Paul Reddish and I were in Cervera de Pisuerga the other day, a mountain town in the province of Palencia in northern Spain. We paused briefly on the street to count how many griffon vultures were circling overhead. We more or less agreed on our best guess — twenty-five and then, when we lowered our gaze again to street level, to our surprise, we found ourselves staring straight into the window of a fishing tackle shop.
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Paul Reddish and I took a trip along the Pisuerga River yesterday, meeting the river in Aguilar de Campoo and following it upstream towards its source in the Cantabrian Mountains. The road can only take you so far — we pretty much ran out of tarmac in the little village of Santa María de Redondo, home to dogs that sleep in the street and begrudgingly allow you to drive on. There’s an ample car park for those who want to hike further, but it was a little late in the day for us to do that. That hike follows the course of the river initially before separating, but it eventually leads to the river’s source, said to be a spring called Fuente Cobre.
Continue readingWe have just come back from a hike up the tops of some of the peaks that we had seen when previously walking the caminito del Rey, Andalucia´s famous cliff edge walking path. There were three of us, my daughter Pippa, myself and Sable the black labrador that, you may recall, had disgraced herself during her audition as my fishing companion. Today, to her credit, she did not put a foot wrong and was excellent company throughout. She is knackered now though, and is fast asleep at my feet.
Continue readingI doubt anybody would suggest that brown trout are among the intellectual giants of the animal kingdom but my brother Sean and I are both prepared to admit that they are a good deal smarter than either of us. It was predominantly the fish of the River Lee, one of Sean´s home rivers, that made us aware of our relative cerebral shortcomings.
Continue readingI was a little surprised when fishing the upper river Ebro at how abundant the barbel were. This area I had imagined would be home primarily to trout. The river source is not far away and the water is cold, just the way trout like it. But the barbel are here in good numbers and it is lovely just to watch these fish in the clear river water. Armed with a fly rod, however much fun they were to observe, I could not resist having a crack at catching one. As a result I have been fortunate enough to look at these fish from up close and they are absolutely stunning.
Continue readingYesterday I returned from a few days in Reinosa which is in the far north of Spain in the province of Cantabria where Catriona and I had been staying for a few days. Work beckons again on Monday and so I made an appointment with Cristina who cuts hair in the local town and asked her to tidy me up a little.
Continue readingLast week while Catriona and I were exploring the north of Spain, my brother Sean managed to sneak off to do a little bass fishing back in Ireland. He managed to catch himself a lovely fish and sent a picture to me on Whatsapp.
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fishydreams 