The lake water is as tepid as a cup of tea that has been left to stew. A cacophony of birdsong fills the air, a chorus of excitement and expectation. The air is heavy with the heady smell of spicy hempseed and the strawberry flavoured sweetcorn that has stained your fingers blood red. The oddContinue reading “The Inglorious Sixteenth.”
Category Archives: traditional angling
Beep!
16th June. Coarse fishing on our rivers begins again. Sharing my swim today was a kingfisher. He was no more than an arm stretch away. Together we watched the mists rise and the trees turn to gold. We fished side by side. Brothers of the Angle. He, a sleek flash of electric blue; me, anContinue reading “Beep!”
Lake Of The Dead.
It is a few minutes after five o’clock on the last day of July 1991. The air is still, humid. That stifling torpor of mid summer lethargy. Slowly, I am making my way along a narrow spit that juts out into the lake. I am already sweating and the sun hasn’t even begun to lightContinue reading “Lake Of The Dead.”
Revisiting old words
Winter’s Rewards
Keep it simple. Just a rod, a reel and some bread and worms for bait and a small measure of expectancy that hangs like your breath in the air. There is a strangely perverse pleasure to be had by spending a few hours on the riverbank in Winter. The coldness of the silt filled riverContinue reading “Winter’s Rewards”
A Field Between Two Rivers
With a few hours to spare on my day off before I had to take Lily to the fracture clinic to have her wrist replastered having broken it whilst doing the hurdles at school, I decided a short fishing trip was in order. Having hurriedly thrown a couple of made up rods, net and aContinue reading “A Field Between Two Rivers”
A Season’s End
Defied Storm Gareth on my last trip to the Culm this season. Managed to hook and land two substantial branches as they hurtled downstream. One of which put up a superb barbel like fight all the way to the net. Just a tad disappointing; even though it was a personal best branch.Continue reading “A Season’s End”
Sabina And The Curse Of The Culm
I know it’s all my fault. Laziness is not a disease; just a state of mind and as minds go mine is pretty static- unless it’s full of thoughts which are absolutely useless to me or anyone… I go back to the end of last season- March 14th. I finished work and threw the creelContinue reading “Sabina And The Curse Of The Culm”
First trip of the year…well almost!
Having seen footage of rivers flowing through houses and waves too big to surf on. I have contented myself with central heating, glasses of port and Chris Yates’ excellent new book “The Lost Diary” (www.unbound.co.uk for details.) But with a day off ahead and a blue sky beckoning I hurried the children off to schoolContinue reading “First trip of the year…well almost!”
Simon Harlond 