The Water Calls – fishing and advevnture stories from Douglas Paton
“Having any luck?” the man asked. “I’ve managed to get into some trout,” I replied. “How about yourself, any luck?” “A few fly poops,” he said. “Nothing much more than that.” I had been watching the man sift through the dirt at the side of the river for a while now. I’d been chasing a […]
George Graw and I started fishing together about two months after his death. Although neither of us knew it at the time, George and I met towards the end of his life. We met through our local fly fishing club and got to know each other better once I joined the club’s executive. At the […]
Sometime around the time the shooting started, I realized I lost my net. Everything happened so fast and my only thoughts were around trying to avoid getting shot, not picking up all my gear. As intense as that was in the moment, it passed quickly. A few blasts from my air horn announced my presence […]
Sometime around my last post, things got busy. I was getting more writing work than ever, and it was great. But, it meant that the time and energy I had to spend on writing for the blog dipped, which wasn’t so great. Time passed. I wrote… …and wrote… …and wrote… Don’t get me wrong. I’m […]
A few years ago, a friend and I got together for what would become the first of many fishing trips together. We did some research, found a place to stay and booked our trip. Both of us were pretty excited about the trip and in the moths and weeks that lead up to the trip, […]
Exploring, and the activities that go along with it like fishing, is a funny thing. You can plan and plan and plan out your trek to the Nth degree, cover every square inch of the area you’re in with your map book, Google Maps and prior knowledge and still not be fully prepared for what […]
Life is funny. One second you’re sitting on the couch enjoying a quiet evening and then, out of the blue, you get a message about a boat. Now, as an angler and a life-long lover of boats, it’s not that unusual for me to get messages about boat. In fact, it happens fairly regularly. This time, […]
Fishing is a funny thing. One minute I’m writing about how the fishing season is coming to a close, the next I’m off on some river, dangling flies under an indicator and getting excited about the next season of fishing: winter. This year will be the first year that I really do any winter fishing. Fly […]
[This is the first in a series of posts about somewhat unconventional advice for becoming a better angler. It’s not tips, tricks or tactics, as such, but suggestions for becoming an overall better angler that you might not otherwise think of.] A little over a year ago I did something I don’t normally do: I went […]