25 Friday Dec 2015
Posted in Beer, Books, Car Boot, Carp Fishing, Coarse Fishing, Conservation, Cooking, Cornwall, Drink, Everything about fishing, Film, Fish & Game Recipes, Fishing, Fly Fishing, Food, Gin, Interiors, London, Lure Fishing, Mudlarking, Music, Nature, Old Salts, Photography, Pike Fishing, Poetry, Presents, Public Houses, Reclaim, River Fishing, River Thames, Rod Building & Restoration, Sculpture, Sea fishing, Sport, Street Art, Tackle, Tales by the riverbank, Theatre, Tools, travel, Vintage, Vintage homewares, Whisky
To all of you brothers of the angle, shutter and paintbrush, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas, may you all find peace and love not only over the Christmas season but for evermore.
For those of you heading to the river or sea tomorrow may your lines be tight and smiles put upon your face.
I bless you all for a prosperous New Year.
24 Thursday Dec 2015
Posted in Art, Barbel Fishing, Beer, Books, Car Boot, Carp Fishing, Childrens Books, Coarse Fishing, Conservation, Cooking, Cornwall, Dogs, Drink, Everything about fishing, Film, Fish & Game Recipes, Fishing, Fly Fishing, Fly Tying, Food, Gin, Interiors, London, Lure Fishing, Mudlarking, Music, Nature, Old Salts, Olympics, Photography, Pike Fishing, Poetry, Presents, Public Houses, Reclaim, River Fishing, River Fishing, River Thames, Rod Building & Restoration, Sculpture, Sea fishing, Sport, Street Art, Tackle, Tales by the riverbank, Theatre, Tools, travel, Vintage, Vintage homewares, Whisky
Between the rain showers and the warm glow of winter sun we dashed around the village doing the lasts bits of shopping before retiring to the pub for a beer and a bite to eat in order to give us energy to wrap those Christmas gifts for young Tales, it may take some time.
The years seems to have passed all too quickly, possibly because we’ve done a lot but more than likely because we are getting older. During the year we went West Wales for young Tales birthday to allow him to fish for sea-trout, went to a wedding in St Ives, visited Mrs Tales birthplace on the island of Cyprus, retuned to Bexhill – a place I spent time at as a young teenager to fish, stalled out at The National Vintage Tackle Fair, worked on some new projects and now it’s Christmas.
As it’s time to spend time with Mrs and young Tales on this Christmas Eve I want to take this opportunity to wish all of you who have taken time to read my blog a very merry Christmas.
05 Saturday Dec 2015
Posted in Art, Barbel Fishing, Beer, Books, Car Boot, Carp Fishing, Coarse Fishing, Conservation, Cornwall, Drink, Everything about fishing, Film, Fish & Game Recipes, Fishing, Fly Fishing, Fly Tying, Food, Gin, Interiors, London, Lure Fishing, Mudlarking, Nature, Old Salts, Photography, Pike Fishing, Poetry, Presents, Public Houses, Reclaim, River Fishing, River Thames, Rod Building & Restoration, Sculpture, Sea fishing, Sport, Street Art, Tackle, Tales by the riverbank, Theatre, Tools, travel, Vintage, Vintage homewares, Whisky
Earlier in the year I found a tin decorated with an oriental theme with a price tag of £3 on a self in one of our local charity shops. I picked it up to find that it was containing a full box wood chess set. Inverting the tin carefully it beard a logo of the Twinings Tea company with the further detail ‘Fine Quality Blend Of Indian & Ceylon Teas Half Pound Nett Twinings’ along with (Registered Trade Mark).
A long time ago I purchased a black lacquer and gold painted gaming board with a chess or checkers board on one side and within a back gammon board. This small tin an ideal partner to that board. I thought for young Tales a welcome departure from the modern age iPad, there is something satisfying when picking up a box wood chess piece and saying checkmate.
04 Friday Dec 2015
Posted in Barbel Fishing, Car Boot, Carp Fishing, Coarse Fishing, Conservation, Cooking, Cornwall, Everything about fishing, Fish & Game Recipes, Fishing, Fly Fishing, Fly Tying, Food, Interiors, London, Lure Fishing, Mudlarking, Old Salts, Pike Fishing, Presents, Public Houses, Reclaim, River Fishing, River Thames, Rod Building & Restoration, Sculpture, Sea fishing, Sport, Tackle, Tales by the riverbank, Tools, travel, Vintage, Vintage homewares, Whisky
There are some items in life that become trusted friends, fountain pens, watches, tools, cars, rucksacks, catapults, rods, reels, priest, Barbour, fishing bag, camera and they never let you down and always do what they’re meant to do. Without question these are one of the best knives you can own, simple yet the quality will mean that like a Rolex timepiece they can be passed down to the next generation. One of these Opinel knives will cost you less than £10 unless you want one with a carbon blade. I use mine in the kitchen, when camping, fishing or just out in the garden or in the countryside. If you by one of these as a stocking filler it will be cherished by the user long after the snow has melted and the decorations are down.
