café con leche told me the name of their parrot. It is Lucas. It was nice to see him again although I noticed that just as on my last visit, he was not in sparkling form. Maybe Lucas too was under Madonna´s curse.
Does it matter that you catch nothing when you go fishing? Not really. I have long since realised that no one is particularly interested in whether catch fish or not when I head out. Back at home nobody even asks.
A more interesting question is this: if you were to go out fishing and you knew that you would catch nothing, would you still go? Today´s answer to this one is emphatically “yes.” After all I met a couple of very nice people, got to discover the name of a parrot, saw a bunch of birds and got to start thinking about otters. And the carp and the barbel, even though unimpressed by even my best efforts, were probably doing me a big favour. They were reminding me of an important lesson that we learn and relearn many times, that nothing can be taken for granted.
In this stretch the barbel were in and among the trailing vegetation. A careful cast would allow these fish to see, and then ignore, your fly!
By the time I had taken this photo a whole bunch of turtles had dropped into the river. These ones were a little slow off the mark.
There were a few bee eaters knocking around. These beautiful birds will soon be off to Africa.
Lucas
fishydreams 