Category: Other bits and bobs


The Río Grande Nymph

Filed under: Fish and fishing, Flies and fly tying, Other bits and bobs — Leave a comment
November 4, 2017

If some clown comes up to you and says “listen, I´ve got this fly pattern that never fails” you should treat him with distrust. I was going to say “contempt” but that´s a bit strong. After all, the guy may be well-meaning although a bit weak in the head.

Let´s face it, anything he says should be taken with a pinch of salt. In fact you are probably better putting some distance between the two of you. He may be a decent enough chap and his intentions may be good but, fundamentally, he is not to be trusted. You probably know all this already. Continue reading →

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Felix and the Fish

Filed under: Fish and fishing, Fishing reports, Flies and fly tying, Other bits and bobs — 4 Comments
October 29, 2017

I went to El Chorro yesterday afternoon not knowing if fly fishing held any real prospects and, somewhat to my surprise, I managed to catch a lovely carp. The water level has fallen since my last visit which was perhaps 6 weeks ago and the the Río Turón was little more than a shallow trickle as it spilled into the reservoir. Continue reading →

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Painting a perch

Filed under: Other bits and bobs — 8 Comments
October 21, 2017

For some time now I have been working on a watercolour painting of a perch. I laid the keel, so to speak, back in June when I sketched a pencil outline but then the project when on hold during the summer when my “painting room” was occupied by Grandad and I succumbed to a prolonged apathy that seems to afflict everyone here during the height of the summer.

Recently though, when life was simplified by the departure of guests and the sting had come out of the summer heat, I wandered back into Grandad´s room, dug out the perch and continued to work on it. Continue reading →

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Bad news on the river

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October 20, 2017

On Wednesday we finally got some rain here. It has been a long time coming and when it did arrive it drove down with an unrelenting ferocity that, in pretty short order, turned roads into shallow rivers and gave us a few hours of chaos. It is often the way things go here. The rains, when they do come, come with a vengeance. Continue reading →

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Fishing with Colin

Filed under: Fish and fishing, Fishing reports, Folks I know, Other bits and bobs — 1 Comment
October 15, 2017

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 →

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Did you try picking up the vulture Sir?

Filed under: Fish and fishing, Fishing reports, Natural history, Other bits and bobs — 1 Comment
October 8, 2017

A very odd thing happened yesterday when I was fishing with Colin McLachlan. I was sneaking around the shore of a reservoir called Embalse de Gabriel y Galán in Extremadura when I came across a full grown griffon vulture on the slope leading to the shoreline. I had been so intent on looking for barbel in the shallows that I approached reasonably closely before I noticed. It is very unusual to see a vulture like this on the ground and there was no sign of a carcass that might have attracted it. Continue reading →

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A couple of square metres

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September 30, 2017

I have walked many kilometres of riverbank of the Río Guadalhorce over the years and have a developed a pretty good feel for the river and, particularly, the stretch that runs closest to home. I fished there this afternoon and felt that I would trade miles of this river for just a couple of square metres a shallow run which tips into a deep pool.

If you look very carefully from an elevated bank beside this run you will soon make out the shapes of good fish here. They appear and disappear in the broken mirror of the surface. If you really want to make them out clearly and, in the process, punch a little too much out of the skyline above them out they will vanish. It is that simple. Continue reading →

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News from Ireland

Filed under: Fish and fishing, Fishing reports, Folks I know, Other bits and bobs — Leave a comment
September 26, 2017

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 →

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Fishing report from Zahara

Filed under: Fish and fishing, Fishing reports, Folks I know, Other bits and bobs — 2 Comments
September 24, 2017

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 →

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A poem from Clare

Filed under: Books and stuff, Fish and fishing, Folks I know, Other bits and bobs — 2 Comments
September 21, 2017

I owe a big debt of gratitude to a friend of mine called Clare Morris who was a very inspiring Head of English at the school where I work. When I started out writing things of my own a few years ago I would run them by her and she would give me much more praise than my efforts deserved and in the process, crucially, she encouraged me to stick at it. The end result was a book, a dozen or so magazine articles and a number of comedy scripts which were delivered in the form of standup routines. Continue reading →

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