A cold start to the day so I am in the spare room which is filled with my fishing gear, sorting out some tackle for pike fishing which I hope to indulge in next week. Hot mug of coffee steaming in my hand, loosely organised chaos around me. School run traffic snarls along outside, theContinueContinue reading “Bits and bobs”
Author Archives: Claretbumbler
Blue Pennel
A very simple fly. This is just a standard black pennel with just one difference. The body is made from blue floss instead of black. You can use fur instead of floss if you prefer. A simple but attractive pattern for your box A good fly for me for both browns and sea trout hereContinueContinue reading “Blue Pennel”
A new obsession
I am in the middle of lockdown now and I needed a break from tying flies. The boxes are slowly filling up and some new patterns are under development (more on these in later posts) but I wanted a bit of time away from the vice so I went through all my coarse fishing gearContinueContinue reading “A new obsession”
Rakes progress
The more I read about coarse fishing and the more I actually practice it, the more I realise that I need to alter not just how I fish but how I think about the fish themselves. Only by doing that will I become more successful. 2020 has seen me starting a journey to be aContinueContinue reading “Rakes progress”
Landing gear
No, not the wheels on a plane. A quick look at some of the implements I used over the years for transferring my hard earned prizes from water to hand. This is a part of angling which has changed radically over the past few decades as our attitudes to the quarry have altered. The AberdeenshireContinueContinue reading “Landing gear”
Lateral thinking
There is a box or rather a few boxes and some bags, of bits for old reels. This treasure trove lies in the corner of the fishing room and every now and again I take a notion to investigate the contents and see if I can fix up some of the sad old winding mechanisms.ContinueContinue reading “Lateral thinking”
Level 5
It comes as no great shock but it is never the less desperately disappointing that Ireland has returned to level 5 restrictions to battle the covid-19 pandemic. The harsh lessons of earlier this year were largely ignored by a sizable minority of the population and we are now all paying the price for their stupidity.ContinueContinue reading “Level 5”
2020 Beltra boat lift
You all know by now we lift the boats out of the water on the Glenisland coop side of Lough Beltra. Here are some photos of the efforts this morning on a beautiful autumn day in the west of Ireland.
Lough Levally
Close to mighty Lough Conn there sits another, much smaller body of water. Pretty well unknown except to the locals, lough Levally is home to a stock of pike. I’ve known about this lough since I moved to the area 23 years ago but have never fished it. Pike have never excited me as aContinueContinue reading “Lough Levally”
32 – Episode 7, Longford
Thursday, 1st October 2020 Longford posed some difficult questions for me. There is a lot of fishing in the county but from what I could see most of it was going to be very challenging. The Shannon forms the western border but I have been shying away from this river simply due to its size.ContinueContinue reading “32 – Episode 7, Longford”
Claretbumbler 