Issue No. II August 16th 2021
Welcome to the Piscatorial Raconteurs & Friends – ‘being the quiet observations of Gentlemen Anglers‘
Within these pages you will find peace and warm reflection in what we believe is a quiet backwater. Here one can while away time sitting comfortably in a familiar armchair accompanied by a favoured tipple’… continue reading
A thought for the day.
We don’t tend to ask where a lake comes from. It lies before us, contained & complete, tantalising in its depth but not its origin. A river is a different kind of mystery, a mystery of distance and becoming, a mystery of source. Touch its fluent body and you touch for places. You touch a story that must end somewhere, but cannot stop telling itself, a story that is always just beginning. John Daniel
This issues contemplations –
The Raconteurs August Miscellany – Sneezewort, RBTraditional & Dipper. Guest contributions feature another splendid film by Tim Walters & Mathew Craine films some super footage beneath the surface. Plus this issues Raconteurs articles from RBT, Darjeeling, Bob the Float, Martin James MBE, Sussex Micky, Sneezewort, OMR, Pallenpool & Paul Adams.
We also have a new gallery environment called ‘The Piscatorial Raconteurs Albums of Photographs’ that can be found in the menu. With content being updated regularly & featuring an all new gallery addition ‘The Ways of Water’, where we regard a river, stream, pool or lake in a snapshot of time from its watery year.
A Raconteurs August Miscellany
The following few lines were sent to me on a Sunday morning in mid July – they capture the essence of an anglers morning in short form, contemplative, and thought provoking.
RBTraditional sends a small joy – continue reading
I cannot begin to imagine how, when faced with imminent risk to life, such bravery was called upon, not once but countless times. Instead, I’ll dream forward to a life after the war, perhaps whilst still a serving Officer
Sneezewort & the book of two tales – continue reading
‘Recently I have been spending some early mornings fishing a lovely old estate lake, and I can think of few places I’d rather be at my favourite time of day’.
Dipper’s essential tackles – his alarm clock – continue reading
This issues features & articles
August’s Guest – Tim Walters, & Matthew Craine.
Tim Walters brief but wonderful footage of chub spawning somewhere in Sussex. view here
Mathew Craine takes a camera underwater with some super footage as a result . . . A predatory pike in and amongst the sunken branches – continue reading.
Issue No. 2 The Piscatorial Raconteurs articles.
Sussex Micky, OMR, RBT, Martin James MBE, Sneezewort, Paul Adams, Bob the Float, Darjeeling & Pallenpool.
Paul Adams – offers a rather different ‘Opening Day’ from way up in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains . . . ‘June 16th. I should be settled beside a channel on the Kent marshes, in the company of two fellow Piscators, watching bubbles around a quill float.’ – continue reading.
Bob the Float – Recalls a tench fishers dawn . . . Arriving at the river bank while the world is still asleep, is where you’ll find the tench fisher on the season’s opening week – continue reading.
Sussex Micky’s Brede Valley Memoirs – Part II . . . . . The first time that I was introduced to the Brede Valley was when I was about eight years old. My mother took me and a friend hop picking at a farm that nestled in the Valley – continue reading.
RBT concludes his search for the perfect fork of hazel – the finished article & a perfect rest. . . . . my thoughts turn to not only the annual maintenance tasks upon the cottage but to the whittling of new hazel rod rests and thumb sticks for piscatorial friends and associates – continue reading
Pallenpool’s tales from the pool – The cuckoos lament & new beginnings – Gazing upward I pass over every leafy branch, my breath reducing to a shallow draw – her call can be heard but as yet I have not had that first glimpse, her song is repeated but with suitable and tantalising pauses – continue reading
Darjeeling’s of mice & men. . . This morning (June 16th), having liberated the rods from my close-season cupboard with tench in mind, I’m up before the sparrows and beside a lake for that quintessential season opener ‘the tench fisher’s dawn.’ – continue reading.
Sneezewort asks the question – Do you fancy a swim? – I have a near hundred-year-old copy of A.A. Milne’s Winnie the Pooh, and no doubt could once recite the best walking route from Kanga’s house in the ‘100 Aker’ (sic) wood to Eeyore’s gloomy place he called home – continue reading.
RBTraditional – Friendship . . . We climbed trees all around the lake, peering down into the watery home of our quarry, we watched some beauties gliding in and around the huge beds of lilies, but none were as big as the one that had emptied my soul earlier that day. – continue reading
Martin James MBE – returns to the paradise of his boyhood . . . Having come through the war years, Battle of Britain, The Blitz, D-Day and Doodle Bugs known as V1 and V2 rockets; it was the latter that demolished my home, we all had a lucky escape – continue reading.
Darjeeling – the thing about chub . . I caught a few good chub that year from picnic pool, tempting them from under the dogwood thicket of the far bank with a delicately placed fly – continue reading.
OMR has an idea why impulse angling works in mysterious ways Looking around, everything looked the same as my last visit, which was over 5 months ago, the paddock I had to cross was now full of sweet smelling grass and clover, the horse that lived in the paddock was as usual standing proud and watching me get the tackles from the car – continue reading.
Martin James MBE – has an enjoyable start to the season. . It was around 2100 hrs on June 15th when I arrived at my riverside cabin where I would have supper, at the same time putting together two set ups, one for sea trout, the other for chub. If the latter didn’t want my bait I would switch and cast for sea trout – continue reading.
OMR concludes his Maurice Ingham net build, the bamboo pole
The construction is relatively easy, although it can be rather time consuming as each part is either individually made by hand or is a part that is adapted from a previous use by cutting, soldering etc. – continue reading
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