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Crap Bird Watchers

Filed under: Books and stuff, Natural history, Other bits and bobs — Leave a comment
January 5, 2016

Bird watching is not rocket science. All you need is a notebook, a pair of binoculars and some kind of bird identification book.

Pippa and I reckoned that even a couple of morons like us could manage that. In the event we had no binoculars. I do actually own a pair have but they got drenched one time I took them fishing, and using them is like looking through a submarine periscope while the sub is still underwater, during the night.

When we were on our outward journey we realized that the notebook and pen were at home on the table, just beside the RSPB Complete Guide to the Birds of Britain and Europe. View full article »

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Opening my account

Filed under: Fish and fishing, Fishing reports, Other bits and bobs — Leave a comment
January 3, 2016

Yesterday was the second day of the New Year but offered me the first chance to spend a few hours on the Río Guadalhorce and, fly rod in hand, I was keen to see if I could open my account for the New Year. The river has been fishing very well recently and I was hopeful that the fish might put in an appearance.

There is lot to be said for spending a few hours at this river, or at any river. Just think of all that water and all that air! And think of all the birds and stones and trees and maybe of a few fish, borrowed for a little moment, just so we can be reminded of how pretty they are. View full article »

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Womanising, getting dumped and an afternoon on the river.

Filed under: Books and stuff, Fish and fishing, Fishing reports, Flies and fly tying, Other bits and bobs — 6 Comments
December 31, 2015

In the car on the way to the river this afternoon Cher started giving me a hard time. She told me she was annoyed with me for being unfaithful to her and asked sarcastically if the woman I allegedly engaged in a bit of slap and tickle with last night was “worth it.” Then she announced that she was stronger now and was just going to get on with her life. Jesus! Give us a break! I´ve never even met the woman. Anyway, as it happens, last night I was at home watching the telly. View full article »

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Karaoke in Villafranco

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December 30, 2015

Sunday is Karaoke night in Villafranco. It happens all year round. In the summer the man with the microphone and the machine takes all his kit outside and the punters, performing al fresco, create a din that I can hear from the dirt tracks leading through the campo along which the dogs and I are walking, fully a kilometer away. View full article »

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Indian Summer

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December 28, 2015

Can you get an indian summer in the middle of winter? Well, it certainly seems we have one here! Yesterday I was off galavanting on the river in shorts and crossing the river, as I usually do, in wearing a pair of neoprene diver´s boots. It seems quite odd to get away with this while much of Europe is, if not yet in the grip of winter, not far away.

At this time of year many fly fishermen switch to species like grayling and pike which don´t seem to mind the cold too much or which are not excluded by close season rules. There are no grayling in my neck of the woods although nearby reservoirs contain pike. What we do get, here in my local river, are gypsy barbel and common carp and both of these were in fine form yesterday.  View full article »

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Harry´s Adventure

Filed under: Books and stuff, Fish and fishing, Fishing reports, Folks I know, Other bits and bobs — Leave a comment
December 24, 2015

As promised, here is Harry´s report on his latest exploits: View full article »

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A word about Harry

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December 23, 2015

If you an occasional visitor to this blog you may well recognise Harry Abbott. Harry is another fishing nut and we have fished together quite a few times over the years, mainly here in Andalucía but more recently in the UK.

It so happens that Harry is off adventuring in New Zealand as we speak and he has sent me a report of his adventures. I am hoping to reproduce it here on the blog over the next couple of days but, by way of a preamble, thought I might reproduce a little of what I wrote about him in my book “Dry River” which was published in the summer. It is worth repeating for the simple reason that some of Harry´s report makes reference to it.

So, just before I include an account of Harry´s most recent adventures in his own words, here are a few about Harry in mine….. View full article »

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An Odd Thing

Filed under: Fish and fishing, Fishing reports, Other bits and bobs — 6 Comments
December 21, 2015

An odd thing happened on the river yesterday when Leo and I paid it a visit. Up until this point it had been business as usual and we had managed to catch a couple of fish. Leo, over the years, has become an accomplished fisherman and he has little need for any instruction from me. We often fish a little way apart so as to allow ourselves our own “private” stretch of undisturbed water and, at the time that the odd thing happened, he was a couple of hundred metres upstream of me.

Initially I became aware of some commotion and then noticed a group of horse riders were moving downstream along the river margins. Some little way downstream of Leo they crossed the shallow river and then continued walking in my direction. View full article »

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Four thousand three hundred and twenty two

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December 14, 2015

One of the dafter ideas I have had in recent times is to propose a staff show to raise funds for the Red Cross. I had rather naively thought that we might get a few volunteers to come up with some acts but it seems that volunteers are thin on the ground. Nevertheless we soldiered on and put something together. My friend Dave Cale took on the music and the staff band was awesome. Apart from music the rest of the show consisted of me doing some standup.

This is not the first time I have had a crack at standup but the scarcity of other acts meant I had to do quite a lot of it – over an hour!

Thankfully it seemed to go OK and people had a good night.

For the hell of it I have included a short extract from the comedy script. The following lines are part of a dialogue between me and the priest that takes place in the confession box. I had just admitted to all kinds of inappropriate sexual fantasies involving the women in the parish.

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Fishing Report of 1 November

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November 2, 2015

The weather forecast for yesterday stated that there was a 100% chance of rain, which is a pretty lousy forecast in most peoples´ books. Of course, if you wanted rain this would have been about as good a forecast as you could possibly hope for.

Personally I don´t mind the rain one bit. I´m Irish, which means that an occasional drenching is part of my cultural heritage, like drinking Guinness. So yesterday I headed off to the river knowing that I had a pretty good chance of getting soaked but it was not so much how the rain might affect me that I was thinking about, but how it would affect the river and, indirectly, the fish. View full article »

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