Peter Horlock

 



 “Who?” you might ask, probably quite correctly. The man wasn’t famous in fly-tying and fly-fishing circles, so most readers will be unaware of him. Well, blowing his cover, he features in ‘The Continuous Adventures …’ under the pseudonym ‘Sailor’, due to his proclivity to set sail across the Atlantic (and other seas and oceans) at the drop of a hat. Sadly he has joined Dell-boy in the ranks of ex-Fluff Boys.

 He and Whytee joined the Wessex branch of the Fluff Club on the same day, often enjoying a beer together before the weekly branch meetings, and developing a rivalry in fly tying competitions run by ‘FlyFishing and FlyTying’ and ‘Trout Fisherman’ magazines, eagerly checking the placings each month. Peter was more ‘traditional’ but innovation was never far away.

 On the Fluff Club’s monthly outings, when he wasn’t at sea or road-tripping the USA, the rivalry continued, adding a frisson to our fishing which will be sorely missed. Peter much preferred dry fly to other methods, but would resort to lure or nymph when a dry simply wouldn’t work, ever an elegant caster.


 I didn’t write this as an eulogy, but to record and remark upon the death of a really nice guy with a passion for fly fishing freshwater or sea. This world is now a poorer place.



Comments

Post a Comment

Comments and/or feedback are always welcome

Popular posts from this blog

Summer long ago

Image
It’s a long time since I was sixteen, but one thing is still so vivid in my memory. My older brother was travelling, post uni, and my parents had taken me on a holiday to the west coast of Scotland, where they intended to tour from a base in a lonely, rented farmhouse right on the coast. Given the choice, I had elected to go fishing rather than suffer all that mileage in the back seat of the car every day. Plenty of small but obliging brown trout kept me fully occupied in the tiny pools and riffles of the burn as it cascaded down toward the sea. My supply of flies began to dwindle, but they were all scrounged from adults anyway, I still had plenty in hand for fishing the whole length of tumbling burn until I reached the first of four tidal pools down on the rocky shore, where I hoped I might encounter a sea-trout for the first time. By the third day, there I was, carefully casting my way along the first of those pools, when a soft, lilting Scottish voice nearly made me jump out...
Read more

Ed 10 TCAOTFC Prequels update

Image
As mentioned in Prequel D, now that fishing is out of Covid-19 lockdown (let’s hope permanently), there’s little point in slavishly posting more TCAOTFC Ps because we can fish again, obviating the need for a fishing read. Here, then, is a synopsis of the eight outstanding Ps, albeit lacking a lot of detail, due to minimalist log entries!   E . A trip to Chalk Springs, attended by the Admiral, Professor, Turner, Sailor, Dell-boy, Rodney, Lumberjack, Jackdaw, Moneypenny, and Whytee. Mid-spring, last night’s temperature was down to 3 C., but expected to rise to 10, with strong winds and showers blowing from the north-west. Most of the gang pulled into Fontwell’s Little Chef for breakfast, before the short hop to the fishery. Always a good way to start a day’s fishing. We rigged-up and dispersed about the four ‘lakes’. Moneypenny caught from the off, taking five Rainbows from the same swim o South, all before the fishing became challenging. Squalls, even hailstones and the c...
Read more

The Continuing Adventures of the Fluff Club, Episode 5

Image
The names of the Fluff Boys are disguised and the venues un-named, to protect the innocent! At the preceding tying evening seven of us put up hands for a breakfast start to the latest trip, and uncannily seven actually turned up. Are we making progress as a group or was this a fluke? Our organisational abilities and arithmetic seem to be on the up. Having fed and watered we assembled our gear and ambled off, enjoying this fine spring morning, listening to a brace of feuding Woodpeckers with their guns set to rapid fire, and some Chiffchaffs trying to make up for their lack of melody by turning the volume up to 11; the sun shone through in spells, and there was just a light breeze. Gorgeous. During the breakfast craic most had decided to elect for just 2-fish tickets, apart from two fool hardies who had each gone for a 4, yours truly being one. The Lumberjack asked me if I was at all confident, and I replied my intention was to try for a fish from each of the three ponds. The ...
Read more