For some time now I have been painting trout in watercolours and, slowly, after many failures and abandoned efforts, they are beginning to take shape. View full article »
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If you cast an eye over this blog from time to time you may remember a guy Called Harry Abbott. Harry lives here in Spain and we meet up from time to time to go fishing together. He is not only an accomplished fly fisherman, but a fellow float tuber, a bird watcher and wildlife enthusiast. He is also great fun and his après pêche “raconteuring” over a beer or two always winds up a day´s fishing perfectly.
For the last few years he has been setting off on fishing adventures in Thailand and New Zealand and sends me back pictures and updates from his travels. I try extremely hard to contain my jealousy! View full article »
If you have ever been to Gibraltar you won´t need me to remind you of what a quirky place it is. It prides itself as being a little bit of Britain, complete with bobbies on the beat, big red post boxes, BHS and Marks and Spencer on the main drag and plenty of pubs showing premiership football where you can sink a pint of London Pride. But then you look a little closer and you see people walking around in T shirts during a February afternoon and you hear the fusion of English and Spanish spoken by the locals. Look behind you and you will see, above the buildings, an enormous slab of Jurassic limestone piercing the blue sky. The air is full of the screeches of Mediterranean gulls and the northern coast of Morocco, a continent apart, is only separated from you by a slither of water. View full article »
Last Thursday I organised a trip inland to visit a fish farm which grows both rainbow trout and, more interestingly, sturgeon from which they obtain caviar.
The caviar, not unexpectedly, does not come cheap. A kilo will set you back 2500 euros and a tiddly little 10g can costs 25 euros.
Caviar eating is a rich man´s game and I will leave the well heeled to get on with knocking back the stuff. I am far more interested in the sturgeon themselves. View full article »
For some time I had been hoping to make a painting of the lovely brown trout my pal Mark McCann caught up in the Lough in Leitrim that we simply call the “Mountain Lough.” And, finally, I have completed it after several false starts and the usual distractions. View full article »
There is a brown trout in Gore, on Southland´s famous Mataura river, that must be fifteen feet long at the very least. Maybe more. I have often stood in awe beside it. If you don´t believe me you just need to look at the photo Harry sent me. I´m hardly going to make up something like that! View full article »
My wife thinks that I am an idiot. She has, over the years, shown herself to be an excellent judge of character and so I have no reason to doubt her. View full article »
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