fishydreams

I suppose there is a good number of reasons to go fishing but one, which comes close to the top of many of our lists, is that fishing allows you to get away from other people for a little while and this is probably something we all need to do from time to time.

So few people fish my local river that seeing another fisherman, let alone another fly fisherman, is pretty unusual. So yesterday I was rather surprised to see someone fly fishing the river at the point I first join it after a little trek through the citrus groves of the Guadalhorce Valley. This fella was accompanied by a young lady and seemed pretty focused on what he was doing and so I did not draw attention to myself and wandered off downstream.

My usual habit here is to walk downstream, usually well off the river, and then work my way back upstream to my starting point. Invariably a few fish will reveal themselves on the downstream leg and it often tempting to have a pop at them. Yesterday I took two fish in this manner. But when working back upstream I came across another fly fisherman crouched down and fishing a nice little margin where I hoped to target a carp. Damn! I gave him a wide berth and wandered up to some shallow riffles but realised that if I fished there I would very likely be landing the fish downstream quite close to this guy and so I thought the better of it. As it happened there was another guy fishing close by. Jesus! What was going on?

And so I give this second guy a wide berth too, deciding on another run further upstream. Guess what? The bloke fishing with the girl was there!

It was like Picadilly Circus! I figured I needed to bugger off to somewhere a little less crowded and as I left I noticed a FOURTH fly fisherman a little upstream of the last one. Holy mother of God!

Upstream of the old iron bridge of Estación de Cártama I found the solitude I was looking for. The river was pretty coloured and it was difficult to see anything more than a few inches but I was fortunate enough to come across a couple more barbel. It seems that they like to move out of the fast flows into the pools as the evening falls and if you are in the right position you can wait for them to show up. Then it´s a question of being lucky enough to catch one or two as the light begins to fail.

This is one of a couple of gypsy barbel taken before the crowds descended!

That´s more like it! There are some lovely little pools a kilometre or so upstream of Estación de Cártama. The last time I was here though I was with Steven Lawler and the two of us were nearly eaten alive by flies!