Murray Thompson was kind enough to send me some pictures of Lake Onslow, and of his fishing hut where I had the pleasure of staying with friends on several occasions many years ago. Onslow is a wonderful lake and it is full of fine trout. I know I have a tendency to bang on about things and so I will shut up and let the pictures speak for themselves. View full article »
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There is a Lough half way up a mountain where my brother and I spend a day or two each year. It’s not easy to reach. The climb, over the sodden ground, saps the energy from our legs and makes us pause every now and then to catch our breath. View full article »
On Wednesday a photograph of the long drop at Lake Onslow was sent to me and I have never been so excited to see a picture of a toilet. View full article »
Having trouble sleeping? Well, you could try counting sheep. But, personally I don’t recommend it. I tried it for years but it just doesn’t seem to work very well. Sheep can be very frustrating. For one thing they tend to move around a lot. This makes it very difficult to decide if the sheep you are counting has been counted already. View full article »
It looks like the weatherman was right. Outside the heavens have opened. The French have an expression for weather like this:
“Il pleut comme une vache qui pisse”
It was because this weather was due that I was particularly keen to get to the river on Saturday before the rains bring the water up and colour the river. View full article »
The world is more complicated than I thought. Long ago I reckoned I knew the difference between a woman and a man. It was obvious really. Men were sort of, well, manly. They went out from time to time shooting rabbits, ploughing fields or fighting fires. Women, by contrast, married them, fed them and generally attended to their various needs. And the TV confirmed that it was so. While Tarzan was wrestling crocodiles in the swamp, Jane was at home taking his loincloth out of the tumble drier.
Now, before anyone starts ripping my head off, let me say that this all happened long ago. Those were the thoughts in the mind of a boy. I have since grown up and discovered, as I say, that the world is complicated. For one thing there are now more men who are hair stylists than fight fires. Apparently some men wear aftershave, condition their hair and look in the mirror… View full article »
Christmas this year was spent in England and Ireland and it was great to see family and friends again. There was, not unexpectedly, a lot of sitting around and not a little consumption of alcohol.
In the UK the brown trout have their feet up too and are enjoying the closed season but the fishing for rainbows in many still water fisheries continues and there is good fishing for grayling for those who want to get out on the river and are prepared to brave the cold weather.
Back home in Spain, I lost no time in making for the river. I was in some need of solitude and space and fresh air, all of which the Guadalhorce provides in abundance.
I hooked a barbel pretty soon after starting up but the fish was hooked in the cheek rather than having taken the nymph properly. This is always regrettable, but it happens from time to time. Fortunately the fish was unharmed and, after apologising profusely to it, I released it and it made its way back upstream to the head of the pool from which it had been taken. View full article »
On Saturday I turned 50. This is something I am struggling to get my head around. It was a day spent travelling but I was looking closely at how the day progressed to see if the omens were looking good as I took my first tentative steps into my sixth decade. Unfortunately, things didn´t seem to be going particularly well.
First, the elastic on my underpants snapped and I was trying to get myself and the kids trough airport security at Gatwick. This meant that while fooling around with passports and boarding cards my underwear was rapidly making its way down my trouser legs.
And things didn´t get better. When I tried to look at the computer screen at home I struggled to focus and then discovered one of the lenses had fallen out of my glasses and disappeared somewhere in Malaga.
I was struggling to put a positive spin on life when my brother Sean sent me some interesting news from Ireland. He had chanced on an unusual raptor while out walking with his dog. It was huge. The great bird landed in a tree about 40 yards away and Sean managed to identify it as a juvenile golden eagle.
Golden eagles are being reintroduced to Ireland after an absence of almost one hundred years. Sean reckons that the bird he saw flew from Killarney which is some 50 miles from where he saw it. “No bother to an eagle” he says.
Golden eagles are one of the most widespread of the large eagles and they are relatively abundant here in Spain but, because they need large territories and don´t like built up areas, they are never common. A sighting is always exciting. Norman Smith, a fellow fisherman who lives nearby, also had a close encounter with a golden eagle recently.
I think that, in contemplating the omens for the future, I will ignore wardrobe malfunctions and temporary visual difficulties and think, instead, of Sean´s positive suggestion that the sight an eagle on your birthday is “a sign from nature of great things to come”.
The lovely photograph below of a male golden eagle was taken by Martin Eager of Runic.com
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