Posts from — August 2007

Back to the city last night. Rows of flats and concrete roads, no horizon and gazillions of people. Modern life is rubbish. Reports of glory to follow..

In better news, The Stand of Majesty has made it into the national fishing press here in the UK. Trout Fisherman have published a short piece on my closed-season-frustration-fueled creation in their September edition. If you are reading this blog having seen the article, welcome In the world of Tamanawis, sheep run the city council and we regularly speak about the size of our rods. If you stick around long enough you’re almost guaranteed to become a better fly angler, and you’ll smell better too.

And lastly, it looks like the 10,000 unique visits milestone is fast approaching. You have come from far (New Zealand) and wide (Canada) to read my mutterings, so thanks for dropping by everyone. If you happen to be number 10,000 you will automatically qualify to enter a draw to buy me some new tackle. Or a curry.

Today I prefer curry.

Do you ever feel like this when you’re fishing? I’ve always wanted to be able to fly.. hard to imagine the freedom. Sometimes I think it’s possible to get pretty close with a fly rod. All that is needed is the flow, the light and a mind in the present and the far.

Yes, today I am feeling pretentious…

Um…

Good morning world. I’m currently messing around with my blog template. Again, if you’re reading from a feed, this makes no difference. But if you drop by the proper URL of Tamanawis you’ll see a new layout. I hope it’s ok.

I’m heading off on the annual northern migration next week. Oh the glory. I’m hoping for big fish and beautiful skies. Happy fishing all.

Hi folks, just a short post to draw your attention over to the right there —>

I’ve changed around my links and shoved them into potentially useful sections, including some of my favourite fly patterns. If you’re reading this post in Google Reader or something similar, this doesn’t really mean much of course, but that’s just life.

Have a nice week.

Fishing is a great way to see biology in action. Over on my regular beats the average trout probably pushes 8 or 9oz, with a good number of fish towards a pound and even the odd monster. Last week I nipped out of town one evening with the intention of hitting one of those regular spots. I’d left things rather late, however, so I decided to stop by one of the tiny wee burns I always skip past on my usual travels. A quick saunter down behind some bushes revealed a pretty little ribbon of brackish looking water cutting its way through the commercial forestry. Within two minutes a couple of rings emerged on the surface, and I bolted up to the car for the gear.

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Tonight I was in the unusual situation of having fished my favourite river for the previous two evenings (those reports are on the way…) The fishing had gotten noticeably better between the first and second sessions, and my hopes began to dance ever more enthusiastically as I arrived to find BWO’s and sedges cavorting over the water.

I rigged up a new fly, the CDC loopwing emerger. I tie this fly on a curved hook (Kamasan B100) and reckon it looks about as good as any emerger I’ve come across. It’s sits kind of like a DHE, but with better consistency. It also has a really nice, messy thorax which seems to suggest drowned wings and such mischief. After this evening’s festivities it will find a permanent place in a corner of my fly box. Up to the first pool, and after 10 minutes of watching a nice fish showed in a swirling run near the pool’s neck. Ten or fifteen fruitless casts followed before a final ‘chuck and chance’ presentation brought a lovely boil of a rise and one of the best trout I’ve had this season. Fighting fit and with the suggestion of a kype, he was a cracking way to start things off.

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A summer’s evening, under the trees. The flow flows by and carries the light. It carries an angler’s hope as well, little olives and dancing sedges.