I have just come back from the river after spending a very fine afternoon fishing with Paul Reddish. Paul is excellent company and is a very accomplished fly fisherman. Today we were accompanied by Paul´s wife Fiona and her sister Shona who is over from Australia. Continue reading
Category: Folks I know
On Saturday a bunch of us went on a long walk that took us to the top of a mountain called La Concha. All told, we covered about 17km over pretty unforgiving terrain, often in single file. I suppose you should work on your fitness before such an undertaking but I thought it best to prepare by sitting on the sofa with my father in law and watching Bear Grylls on the telly!
Bear Grylls tells us that drinking urine is a convenient substitute for coffee when out in the wilderness and there is nowhere to plug in a kettle (and of course it has no caffeine!) and that eating rabbit droppings is just a simple question of mind over matter: just pop them in your mouth and imagine they´re maltesers! Continue reading
The Spanish TV program that featured John Langridge and myself fishing on the Guadalhorce was aired a little while back and I put a link on the blog to allow people to see it. That link appears to have been deactivated in some way but Colin McLachlan tells me that it is now up and running once again. Here it is if you would like to have a look:
http://www.rtve.es/alacarta/videos/jara-y-sedal/jara-sedal-barbos-del-guadalhorce/4310751/
Please let me know if you try it and it doesn´t work. Assuming it does I hope you enjoy it!
The program features gypsy barbel fishing in Malaga´s Río Guadalhorce.
I don´t know about you but I´ve spent the Christmas period sitting on my arse with my feet up on the coffee table. I noticed that some idiot left an open box of Quality Street lying around. They won´t do that again in a hurry!
This shameful self-indulgence is tolerated and even encouraged at this time of year and usually acts as a catalyst to sign up to healthy new year´s resolution like marathon running, cross-channel swimming, mountain climbing or at least taking the dogs for a walk. Continue reading
One of the great benefits of the blog, as far as I´m concerned, is that it has introduced me to a new extended family made up of other fly fishermen and like-minded souls. Many live overseas and have been in touch from time to time. Others I have had a chance to meet up with in person, often on the river bank. Continue reading
You may be aware, following the recent screening of an episode of “Jara y Sedal” that I have become a major A list film star! As a matter of fact I am waiting by the phone for the calls that should come in from Hollywood agents as I write this!
In one of my regular tongue-in-cheek exchanges with my beloved wife I said that I hope that fame does not change me. She said simply “I hope it does!” Continue reading
Three years ago a film crew from Madrid drove down to my local river to make a film about fly fishing for gypsy barbel. The makers of the popular TV series “Jara y Sedal” had been in touch with John Langridge, a veteran of several fishing programmes and author of many books on fishing, and they asked of he would like to be part of a feature on the Río Guadalhorce. Continue reading
Last weekend I drove up to Trujillo to spend some time fishing with Colin McLachlan. It was a hell of a drive and my wife thought I was crazy. The last time Colin and I crossed paths was also in Trujillo when Steven Lawler and I drove up in April 2016. On that occasion Colin was on a fishing trip with Dave Felce and Fred Carrie. This time round the other guys could not make it so it was just the two of us. Continue reading
My brother Sean and my friend Mark McCann are my longest serving fishing buddies. We try to get together every year or two to wet a line together and sink a few pints each evening to celebrate success or commiserate failure, whichever is a suitable response to the events of the day. Continue reading
Yesterday I drove for an hour and a half to catch a single fish that would not have looked out of place in a can of sardines. The reservoir from which I extracted this modest organism was Embalse Zahara el Gastor and it lies close to the town of Zahara de la Sierra in Cádiz which is nestled in the hills of Andalucía in the province of Cádiz. Continue reading
