news/editorial

1 March 2020 News/Editorial

There is little to report on the fishing front, 4 salmon was the score, making around 20 the total catch for both February and the season so far. Too often adverse water conditions, and lack of rods fishing, are blamed for poor catches, when the real reason is lack of fish. Not this February, the weather is wholly to blame, and we will only find out what is in the river when these storms end.

As deluge after deluge hurtles across the Atlantic, of one thing we can be sure, that when we get to the best fishing times in late spring, summer and early autumn, there will be drought and blistering, unforgiving sunshine. The river will boil.

For now, the meteorological prognoses still favour something drier, cooler and calmer in the coming week, and as we get further into March, from the Ides (the 15th) onwards, it may even become both warmer and drier. March has certainly come in like a lion, it may yet depart like a lamb.

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Our otters have been grounded, never before have I seen them so often above and out of the water, running around and about our house, one imagines looking for ground (rather that watery) game, to eat. I have no idea how life is for them trying to catch fish in a raging torrent when you cannot see beyond the end of your ottery nose in the foaming brown torrent, but not easy, bordering on impossible, could be right.

Better perhaps to roam around the shrubbery, catching rats, mice, moles and anything else that provides a meal. I watched one as it sauntered past an unsuspecting brown hare; ungainly on dry land, the otter carried right on, never flinched, knowing instinctively it was beaten. My dogs growl and bark when they see them, luckily on leads, for if they caught up with Mr Otter, there would only one winner.

Not my dogs.

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Of the many advices received when young, one of the best was “if you have nothing interesting to say, keep quiet”. Too few of us stand by that, especially as we get older, this column, this week, is proof of that.

On the subject of good advice and eternal truths, my old friend MH (to avoid name dropping, that will have to do) most generously sent us Geoffrey Madan’s Commonplace book for Christmas. Amongst the many gems, my current favourite is “a Gentleman is one who never looks as if he has just had his hair cut”, in contrast to what one of my friends says whenever he sees me, recently clipped, “ it’s so nice to see your barber still has a sense of humour”.

For old curmudgeons and “glass half empty” folk, such as yours truly, I also rather warm to Archbishop Manners Sutton’s “Above all, no enthusiasms!” For some reason, after a tragic February, with the wind still howling and a big brown river racing by as I look out of my windows today, that one in MH’s book hits the spot.