11 Sunday Oct 2015
Tags
Ben Fogal, Big Fish, Competition, Cuba, Earth, Fishing, Iceland, Matt Hayes, Wildest Waters. BBC
This evening the House Of Tales settled down to watch episode one of Earth’s Wildest Waters – The Big Fish. Adventurer Ben Fogal and fishing legend Matt Hayes judge the fishing exploits of eight anglers in the rugged and freezing terrain of Iceland. Fishing from kayaks, commercial vessels and from the shores of geo thermal lakes the contestants put their skills to the test.
Much like the format of The Great British Bake Off or Master Chef the skill of each angler will define their fate. Will this be compelling viewing on a Sunday night…for the many that fish this may just be the perfect cast. For sure it will have young Tales hooked.
With next weeks episode is set in Cuba, a haven for game fishers of bone fish and tarpon the eight anglers will be float tubing, how will Sam the all-rounder from Sussex fare…
Maybe one day young Tales and I will get our chance to fish some of the world’s waters for our fishing adventures have only just begun.
23 Thursday Jul 2015
Looking out across the the water to what is known as the Deep End it is difficult to work out where some six years has gone for it is here young Tales got his first introduction to sea fishing.
We return here to Seaford most years to fish from the beach for bass, flat fish and in the summer months smoothound. I have to say we have caught little from this renound Sussex beach, you can count on one hand our success however that is not a fair summary of the productiveness of this long shingle beach.
Our day actually started by fishing the West arm of the Marina in Brighton but that soon came to an abrupt end when the waves started crashing over the concrete wall soaking us. Young Tales enthusiasm took a turn and he asked to drive over to Seaford. Upon arriving we saw several rods dotted along the beach, all close to known hot spots that fish well. In fact most sea angling comps are held between The Buckle and Tide Mills so no prizes as for guessing why.
We set up our rods just in front of the Martello Tower, here the sea is deep enough at high tide to get amongst feeding fish as the waves crash onto the beach. Unfortunately nothing was interested in our rag worm offering. We also fished Beach Comber Gully but I couldn’t get my rig out the the 80-100 yard mark for it to be productive.
As the sun started to drop away we took up fishing a favourite mark but it can be a graveyard for terminal tackle and yesterday was no exception when we lost several rigs and weights to the submerged pipe that runs out to sea.
On reflection it didn’t matter that we blanked, there were certainly fish there as a couple of guys had takes from bass, for us it was just a sheer delight to be able to spend time together hoping of catching that PB and recall the years spent fishing at this gem of a Sussex resort. For here at Seaford is where it all began.
21 Tuesday Apr 2015
It is difficult to comprehend where the time has gone since I last wrote a post for this blog. The Easter break seems to have passed in the blink of an eye, the last day of coarse fishing season I noted but didn’t get a chance to get to the river even when it’s yards from my home. The start of the official trout season is underway however young Tales has notched up as many trout as his motor racing idol has won rounds of the F1 World Championship.
Over the Easter break we took to the shores of Suffolk and saw first hand the productivity of some of the fishing marks that one reads about in Sea Angler magazine. A ticking off from young Tales ensued as having decided not to pack a rod as I didn’t think we’d have time, I was to be proved wrong. Arriving at Southwold on a turning tide I was to be escorted up to the end of the pier to see a couple of old salts land flatties on a cocktail of lug tipped with squid, ‘I told you to pack a rod’ exclaimed young Tales.
Interestingly enough where we stayed on the outskirts of Ipswich the hotel has a small brook that winds through the grounds. Fast darting shadows indicated that natural browns were resident in the clear waters. Each morning young Tales would head out of the French windows to run down a lush grass bank covered in a thick morning dew to stand on a wooden bridge to search the waters for fish.
We will return to this coastline which is of such historical importance to fish it later in the year, the rods will be packed for sure.
