Welcome to Fishydreams.com
My name is Paul Hogan and my primary interests are fly fishing and, in recent times, in writing. I am an occasional contributor to Fly Fishing and Fly Tying Monthly and am presently writing a book on the subject of fly fishing and the various things that go with it which I hope will be published in the next few months. I also have an interest in painting watercolour fish and dabble from time to time in stand up comedy.
When not fooling around pursuing these interests I am a Science teacher living in Andalucía in the south of Spain and have a beautiful and tech-savvy wife, Catriona, who created this blog for me. We have two teenage kids, Leo and Pippa.
fishydreams 
Hi Paul
Had a nice read of your times spent fishing, im interested in fishing the lake at Istan as i have a kayak, would be nice to catch a few black bass as fishing for carp there is a bit hard due to bank space. I have fly fished for pike before but never caught a bass. I mostly fish for carp at ardeles el chorro lakes. I think i will be trying to do some spinning first at Istan, can you tell me where is best to put the kayak in and any tips i should know about this lake. Also i see your fishing for barbel and wondered which rivers you fish as they look nice and its very hard to find some nice waters to fish here in Andalucia, who knows i still have my fly rod and may even get back in to fly fishing. Any help you can give me would be great. I would really like to find some spots on rivers here, i promise to keep them to myself :o) by the way im living in Mijas Costa so maybe we might even meet up on the lake one day for some fishing together.
Regards Carl
Hi Carl,
Thanks for your message.Since you and I live pretty close to one another maybe we should hook up and head off to Istan and do a bit of black bass fishing? I can show you where I head out in my float tube and I´m sure you could launch a kayak there.Then we can have a chat about the river and things.I´ll tell you what – I will send you an email to the email address you have given and we can make some plans.
Many thanks for the interest you have shown in the blog.
All the best,
Paul
I nominated you for the Liebster Award: an award for blogs to help discover them and what not… anyways, the instructions are up on my blog: http://starguyblog.wordpress.com/2014/12/23/liebster-award/
Good luck 🙂
Hi Star Guy, thanks for your nomination and enjoy China with Mathblogger101!
Best wishes to you both for the coming year and keep up the good work on the blogs!
Hi Paul
I came across your blog when searching for Zahara. I am staying in Montecorto for 2 weeks in June 2015 and the lake looks so fishy. I am having trouble with the licence issue. As I understand it as I have a UK licence I can obtain a licence online at Telelicencia and I don’t need the NIR. Do you know if this is correct? Also do you need a permit to fish Zahara? I can’t find anything about it online. Any advice you can provide would be gratefully received.
Cheers
Tim
Hi Tim, I´m afraid I´m not sure how it works with the licence. For us “natives” in Andalucía to get a fishing licence you need to have completed some course and to take out a special insurance policy. I did not have to take the course myself thankfully as I had an “old” licence but I did need the insurance policy. In different regions of Spain the rules are different. In some provinces you can just get a licence over the internet or pick one up somewhere. Tell you what, I will forward your question on to my mate Norman Smith who knows everything about fishing here and I will let you know what he says. Best wishes, Paul.
Hi Tim, my friend Norman is currently in the UK but he replied to my question and I have pasted his words below:
“With regard to the enquiry about fishing licences I am afraid that I am in a similar situation to your goodself. We have had licences for almost forty years and have just kept renewing them. In fact it is even easier now as since we reached 65 we do not even have to pay for them. I have heard about the online method of application but have no personal experience regarding its use. I am pretty certain that no additional permit is required to fish in Zahara and the nasty fuzz did not ask for one when they gave us the bums rush.”
Hi Paul – I’ve fished Istan a few times and will be down (flying in tonight) – would be nice to have a chat / pick your brain – can I call you (feel free to email your tel number to my email)?
Hi. Thanks for your message. I am having some some technical problems with my computer so sorry about the delayed response. By all means give me a shout on 0034 625134316 or email me at paulmhogan@hotmail.com
Hey Paul,
Johan (of Luxembugger fame) shared his experience with me, quite interesting fishing you have there.
Do you have more info about it available?
Cheers,
Eric , Luxembourg
Hi Eric, I do most of my fishing locally and mainly on the river I fished with Johan. Most of my own experiences are on the blog but there are plenty of good bits of information online if you do a little detective work. One good port of call might be flyfishingandalucia.com
Cheers, Paul
Hi Paul
I have just finished reading your book. Dry River:Flyfishing Tales which I enjoyed immensely. As a casual flyfisher Zoologist and Biology teacher I realised we have a lot in common. My brother lives in Madrid and a couple of years ago we did a road trip together and I remember well seeing some huge barbel in a reservoir near Caceres which your book reminded me off. I had thought it odd at the time seeing barbel in a flooded river valley but your book put it all into context.
Regards
Darrel
Hi Darrel, many thanks for your message. I´m delighted you enjoyed the book. I´m always very happy when someone gets in touch to say they enjoyed it. So far the people who have not enjoyed have not been in touch to say so! There are lots of barbel here in Spain and with 9 species we are kind of European barbel epicentre. I have caught 3 species so far and I have some way to go. I know one guy who has caught all 9 and another who has caught 6 so I have some catching up to do! I remember fishing around Caceres myself and it is a really good area. Anyway, it´s lovely to hear from you and thanks again for getting in touch.
Take good care. Looking forward to reading your blog in the near future.
Thanks
Many thanks!
Hi Paul, would you have an email I could contact you on?
Thank you!
Hi Edie. Sure! paulmhogan@hotmail.com