Category: Natural history


A Monster from British Columbia

Filed under: Fish and fishing, Fishing reports, Folks I know, Natural history — 5 Comments
July 20, 2015

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 →

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Barracuda

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July 7, 2015

John Langridge has been catching some barracuda in the Indian Ocean these last few days. They are creatures of such menace that they have carved a certain reputation for themselves.

I have never caught barracuda myself but I did have the chance to see one firsthand, in its own element, back in the days when I did a lot of scuba diving. We were in the Red Sea and I was partnered with the divemaster guy on a “livaboard” dive boat. We had spent some time suspended just off a vertical rock face that plummeted into the abyss when the divemaster fella beckoned for me to join him in the open water. Continue reading →

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What the hell is a mero?

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June 12, 2015

I was driving home from the the river today and bumped into my neighbour Andrés. He is another fisherman, just like me, except that he fishes only in the sea. I told him I was had been to the river and had caught three barbel. He asked me what kind of size they were and I used the universal gesture that indicates the length of the fish as the distance between the palms of the hands. I told him the best fish might have been a kilo and a half, mas o menos.

Then he put me to shame by pointing out that he had recently caught a “mero” of 14kg in Algeciras. “Jesus, that´s a big fish” I thought “but what the hell is a mero?” Continue reading →

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Glossy Ibis

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June 9, 2015

Last week I took a look at the Río Guadiaro in Cadiz province. It was a hot afternoon and so I decided to have a swim in the river. When I had swum a little way downstream I noticed a glossy ibis standing on the stony margin just where the pool became shallow and before it was funnelled and broken in a shallow section of fast water. It was a beautiful place this and I guess it would be relatively undisturbed since the bankside growth was difficult to pass through. The only way to get here was to swim. Since there was little of me sticking out of the water I tried to get as close as I could before frightening the ibis away and managed to come within about 8 metres of it before it decided it didn´t like the look of me and took to the air. Continue reading →

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The Night Heron and the Fish

Filed under: Natural history — 4 Comments
May 17, 2015

I came across an interesting piece of drama at the river on Saturday. It involved a night heron and some fish.

The heron was standing in water which was only a couple of inches deep, a shallow sill between one sprawling turbulent pool and another. Any fish moving upstream from one pool to the other needed to swim across this shallow ridge in water that barely covered its back and the chosen route was just where the heron was standing. When the bird became aware of my presence it took a few steps further away but resisted the urge to take flight. Presumably the heron, in the moments before I disturbed it, had been waiting for a fish of the right size to run the gauntlet before seizing it. Continue reading →

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“Snakes. Why did it have to be snakes?”

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May 15, 2015

Remember Indiana Jones? This guy was as tough as nails and he never backed out of a fight even when seriously outgunned. His chin was chiselled out of granite. If you knocked him down he just got back up again, madder than he was before. He was scared of absolutely nothing.

Except snakes. Continue reading →

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Close encounter with a snake

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May 11, 2015

I have just come back from walking the dogs and we came across snake on the path. The dogs had just trotted on and the snake was making its way from one side of the path to the other. It was a pretty little thing, maybe 40 cm long and when it rested against a wall I had a pretty good look at it. I am pretty sure it was a false smooth snake (Macroprotodon brevis). If this is what it was it is really nothing to worry about. We only have a couple of venomous species around here, the lataste´s viper and the montpelier snake.

My encounter with that little snake brought to mind a closer encounter that Steve Lawler had on Saturday evening. Continue reading →

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Nearly pissing on a partridge

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May 4, 2015

If you fish from a float tube, and are sitting in chest waders for hour on end, you will be aware that it is a good idea to go for a wee before you set sail. Very often the margins are sheer and rocky and so it becomes impractical to haul up and answer the call of nature. This is particularly true of Concepción where Steven Lawler and I set out on Saturday to do battle with black bass.

Mindful of the hard-won lesson about the need to powder one´s nose before setting out, I trotted off into the long grass this morning just as soon as I had tackled up. Continue reading →

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Red-legged partridge

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April 30, 2015

Last Tuesday I came across a red-legged partridge on the way to play squash with Nick Edwards.

I suppose I should point out, for the sake of clarity, that it was me going to play squash with Nick and not the partridge. Having said that, Nick wiped the floor with me, as he does most weeks, and I imagine the partridge would have had about the same success had it decided step in for me.

It is not at all unusual to come across these birds in the kind of open country and scrub that they favour but I was pretty surprised to come across one on the path at the Club del Sol Tennis Club! Continue reading →

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Another way of looking at things

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April 5, 2015

It just so happens that my camera is waterproof and pretty much bombproof too. I bought this particular model knowing that any camera I owned was destined to suffer physics abuse of the kind which, doled out on another human being, could well result in a lengthy prison sentence. What´s more it was only a matter of time before I dropped the damn thing in the river. If you are interested in this kind of thing, the model I chose was a Fujifilm finepix XP55 and it has served me very well.

Unfortunately I am so thick that it took me more than at a year to figure that I could use this camera to take underwater pictures of fish. It was only yesterday morning that the penny finally dropped and yesterday afternoon I went to the river looking for subjects to photograph. Continue reading →

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