My fly box has become a matter of great personal shame and I would be mortified if you, or anyone else, were to look inside it. Mercifully, there is little chance of that happening because it tends to be so well hidden that nobody is likely to come across it. Half of the time I have no idea where the thing is myself!
Continue readingCategory: Published fishing writing
There is a lough halfway up a mountain that we simply call the “Mountain Lough”. The word “lough” is overstating things a little because it is nothing like the expansive bodies of water you might first imagine when you think of the loughs of the west of Ireland. I guess we are even overstating things when we say it is on the flank of a “mountain” because it would not stand out in the general topography of this landscape as anything particularly worthy of note. It is high enough, though, to sap the strength from your legs as you climb the boggy slope and your boots sink into the sphagnum moss as though you were making your way over a giant sloping sponge. The climb will certainly take enough of your strength to make you stop once or twice to take in some air and this gives you a chance to turn your back to the mountain and, if the skies permit, to look out over vast tracts of green fields and the reflected silver of other small loughs and, distantly, the river Shannon.
Continue readingI have no time for Harry Potter. None. This makes me an anomaly in a house full of Potter fanatics. Everyone here has read every book a zillion times and seen all of the films. My daughter has been listening to one of the audio books at X 0.6 speed so that the experience can go on for longer, ideally forever. She even sat me down the other day to find out which of Hogworth´s four houses my personality profile would match me to. I needed to answer a series of questions until a virtual sorting hat algorithm decided that I was Gryffindor, just like HP himself.
Continue readingPaul Daniels used to have this magic kettle. It would pour out anything that anybody wanted. I am not just making this up. It is true. I saw it on the telly. When he told the audience that the modest metal kettle he had in his hand could dispense any drink that anybody might want, everyone was sceptical. Why not? Who wouldn’t be?
Continue readingThis article was published in Fly Fishing and Fly Tying Monthly, December 2024
Hey! I have some good news for you. You know how you don´t catch as many fish as anyone else? Come on, let´s face it. It´s true! The same is true of me and I understand that this can result in envy and a deep sense of personal worthlessness. You don´t think you´re that bad? Come on! Just look at the rest of the pages in this magazine. Check out the amazing flies everyone else is tying – way better than yours! And then there are the fish everyone else is hauling out – more than you ever catch, way bigger too.
Continue readingI noticed that a piece that I wrote was published in Fly Fishing and Fly Tying December 2020 and I had completely forgotten about it. When I looked into it I realised I had sent it to the magazine in 2010!
I´m sorry about the format. I have tidied it up a little but it still looks a bit odd. I don´t wish to blow my own trumpet here but the subject of mentors is a chapter in my book where discuss it in greater depth. It was the most personal part of the book for me.
Anyway here´s the article as published in the magazine:
Continue readingThis article was published under the heading “Feet on the Ground” by Fly Fishing and Fly Tying monthly, August 2020.
I remember seeing an advert for a pair of wading boots one time. It was in a magazine, this one maybe, a few years ago. The details have receded a little into the mist but I remember clearly enough that the advert featured a picture of a particular brand of boots worn by some guy who happened to find himself in some kind of social setting, maybe a cocktail bar or somewhere similar. You couldn´t see who was wearing the boots because the picture spanned only the distance between knee-level and the floor. The guy wearing the boots was not alone in the photo. Just in front of him and facing towards him was a pair of slender and shapely legs supported on elegant stiletto heels.
Continue readingYesterday, quite out of the blue, a bunch of photos came my way from Mark McCann as attachments to an email. Mark is an old fishing buddy and, along with my brother Sean, we are veterans of many fishing campaigns. Coincidentally Sean came across some photos as well and, while not currently in digital form, I am hoping that these may be coming my way soon. The photos Mark sent recorded a fishing trip we went on about 10 years ago. It was significant because my son Leo who was then 12 was invited along. Continue reading
I have a pretty soft spot for a little article I sent to FlyFishing and FlyTying monthly some little time ago. It never appeared in print until the February edition which popped into my postbox on Monday. To be honest, I suspected it might be considered to be a little risqué for readers of a conservative disposition and that the editor might have decided against using it. After all the average fly fisherman is no spring chicken and the thought of naked young women could be positively hazardous to him if his cardiovascular system is not in absolutely tip top condition!
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