A highlight of our recent visit to Japan was getting to see cormorant fishing on the Uji River which runs through Uji city in Kyoto. We came across this opportunity by chance, having climbed nearby to see the macaques on a nearby hilltop (these are monkeys famously seen bathing in hot springs during the depths of winter). Having worked up quite a sweat we decided to “chill” for a little while aboard a little hired rowing boat on the river nearby. It was only when we returned our boat that we came across a poster advertising boat trips to witness the ancient tradition of fishing with cormorants. We decided that we would return to do so the next evening.
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I spent last week with a group of school kids and a few colleagues in Doñana which, if you are not familiar with it, is an important National Park in Huelva Province on Spain´s southern Atlantic coast. Doñana is particularly famous for the population of Iberian Lynx which thrive there and a breeding centre located here has been instrumental in bringing these endangered felines back from the brink of extinction.
Continue readingA couple of weeks ago I had a day off and my wife Catriona was away for her work. So it occurred to me that I could do a lot worse than head off fishing in the Conde del Guadalhorce reservoir at El Chorro and have a crack at the carp that occasionally venture into the shallow margins.
Continue readingYesterday morning I took my little trio of newly-tied carp flies to the reservoir at El Chorro to see whether I might come across a carp to tell me whether or not they were up to scratch. As mentioned previously, the carp here may or may not put in an appearance. They´re kind of moody.
Continue readingYesterday we returned from the coast with some shopping in the back of the car and, as we normally do, went to and fro a couple of times between the car and the house carrying the bits and pieces we picked up. It was only as the last of these short errands were completed that I glanced over to a wall at the end of the house and noticed a mountain goat standing on it. It seems likely that it had been standing there all along.
Continue readingSean and I spent a few hours fishing Lough Guitane in County Kerry on our last fishing day together last week. Guitane is about 10 km from Killarney and, at over a mile in length, it is a reasonably big lough, though it will raise few eyebrows in the west of Ireland.
Continue readingA weird thing happened today. There was this dead rabbit lying on the ground next to the fence of our property. I noticed it as Catriona and I were walking by. And then later on, the next time I went there, it was gone.
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