Tag Archive: fishing


Asking the right questions

Filed under: Published fishing writing — Leave a comment
April 12, 2025

This 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.

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The trout in Reinosa

Filed under: Fish and fishing, Natural history, Other bits and bobs — Leave a comment
March 2, 2025

Reinosa is the closest town to the source of the Ebro river and it is a short distance upstream of one of the largest reservoirs that the river passes through on journey eastwards to the Mediterranean. Right in the centre of the town you can see Ebro trout and I have spent quite a lot of time doing just that.

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Red letter day

Filed under: Fish and fishing, Fishing reports, Flies and fly tying, Folks I know, Natural history, Other bits and bobs — Leave a comment
September 23, 2024

The black bass at Concepción can be contrary and moody creatures, given to ignoring whatever we might tie to the end of our lines to tempt them. But yesterday evening, for reasons best known to themselves, they decided that they were going to play ball. Whatever we were offering they were having it, and then some. No questions asked.

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Dumb and dumber

Filed under: Fishing reports, Other bits and bobs — Leave a comment
September 17, 2024

I don´t know which one of us is thicker, me or my dog Sable. We have not had her for very long and I suspect that if you asked those who know us both which of the two of us was the brighter most would say that it is very likely the dog. Sable, they might tell you, has the edge in terms of cerebral firepower, if only by a whisker.

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Tying under the influence

Filed under: Published fishing writing — Leave a comment
June 11, 2024

Mark Bowler, the editor of Fly Fishing and Fly Tying, has published a good few articles that I penned over the years. These are located in the “Last Cast” feature at the end of the magazine and they tend to be a little quirky and whimsical in nature. (I don´t consider myself in any way enough of an expert to offer anything else!) He asks that I refrain from posting the articles he publishes here on the blog until a few months after they are printed in the magazine for copyright reasons and I am happy to comply. While rummaging on my computer, I spotted three articles that whose respective statutes of limitations have expired and so I thought I might post one of them now and the others will follow soon enough. These are the versions I sent to the magazine and they may have been subjected to further editing.

Here goes the first which was published in October 2022. I hope you enjoy it!

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A carp from the margin

Filed under: Fish and fishing, Fishing reports, Natural history, Other bits and bobs — 2 Comments
June 3, 2024

Yesterday morning I took my little trio of newly-tied carp flies to the reservoir at El Chorro to see whether I might come across a carp to tell me whether or not they were up to scratch. As mentioned previously, the carp here may or may not put in an appearance. They´re kind of moody.

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Checking out Lough Guitane

Filed under: Fish and fishing, Fishing reports, Folks I know, Other bits and bobs — Leave a comment
April 11, 2024

Sean and I spent a few hours fishing Lough Guitane in County Kerry on our last fishing day together last week. Guitane is about 10 km from Killarney and, at over a mile in length, it is a reasonably big lough, though it will raise few eyebrows in the west of Ireland. 

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