fishydreams

There are a few places, Florida among them, where fly fishermen may, on rare occasions succeed in catching, on the same day, at least one specimen of three different species; bonefish, tarpon and permit. This is a feat for celebration and entitles the successful angler to wear a smug grin that seems almost painted on his face. His mates slap him on the back. People buy him drinks. For a while he considers himself an equal among the supernatural forces of the universe. And he pulls up a stool next to a bowl of peanuts at the pantheon of the gods.

The way my luck usually turns out I would never get a chance to join this elite group (not the gods, the guys who achieve the saltwater “Grand Slam”) even if I could secure, by means of a lottery win, embezzlement, or armed robbery, the kinds of funds needed to spend a week or two sea fishing in the tropics.

I have nevertheless a little “Grand Slam” of my own, albeit a little less “Grand” which I achieved yesterday, only for the second time; catching a carp, a barbel and a black bass on the same visit to Concepción Reservoir.

If the world were a little more like the way I would have it, I would have returned home vía a parade through Marbella, waving at the crowds from an open top Bentley, while an army of catwalk models would flutter their eyelashes at me and suggest we go somewhere a little more “private” so I could tell them the details of my captures.

The world isn´t like that. There were no crowds and now there´s just you and me. And so, since you are obviously have nothing better to do, I will tell you all about my little “slam”.

The carp was a fluke although I like to flatter myself by thinking that I caught it because I was fishing methodically. I had no idea it was there when it decided to chomp down on an outsize fly intended for bass. I was very lucky that I was able to haul out and beach it because Concepción has very few such places. I just so happened to hook it close to one.

The barbel was taken in the gin clear Río Verde were it feeds into the reservoir. It weighed about a pound and a half and took a little nymph. I unhooked it mid stream and let it off without troubling it for a photo.

Ironically it was the bass that proved the most difficult. I am beginning to have serious doubts about my ability to catch these things. Christ knows, I covered plenty of water and cast into a lot of “bassy” water. I did hook a token tiddler on the first leg of my journey to the river inlet but it promptly threw the hook. On the return leg I had one and another couple that came off.

But I did manage to get one, fair and square, in the end. This modest fish did however inducted me into my own private Hall of Fame:

“Paul Hogan (two time Grand Slam winner, Concepción Reservoir)”

Now where are the peanuts?

One down – two to go!

Where the river flows into Concepción the water is very clear. It is really beautiful here and there are quite a few fish to be seen.