Paul Reddish and I took a trip along the Pisuerga River yesterday, meeting the river in Aguilar de Campoo and following it upstream towards its source in the Cantabrian Mountains. The road can only take you so far — we pretty much ran out of tarmac in the little village of Santa María de Redondo, home to dogs that sleep in the street and begrudgingly allow you to drive on. There’s an ample car park for those who want to hike further, but it was a little late in the day for us to do that. That hike follows the course of the river initially before separating, but it eventually leads to the river’s source, said to be a spring called Fuente Cobre.
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I don’t know which one of us is more stupid — me or our dog, Sable. The two of us have taken to wandering the local tracks of the campo and trekking across open fields in the moonlight, when anybody with half a brain would be tucked up in bed.
Continue readingWe have just come back from a hike up the tops of some of the peaks that we had seen when previously walking the caminito del Rey, Andalucia´s famous cliff edge walking path. There were three of us, my daughter Pippa, myself and Sable the black labrador that, you may recall, had disgraced herself during her audition as my fishing companion. Today, to her credit, she did not put a foot wrong and was excellent company throughout. She is knackered now though, and is fast asleep at my feet.
Continue readingI doubt anybody would suggest that brown trout are among the intellectual giants of the animal kingdom but my brother Sean and I are both prepared to admit that they are a good deal smarter than either of us. It was predominantly the fish of the River Lee, one of Sean´s home rivers, that made us aware of our relative cerebral shortcomings.
Continue readingI was a little surprised when fishing the upper river Ebro at how abundant the barbel were. This area I had imagined would be home primarily to trout. The river source is not far away and the water is cold, just the way trout like it. But the barbel are here in good numbers and it is lovely just to watch these fish in the clear river water. Armed with a fly rod, however much fun they were to observe, I could not resist having a crack at catching one. As a result I have been fortunate enough to look at these fish from up close and they are absolutely stunning.
Continue readingAt the river inlet into the Embalse del Ebro reservoir the Ebro splits into two channels, each heavily weeded up in places but the clear water pushes through the weed growth, often in clear seams revealing the stony substrate beneath. Both flows converge before the water flows into a narrow tongue which extends to the west from the main body of the reservoir. From above it looks as though the embalse had extended an arm to greet the inflowing river that sustains it.
Continue readingWhen we were away at Doñana last month I was asked by my students what my favourite bird was and I found it hard to answer because there are two that are vying for that particular position. One of these is the European Bee-eater and the other is the Red-necked Nightjar and at this time of year they both turn up on our doorstep.
Continue readingI have just come back from the reservoir at El Chorro where my cunning plan had been to extract a carp from the margins. I´m afraid I have to report (once again!) that I had no success. The last time I fished there I brought a foolish young dog that proceeded to leap into the water and charge up and down the shallows, scaring the hell out of the carp and every other aquatic organism in possession of a nervous system and so my lack of success was not unexpected.
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