04 Sunday Jan 2015
Posted in Conservation, Cooking, Everything about fishing, Fish & Game Recipes, Fishing, Food, London, Nature, Old Salts, Public Houses, Sea fishing, Sport, Tackle, travel, Vintage
As it’s late in the evening I will leave a brief post. Today was the last day of the Festive holiday for young Tales as he will be back at school on Tuesday and tomorrow will be a day of preparation for the week ahead.
We headed off to Seaford, the sky was overcast and most of the journey was in fog. Once past Hassocks the sky started to clear and then by Lewes the sun was visible over the South Downs. As we turned towards Tide Mills we could see a para glider high over the old ruins that lay to the East of Newhaven Port. Young Tales had decided that today would be a day of beach fishing so we settled on a mark behind the Buckle Caravan Park know for flat fish and that was on the species list for young Tales.
To the left of us the RNLI were out on a shout and a crowed gathered on the beach, however after a while we realised they were practicing.
With three rods rigged and Tales eager each rod was cast in turn with variable accuracy and distance, within a few minutes the top of young Tales rod started to twitch and as the line was retrieved the first of the days whiting were landed. Over the next three hours more whiting took the bait until the long Diawa Sensor started to twitch, the distinctive knock of a flat fish. Once beached this small flounder was of keepable size and was earmarked to be his supper.
In typical form it was a to be ‘another cast Dad’, the sun had started to set and the tops of the rod had stopped rattling and the sea was heading off to France, yes it was time to pack up and head back to the outskirts of pandemonium.
02 Friday Jan 2015
Tags
Candles, Flory & Black, Kent, Native Oysters, Romans, Seafaring, Stout, Thames Estuary, Whitstable, Whitstable Oyster Company
The Native or flat oyster is the oyster that made Whitstable famous. Since before the arrival of the Romans these bivalves were abundant on the nutrient-rich waters that form the Thames Estuary. The location of Whitstable allows the rich Thames water to mix with the saltwater of the North Sea and in the shallows the water is warm providing the perfect environment for the algae that forms the diet of the native oysters.
Now being the prime season for oysters we decided that after the last few days of traditional Christmas food it was time for a change and there is nothing better than a plate of oysters, grilled lobster and Whitstable stout.
If you haven’t been to Whitstable then you should add it to your list of places to visit. A town with a historic seafaring legacy and if you didn’t already know it’s where the deep sea diving helmet was conceived. These days it is now a destination Kent Coastal town with a high street full of shops selling decorative items for the home, vintage clothing and furniture plus the iconic Whitstable Oyster Company restaurant and some great pubs and beachside oyster bars.
For the House Of Tales it was the last day out as a family before the commercial pressures of life kick in from Monday onwards. After the hour and a half drive from SW London we arrived in Whitstable in time for lunch, before we settled into our sea food lunch a quick visit to Flory & Black, a store that makes the best candles money can buy, they really do last and burn properly, one I purchased in February 2014 has only just finished.
Lunch consisted of a plate of Native Oysters, a grilled Lobster with garlic butter for young Tales and a locally caught sea bass for the good lady. I have to say the Whitstable Oyster Company restaurant is a great place, run well and has a great atmosphere, it’s consistently good. What is really great is that the location is on the beach so a stroll on the beach after lunch or dinner in the summer is a must. Today we watched the tide drop, the setting sun light up the sands, silhouette the groynes and The Old Neptune, the pub known as neppy situated on the beach near Island Wall.
I understand why the Romans were so keen on eating oysters, the Native Whitstable Oysters are what I consider to be the best.
31 Wednesday Dec 2014
Posted in Art, Barbel Fishing, Beer, Books, Car Boot, Carp Fishing, Childrens Books, Coarse Fishing, Conservation, Cooking, Cornwall, Dogs, Everything about fishing, Film, Fish & Game Recipes, Fishing, Fly Fishing, Fly Tying, Food, Gin, Interiors, London, Lure Fishing, Mudlarking, Music, Nature, Old Salts, Olympics, Photography, Pike Fishing, Poetry, Presents, Public Houses, Reclaim, River Fishing, River Thames, Rod Building & Restoration, Sculpture, Sea fishing, Sport, Street Art, Tackle, Tales by the riverbank, Theatre, Tools, travel, Vintage, Vintage homewares, Whisky
As the minutes tick away it will soon be time to herald in the the New Year, cast our thoughts back to moments of 2014 which made up the tapestry of an interesting and eventful year, from distilling, cooking, travel, fishing, painting, writing and meeting so many new faces.
We shared special moments with family, fishermen and friends and look forward to more adventures in 2015.
May I wish you all from which ever continent you may reside a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year and thank you for following talesbytheriverbank.
tales by the riverbank 