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Thoughts of a fly fisherman’s wife: Part I, The Fishing Glossary

October 8, 2011 in Fishy stories, Guest writers, Wierd stuff | 10 comments

In the first of a new season of intermittent posts, and in a shameless attempt to boost ratings (and further put off writing my own posts), it’s time to welcome my (new) other half to the Tamanawis pages. Who knows where this will lead, but we’re going to start with a crucial tool required by every fisherman’s partner, the fishing glossary. I leave the following largely unedited, though reserve the right to leave chauvinistic comments in italics..

Thoughts of a fly fisherman’s wife: Part I, The Fishing Glossary (by The FFW)

A little background

I decided to contribute to this blog for two different reasons. Firstly, I have been Mike Tamanawis’s wife for a couple of weeks now which indeed makes me a Fly Fisherman’s wife (excellent use of capitalisation), and as I have fished a couple of times I am qualified to make some comments. And secondly…

Last week during our honeymoon/fly fishing trip to Sutherland, Mike was fishing in the sea when a fisherman came to speak to me.

“What is he fishing with?”
“Well, at the beginning he used a dry fly as the fish were feeding at the surface, but as the activity was slowing down on the surface he decided to use a wet fly. We will see what happens.”

I still don’t know who was the most surprised, the fisherman, the fish or me. I just thought, “oh dear I can actually speak about fly fishing, I am officially the wife of a fly fisherman”. So here is my guide to the most important terms and ideas for a fly fisherperson.

Glossary

Waders (“The Frog”). We can say from the beginning that the film “A River Runs Through It” should be banned from all girls who will eventually be with a fly fisherman, particularly if he fishes in Scotland. The romantic idea of Brad Pitt casting in the middle of a beautiful sunny day, it is not quite my experience of fly fishing….

Chest Pack (“The Fishing Bra”). Much funnier that the normal ones used by women.

Casting. The technique of moving your arm in the manner of throwing a heavy ball, while your husband says every two minutes, “Relax, gentle, use your whole arm, imagine…relax…”

Fishing. An action used to get some food. Husband’s definition is not available in less than 2000 words.

Fishing magazines. Same every month with a bit of a variation in the pictures. Husband’s point of view: serious debates about fishing every month which can not be missed just in case they actually discover that fish really do not care about the difference between flies (in fact I sometimes feel slightly closer to the wife’s perspective on this one..).

I’ve never taken a picture of a fishing magazine, so I’ve substituted in a nice grayling instead.

Fly tying. Very scary stuff. When you discover the collection of dead animals, obsessively classified in order. And all the flies in boxes which will never be used, that is actually super scary, you should know.

Boxes. Tools used to organise any kind of thing. Husband’s definition: Endless possibilities for new systems to re-organise the flies, for the 102nd time (which actually is not that important as all the flies go with him anyway every time he goes fishing, as you never know what you could find in a very small burn).

Underwater rocks. Provide hope that a fish took your fly. Husband’s perspective: Fly lost and potentially rod destroyed if you don’t react quickly enough when you see your wife fighting with a rock as she seriously thinks that she caught the biggest fish of her/your life. Beware.

Heather. A plant which most fishing flies find very attractive. Husband’s reference: Don’t leave the wife with a rod until you cut down all the nearby heather, otherwise you will not be able to fish all day as you will be retying and cutting a lot of fishing line.

Catching a fish. Wait for your husband to deal with the rod. Husband’s definition: Hold the rod high and tighten your line with the left hand. I know because he told me many times, but it’s still impossible to apply for some reason (I have no idea why, it’s an action similar to pointing upwards at an expensive item high on a shop shelf while holding a shoping bag in the other hand).

Tree-lined rivers. That makes no sense, how could I cast? You must be joking.


Fishing without a frog in April. A bit silly.

Fishing during winter. Complete silliness (again, hard to argue really..).

Practicing casting on the grass. Serious insanity.

Marrying a fly fisherman. You should be madder than the fisherman (does help, and in this case might be true..).

– The End (not definitive or complete, and may be expanded).

It’s fly fishing, but not as you know it…

October 5, 2010 in Fishy stories, Misc, Wierd stuff | Comments closed

Found via the Scottish Fly Fishing blog..

The haaf netters

August 20, 2010 in Environment, Fishy stories, Misc | Comments closed

If you’ve got a spare moment, there’s a lovely multimedia presentation on haaf netting in the Solway by Ciara Leeming. A beautifully photographed and recorded piece of work.

Shackleton’s whisky

July 23, 2010 in Fishy stories | Comments closed

Mildly amusing case of the lost Shackleton whisky over on the BBC website. Looks like an outstanding marketing oportunity for the distiller involved..

