On saturday afternoon I fished the Guadalhorce river. The fishing was good and I managed to coax a fair few barbel out of the river. Most of these were taken pretty conventionally – one on a dry fly and the rest on nymphs. The one fish that stood out was one that was not in the river at all but swimming around on the grass outside. Continue reading
Category: Fish and fishing
On Monday I fished the river with three fly fishermen from South Africa who were keen to get acquainted with the Río Guadalhorce´s gypsy barbel. One of these, Johan Terblanche, now lives in Luxembourg and is a fellow veteran of a previous campaign on Istán, where we fished for black bass. Yesterday we were also joined by his brother Wian and friend Pieter, who are in Spain ostensibly on business but everyone knows the main purpose of their trip was to have a crack at the gypsy barbel! Continue reading
Spending their days in clear shallow water, the gypsy barbel on my local river live lives that, compared most freshwater fish, are subject to public scrutiny. They may find keeping secrets a more difficult task to pull off than the fish of deep or muddied waters, but they remain nevertheless mysterious creatures. Continue reading
It´s not quite summertime yet and it may be a little early yet for the cotton to be high, but fish are certainly jumping. On the way back from fishing on Saturday, I came across some gypsy barbel on the Guadalhorce who treated me to to a fine display of their aerial acrobatics. Continue reading
The fish on the Río Grande must have nerves of steel. On the face of it, theirs might appear a pretty chilled existence, but things are not always as they seem. The world seems to conspire against them. Not only does the protracted summer heat suck most of the water out of the river, marooning the barbel in isolated pools, but even in the good times they are subject to noisy intrusions on their lives. Not only do you get guys like me sneaking up on them trying to ruin their afternoons by fooling them into taking a little artificial nymph, but there are cars and farm vehicles motoring across the shallows and goats being driven from one side of the river to the other. Continue reading
At this time of year I am deep in armchair fishing mode. The forecast here is for a weekend of rain. My local river will be colouring up now and the fish will be sulking.
I imagine that I am joined, while in armchair mode, by the vast majority of the world´s fly fishermen who, I imagine, live predominantly in the northern hemisphere. They are likely to be pacing around now annoying their wives and waiting for the onset of the spring and the prospects of a new season. Continue reading
Harry Abbott, my old partner in crime, is down in New Zealand at the moment. He has just been over to Lake Onslow on the trail of the fat brown trout that swim around there. Unfortunately the weather is against him and it is unseasonably cold. After 3 hours or so of misery he threw in the towel. Continue reading
My brother Sean has just gone off and bought himself a kayak. How this came about is an amusing story in itself. Out of the blue came an unexpected windfall from his work. It was not a fortune, by any means, but it was enough to allow him to go and buy himself a pretty respectable kayak.
So he turns up at the shop and then sees an even better one – much better! And for just a little bit more. He had been given clearance by his long- suffering wife to use the unexpected bonus to make a one-off purchase but, of course, she was not around when he decided to upgrade to an all-singing, all-dancing kayak with the necessary accessories. Continue reading
It´s that time of the year now when most of us abandon any thoughts of fishing. The rods are stowed away somewhere. Maybe there is a decent fishing book on the go, or a few flies to tie up, but otherwise things have gone quiet.
Personally, I have my feet up on the coffee table and am eyeing up a box of biscuits doing the rounds of the living room. After that I might send my son Leo into the kitchen to procure a beer for me. Continue reading
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