Giles Catchpole wonders how he should celebrate the season
IT IS ALWAYS difficult, at this time of the year, to think of a new and exciting way to address the whole concept of Christmas. The central purpose of traditions might reasonably be said to be their unchanging regularity. Christmas comes but once a year but it will be on the same day and be celebrated in the same way as last Christmas and the Christmas before that and the one before that stretching back as far as the memory can reach.
Not like Easter, then, which bounces about the calendar like a golf ball in a squash court before settling somewhere about the middle of April.
So Christmas represents a singular issue because it is always exactly the same and that makes describing it in new and exciting ways something of a challenge for the jobbing scrivener.
If I don’t talk about fish and fishing even on or about this most sacred of days then the Wing Commander will be reaching for his Biro as soon as he’s finished word-searching the inside back page.
Denne historien er fra January 2018-utgaven av Trout & Salmon.
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Denne historien er fra January 2018-utgaven av Trout & Salmon.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
Mr Goldhead And The Grayling
Lawrence Catlow fishes the rapidly recovering River Irfon in Powys.
Moody Beasts
Stan Headley searches for the elusive sea-trout of Loch Ailsh in the northwest Highlands.
Alone On The River
Cliff Hatton encounters a mighty Wye salmon.
Hop To It
Richard Donkin has a no-nonsense approach to tackle and amphibians.
River Blackwater
THE BLACKWATER rises in the boglands of County Kerry, and although the peaty tinge it carries gives rise to its name it also flows through limestone and that helps it to support a diverse range of fly-life which provides plenty of sustenance for salmon parr and trout. The river is one of Ireland’s most productive salmon fisheries, along with the River Moy.
Hampshire Avon
THERE CAN be few places in fishing more famous than the Royalty Fishery on the Hampshire Avon, even Mr Crabtree has fished its illustrious waters. Two seasons ago an enormous salmon of 40lb was caught in the spring at the Royalty and big salmon are regularly caught in the early months of the season.
A Strange Kind Of Magic
Charles van straubenzee introduces a salmon fly that combines the most unlikely colours and materials to deadly effect.
A Deep-Water Experiment
Stan Headley hatches a plan to catch three species of fish in one day at Loch Calder in Caithness.
Rutland's Old Warriors
James Beeson enjoys supercharged surface sport with Rutland Water’s fry-feeders.
Plucked From The Jaws
Looking for affordable back-end sport? Andrew Flitcroft recommends the challenging Chollerton beat on the North Tyne.
