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What´s the best fly for carp?

Filed under: Fish and fishing, Fishing reports, Flies and fly tying, Folks I know — Leave a comment
May 11, 2016

Good question. Like many good questions the answer is not straightforward. In fact it doesn´t have an answer at all. The truth is carp are very adaptable and they do what fish do best, which is to feed on whatever is available and, given the choice, the source of food that provides the most nutrition for the effort required to obtain it. Carp, just like the rest of us, want the most bang for their buck.

If you asked a seasoned trout fisherman what the best fly for trout is you will get a deluge of answers. You will get suggested patterns ranging from diminutive midges through to large streamers and Chernobyl Ants that look like the Titanic but have greater inherent buoyancy. The real answer to the question, unsatisfactory as it may be, is “it depends.” And it is the things that it depends on that make fly fishing so absorbing. View full article »

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Extremadura Fishing Party

Filed under: Fish and fishing, Fishing reports, Folks I know, Other bits and bobs — 2 Comments
May 8, 2016

A couple of weeks back Steve Lawler and I headed off to Extremadura to see if there were any fish swimming around up there and to meet up with some fly fishermen who had been up there for a few days. These guys had abandoned the grim weather in Scotland to find equally grim weather in Extremadura. But these were hardy types and not given to complaining. Fishing, if it teaches you nothing else, will help you to be philosophical and reminds us to keep our expectations in check. View full article »

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Don´t blame the horses

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May 2, 2016

I guess I could go blaming the horses for my unsuccessful stint on the river yesterday afternoon. There were horses everywhere and often they were being ridden right down the middle of the river which does´t make life any easier for a fly fisherman trying to sneak up on a fish. There was at least one occasion when I got myself into a promising situation or began to work some nice looking water when, all of a sudden the four or more horsemen of the apocalypse would come galloping over and scare the síit out of everything in the river including me! View full article »

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A card from New Zealand

Filed under: Other bits and bobs — Leave a comment
April 29, 2016

Yesterday, out of the blue, came a card from New Zealand. It was sent by the family of Murray Thompson who sadly passed away recently. I have written about Murray in the blog elsewhere and in my book Dry River. He was the owner of a fishing hut way out in a remote highland lake and he was very generous in allowing a whole army of people to stay there over the years.

The card told me that Murray appreciated what I had written about the hut and that a painting of a fine trout which Murray caught and which I sent to him as a gift was given pride of place in the family living room. It also said that he had enjoyed my book which had been given to him as a gift from his family.

I guess that he was reading it during the time that cancer was getting the better of him and I hope it gave him some pleasure during a difficult time.

The New Zealand card was a lovely gesture and I appreciate it very much. It is on the shelf in my lab now where I can see it. It sits next to a couple of dinosaur models which shine in the dark and that light up the space around them when the lights are low.

Murray was like that too.

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Hotel Peru

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April 24, 2016

So you end up in Trujillo and need a place to stay. How about Hotel Peru? It offers a bar and a bed, which are just about the only things you need in any hotel. What more could you ask for?

A week ago Steve Lawler and I met up with a little fishing party from Scotland at Hotel Peru and we enjoyed a fine evening there. The boys from Scotland told us they were very impressed with the place. They said it was cheap and clean. It was quiet too. It is a pretty big place but it seemed on the Friday evening, as we were putting away a couple of beers, that we were the only people there. View full article »

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Greasy Pigs

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April 15, 2016

It turns out that in the fería of El Sahugo, a town near Salamanca, they have a tradition of carrying out a “slippery pig” competition. This involves covering a piglet in grease and getting the kids to see if they can catch it. Whichever kid manages to catch the slippery piglet gets to take it home.

But then the animal activist people started making a big noise and claimed that the spectacle was “degrading to animals” and the town hall has been fined over 1500 euros and forced to ban the event.

Jesus! What´s up with these people? Is nobody allowed to have fun any more? Does everybody think the same way now? This whole story prompted me to make a brief poll of the views of my own students. I explained the background to this story and asked the student what they thought the right thing to do was. All but two or three of the 20 kids I asked just said “ban it” without a second thought. View full article »

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Do fish play golf?

Filed under: Fish and fishing, Natural history, Other bits and bobs — 3 Comments
April 10, 2016

Perhaps it never occurred to you to ask this question but the answer, to the best of my knowledge, is no. Fish do not play golf. The question arose yesterday in my Science lesson with Year 7 and was in response to some interesting commotion taking place in the fish tank at the back of the lab.

First, let me tell you a little about the fish tank. It is about four feet long and has one pretty sizeable fish in there, a species of pleco. The pleco is one of a small number of common aquarium fish and I understand that our one is Hypostomus plecostomus, a nocturnal catfish which is native to South America but has been widely introduced elsewhere.There is also a bunch of goldfish which found a refuge in my tank when the school pond was drained for refurbishment. The pleco must be about a foot long and a lot of people have questioned whether it is a good idea to have such a big fish in a relatively small tank.  View full article »

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Getting a fishing licence

Filed under: Fish and fishing, Other bits and bobs — 6 Comments
April 6, 2016

If the world were a simple place you would get a fishing license by going somewhere where these things are sold and saying “can I have a fishing license please?” And then having handed over the necessary fees you might expect to be able to walk out with the thing in your hand.

But things are not so simple here. This is Spain and, of course, Spain has elevated bureaucracy into an art form. View full article »

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Back from the river

Filed under: Fish and fishing, Fishing reports — Leave a comment
March 29, 2016

I spent the morning digging out a septic tank and the early afternoon in a tussle with Spanish bureaucracy and so the few hours on the river were appreciated more and usual. There were a few barbel around but they they can sometimes be pretty jittery and today they were easily spooked. In the end I had to work quite hard for the three I eventually managed to bank. View full article »

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Goats, helicopters and flying saucers

Filed under: Fish and fishing, Fishing reports, Natural history, Other bits and bobs — Leave a comment
March 27, 2016

There is a lot to be said for goats. They wander round in flocks ringing their little bells. I bump into them on the river all the time and yesterday after I was done fishing I followed a herd back to the car where we parted company. I don´t know how many there were and, frankly, I had better things to do than count the damn things. This is not an easy job anyway. They move around a lot and so you could end up counting the same goat twice or maybe miss one completely. This is a job best left to specialists, in my opinion, or to insomniacs who find the counting of ruminants helpful in ameliorating the stresses caused by sleeplessness. View full article »

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