Book of the week (Radio 4)

May 6, 2010 in Books, Fishy stories, Misc | Comments closed

This week’s book of the week on Radio 4 is a serialisation of Luke Jennings’ writings on a lifetime of fishing. Today it’s about fly fishing. A very enjoyable listen, you can catch up on all episodes by clicking here.

Trout mechanics

October 19, 2009 in Fishing (other stuff), Fishy stories | 2 comments

Discovered via a pal comes this interesting wee video showing how trout move side to side with the swirling water behind objects in a river. Looks like there’s a reference to an academic paper too, so I’ll have a dig and see what I find. In the meantime, check it out.trout_vid.

BBC Brown Trout

September 29, 2009 in Fishy stories | 8 comments

Just browsing around a wee bit this morning, and I came across a nice wee clip on the BBC website. It’s about the piscivorous brown trout, known in the UK as the ferox trout.

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There’s some nice footage showing one swimming around in Loch Ness, together with commentary by everyone’s favourite gardener, Alan Titchmarsh. Take a look.

Fishy stuff

April 8, 2009 in Environment, Fishy stories, Misc | Comments closed

From BBC online comes another story about the flagging fish farming sector. Apparently there’s going to be a whopping cash injection from the EU to stimulate a ‘stagnent’ industry. Hmm… where have I heard that before?

I find it incredible that such reporting seems to completely blank on the real problems of fish farming. It’s incredibly ironic that an article which speaks of the problems of ‘not enough fish in the sea’, completely ignores exactly what goes into producing farmed fish. Industrial scale dredging of sand eels to produce farmed salmon and trout feed is just one example. What happens a few years down the line when the sand eels have all been fished out?

The implicit tone propagated by most BBC and other media articles about fish farming is that it is a perfect solution to the problem of overfishing the oceans. How is the average person ever going to find out about the real cost?

Fish!

March 24, 2009 in Fishy stories, General news | 2 comments

Here’s another little fishy gem from the BBC, sadly only available on iPlayer to folks in the UK. Charles Rangly-Wilson of `Accidental Angler’ fame goes on a fish-based tour of Japan. Find the program here.

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I enjoyed the program. It contains quite a few moments for the sqeamish, along with some genuinly funny sequences (the flying panda being one of them..).

Charles seems to be well on his way to becomming the (un)official good face of angling on TV (the bad face honour falling to Extreme Fishing’s interestingly-double-sir-named Robson Green). As one of the instigaters of the fantastic Wild Trout Trust that can’t be a bad thing. Become a member today!

Here’s the blurb…

Charles Rangeley Wilson, author, journalist and BBC 2′s Accidental Angler, travels to Japan to explore the Japanese people’s passionate relationship to fish.

Of all the island nations on Earth, there is, perhaps, none quite so obsessed by fish as Japan. Whether for food or entertainment, fish are at the very core of Japanese identity. From their reverential love of jewel-like koi to the seemingly barbaric world of scientific whaling via the balletic submarine ballet of the drive hunt, there are few corners of Japanese culture that have not been shaped by reference to fish.

Trying to comprehend this ‘alien’ culture, Charles embarks on a six-week odyssey through Japan, determined to use his love of fish and fishing as the common point of interest between himself and those he meets along the way. Since he loves fish possibly even more than the Japanese, they must have plenty in common…

Must see BBC film (the Pacific salmon run)

February 22, 2009 in Fishy stories, Misc | Comments closed

For those of you (lucky?) enough to live in the UK, there was a simply amazing program about the great Pacific salmon runs last week. It’s still available for online viewing via the magnificant iPlayer here, but get in and watch it quick before it disappears sometime this week. As usual David Attenborough delivers a fantastic commentary, and the footage is simply astounding.

Here’s the blurb, taken from the BBC website:

Every year grizzly bear families in North America depend for their survival on a spectacular natural event: the return of hundreds of millions of salmon from the Pacific Ocean to the mountain streams where they were born. The salmon travel thousands of miles to spawn and then die. The great run not only provides food for bears, but for killer whales, wolves, bald eagles, and even the forest itself. The question is: will the salmon return in time to keep hungry bears alive?

A mother grizzly and her cubs emerge from their den high in snowy Alaskan mountains. Filming from the air the team capture a TV first, following the bears as they negotiate a near vertical slope on their journey to the coast where they await the return of the salmon.

Meanwhile, the salmon are making their way to the to river mouths where they must swim upstream and against the current. The programme reveals how they tackle the torrents and leap over waterfalls, a feat equivalent to a human jumping over a house.

Dozens of hungry bears eagerly await the salmon that make it up river. In another TV first, underwater cameras record the ingenuity and fancy footwork they use to collect dead salmon from the bottom of deep pools.

In the final 10-minute diary, Close Encounters of a Grizzly Kind, wildlife cameraman Jeff Turner, who has filmed bears for 20 years, reveals how he pioneered techniques to show for the first time how bears caught salmon underwater.

