My neoprene fishing boots have seen better days. They are full of rips and tears. In places they seem to be hanging on by a thread. Thinking about it, my neoprene chest waders are just as bad. I took these waders on an outing to Concepción reservoir after work on Friday and it turns out that, despite my best efforts to patch them up, they have nearly as many holes as my landing net. When I finally dragged my arse out my float tube after three hours casting to largely indifferent black bass, my legs looked like water balloons and the water sloshing around inside the waders was waist high.

In theory having holes and rips in neoprene boots may seem like no big deal. It´s not like I´m going to walk down a catwalk in these things. And of course they fill with water anyway during shallow wading and river crossings. The problem seems to be that the damage to the boots has resulted in them sucking up stones like a vacuum cleaner. These stones then roll around until they find the most tender region of the soles of the feet where they lodge. The result of all this is that walking to the river is like walking on hot coals.

I will be sad to replace these boots. We have shared many happy and intimate moments. I can remember quite well going out to buy them when I became aware that the film people from Madrid who were going to feature fly fishing on the Guadalhorce told me that they intended for me to be on the other side of the camera  (I thought I was there to provide some local guidance). I suddenly became aware that, in my usual fishing garb, I looked like some tramp dragged from a back alley. And so I tidied myself up a bit and replaced my current neoprene boots´ragged predecessors.

So soon there will be a trip to Decathlon in Málaga or Fuengirola to get a replacement pair of hard-soled neoprene boots and, while I am excited at the prospect of stone-free footwear, I can´t help feeling a little like the kind of disloyal cad who dumps his long-suffering and faithful wife to shack up with some young floozie.

Maybe I´m reading to much into all of this.

film crew

I tidied myself up and bought my boots so that I would´t embarrass myself too much when John Langridge and I were filmed on the river . This is the film crew with myself and John. From left to right: Guillermo (producer) Moi, Gustavo (driver), Fernando (driver), Raúl (director), Paco (cameraman), Juan (cameraman), John. This picture was taken at Easter 2014.

DSCF3977

These boots and I have shared some good times!