As promised, here is Harry´s report on his latest exploits: Continue reading
Category: Folks I know
Last week I met up with three visiting fishermen and, on Sunday, we spent a few hours on the river before going to take a look at Concepción Reservoir. I had been lucky enough to meet Simon Thompson pretty recently at the CLA game fair in Leeds. Simon is another blogger and has a great blog which, if you have not seen it already, is well worth a visit. You can reach it (I hope) by clicking on this link: http://has2btheflyway.com
Though Simon and I were no strangers to this river (we had spent an afternoon on the Guadalhorce last year) it was the first visit for the other two members of the fishing party, Simon´s brother Stuart and Jonathon, who is Simon´s long-time fishing buddy.
The boys were all set up for a week´s fishing but they seem to have been plagued with bad luck from the outset. To start off with, the heavens opened up early in the week and, not to put too fine a point on it, it absolutely pissed down. At this time of year we might get a little rain, or more likely, none at all. The torrential rain made news headlines here and there are Youtube sequences showing cars and trucks pushed through towns by the muddy waters. Continue reading
My friend Harry Abbott has fished all over the place but one of the most unusual fishing destinations has been the remote jungle rivers of Thailand. He has often told me how interesting his experiences there were, not just from a fishing point of view, but from the point of view of wildlife and culture.
He was digging around in his computer the other day and found a couple of entries from his Thailand diary and sent them over to me. They are fascinating, and he was kind enough to let me reproduce them here together with some of the photographs he took at the same time.
Take it away Harry…… Continue reading
If your meanderings through cyberspace lead you occasionally to this blog there is a good chance you will recognise the name of Harry Abbott.
Harry is one of these guys who has fly fished all over the place and caught many kinds of fish and one of his fish, an Arapaima he taken in Thailand, is one of the most strikingly beautiful fish I have ever seen. Continue reading
The pints we consumed were not celebratory as they had been the previous night but a consoling remedy after a day´s rejection by the trout of Lough Carra.
To be honest we needed little consolation. Everyone who plays the trout fishing game might expect things to be inconsistent, particularly at this time of the year but we were nevertheless surprised at how little activity we observed. Sean and Mark each had a couple of furtive rises but put these down to small fish but my own flies were untroubled over the several hours they were on the water. If we failed to catch it was not from lack of effort. We offered those damn trout everything they might have asked for, wets and dries and buzzers, and we drifted over very promising looking water. The weather conditions seemed fine. Who knows why things pan out this way sometimes. It is what it is. C´est la vie. Continue reading
I have just come from the CLA game fair at Harewood House, just outside Leeds, where I was signing copies of a book that has just been published. The publisher is Coch-y-bonddu books and they sell and print books on an enormous variety of subjects. If you are interested in fishing, hunting, working dogs, falconry, natural history and all kinds of “outtdoorsy” things they are the people to go to.
The company was set up by Paul Morgan with whom I have collaborated on the book over the last three years or so and Paul was at the fair accompanied by Luke Edwards, Jane Kelsall and Marion Griffiths who are part of the Coch-y-bonddu team. They were joined by Ken Callahan who is another bookseller from New England and a longtime friend of Paul Morgan. Ken has a fine beard but not a whole lot of hair north of his eyebrows and he reminded me a little of Charles Darwin. It has to be said that, coming from a biology teacher, saying that a person reminds them of Darwin is the highest form of praise. Ken seemed to have an encyclopaedic knowledge of the literature relevant to his work and no end of other things besides and was and was a pleasure to listen to. I´m sure the real Darwin would have had little to say about the shortcomings of American airline security or the worryingly reduced life expectations of professional American Football players. Continue reading
Harry and I headed out on Rutland again today to do battle with the trout. It was a quiet day for everyone and the fishing people back at base told us that very few fish had been taken. Harry and I had one fish apiece.
Rutland is, very crudely, a V shaped body of water with one arm north of the other and so they are called the north and south arms respectively. On the far side of where they meet, again very crudely, is the club house where boats can be hired (there are 65 of them) and you can buy a ticket to fish it. The boats float (an important design feature in my view) and have an engine at the back. You need an engine here as it is a big water – 3100 acres. Continue reading
I have just spent a day on Rutland Reservoir boat fishing with Harry Abbott. Harry used to be a mate of mine but today he caught loads of fish whereas and I caught nearly none and so now I hate him. If he were writing this blog he would be speaking about fish landed, others lost and a big lump of a trout that swam off and emptied his reel of fly line in a matter of a few seconds before the line parted. He has just headed off to bed and I bet he will be tossing and turning now and will have trouble sleeping as he relives the drama of those moments.
We never saw that fish but Harry reckons it was significantly heavier than his four pounder which was the first and best fish of the day. Continue reading
Yesterday I received a short message by email and a single attached photograph. It came all the way from British Columbia and showed the irrepressible John Langridge holding onto the tail of a fish he had just landed. This fish, a white sturgeon, was about the weight of me, my wife Catriona and our two teenage kids put together!
I have only a few details about the capture of the fish. It was taken in the Fraser River which is the longest river in British Columbia and took 45 minutes to subdue. It towed the boat along as if it were a dog being taken for a walk and was eventually landed a full mile from where it was hooked. Continue reading
There are not a whole lot of perks in my line of work but occasionally I get to hang out with attractive and intelligent young ladies. Before this can happen, of course, I need to be tidied up a bit myself. I am routinely fumigated, showered and put into a suit. Once a year they even parade me around in an academic gown ask me to pretend that lofty thoughts floating are around in my head.
As if! Continue reading
fishydreams 