The River Why (on earth are you making this film?)

February 9, 2009 in Books, Fishy stories, Misc, Thoughts | 2 comments

Via the Moldy Chum blog, I came across an article about the upcoming River Why film this morning. It draws attention to one or two interesting things of which I was not previously aware. Most importantly, David James Duncan, the author of the original (and wonderful) book, has done as much as he can to halt the film’s production.

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Amber Heard, star of the upcoming River Why film. Hmm..excellent casting I’d say.

According to the article, he has been to court, claiming copyright infringement and various other bits and bobs, which has resulted in the current production of the film being unable to use his name in promoting the film. I say ‘current production’ because the article goes on to say that once the upcoming film has been released, Duncan will once again own the rights to his own book, and is planning to make his own screen version. Hmm…. all a bit dodgy I reckon.

In an earlier post I mentioned that Duncan had been contributing to the screenplay. A commenter on that post pointed out that the film would be quite different to the book (er, not a huge surprise..). I now learn that Duncan has been fighting the film.. Personally, I’m a bit confused. But looking at the Official Website for the new film, I see no mention of Duncan at all.

I don’t like being overly negative towards people who are trying to produce a film, or make music, or do anything creative. But I do begin to struggle a little bit when it appears that a film is being made, not just with a shrug of the shoulders from the author, but with a pitched court battle between him and the producers. I wouldn’t give a damn, of course, if it wasn’t for the fact that it was David James Duncan who created the story, the characters, the beautiful mood of the book. It’s his novel, and although I’m fully aware that copyright law is more complicated than my simplistic standpoint, I simply don’t feel comfortable about a film that doesn’t have the author’s backing. Amber Heard, however, I feel quite comfortable about.

4 boats and a skull

August 17, 2008 in Fishy stories, Misc, Photos | 6 comments

On Saturday I went up the west coast to Oban for a wee day trip. ‘Twas a fine day indeed, particularly since the forecast all week proclaimed doom. No fishing featured in proceedings, but a sight seeing stop by the bonny shores of Loch Awe did reveal a strange aquatic beast. Lying on the bank, next to a half-burnt fire containing a fine collection of rubbish, was a large fish skull. Unquestionably that of a pike, and a pretty big one too. The array of teeth was particularly impressive. Certainly makes me glad I’m not a perch..

I wondered how it had got to be there. I’d like to think it was roasted and eaten as part of an enjoyable fishing trip. But given the state of the rest of the place, I couldn’t help but suspect a more brutal, pointless history. From what I can understand, killing large pike like that, even when they live in a trout loch, is not a particularly good idea. Along with eating the weaker, often sick and injured fish of smaller species, they stem the tide of young jack pike that can really do damage. I won’t go into the subject of the state of Loch Awe any further at the moment, for if I start it will be a tirade of venting… holy $%^£(*^ are some people stupid.

As we were walking up back to the car, a bright red mushroom was spotted. I’ve never seen anything like it before. I’m still trying to find out what it was, because none of my books show anything so deep a red. There were a few of them together, buried under the long wet grass. If anyone is an expert (or otherwise), I’d be delighted to know it’s name.

The Pool

January 1, 2008 in Fishy stories | 3 comments

There’s a pool I know. Get into the river by the bridge, and go past the grey tree. The water deepens and is slightly brown and opaque. Look for the shopping trolly in the mud by the broken wall, and the orange traffic cone twenty yards further on. Take a look around you. The fresh green leaves, the twinkling new spring sunshine. Feel the early breeze pinch at your face.

Now you’re close.

Find the bush which wears the supermarket bags as leaves. Bright red and blue, a flash of the rainforest in the central belt.

Now you’re very close.

The water is clearer here. It gurgles and slides around two jagged rocks, then slows and dives a little deeper. Glance upstream. A little blue thunderbolt streaks across your line of sight. A deepening furrow in your brow. Kingfishers, here?

A bus thunders along the road, beyond the trees that hide your river. A thousand engines churn in neutral. Two million people take a breath, exhale, and continue their work. You feel like a sneaky twelve year old truant going into town, peering past the school gate whilst everyone else learns to conjugate verbs. The furrow is a smile now. You know a secret, and it’s very, very close.

The pool. It’s the best one anywhere on this river. It’s like ten pools really, full of streamy seams and pockets and little bathtub hollows. It’s the kind of place that might take two seasons to explore. A true hidden gemstone, in between crumbling walls and flowing through an unknowing city. There are trout here. Wild brown trout with red spots that eat dark olives, kebabs and grey dusters. You gratefully oblige and tie on a size 16. A favourite fly, perfect for searching the foamy runs. If things get desperate there’s a good chippy a hundred yards along the road. The urban river is an amazing place.

Happy new year.