Category: Blog
-
Sorry for trashing your mailbox
My dear valued subscribers, last week you might have received a strange email with a bunch of links and code. As you can probably imagine it was sent as a result of an error that happened while making improvements to the Tommy’s Outdoors website. Sorry about that. I am gearing up for some significant technical changes to the podcast and these modifications to the website were necessary prerequisites. As one of the changes, I have replaced the SoundCloud embedded player…
-
Beak, Tooth and Claw by Mary Colwell – A Book Review
It’s not often that I write a book review. But every now and then I come across a book that I really wish everybody I know would read. In my podcast, the subject of our difficult coexistence with wildlife is featured in many episodes. By far the most complex and difficult issue is our coexistence with predators. Since the dawn of time, our species has lived in danger of being preyed upon, while at the same time competing for prey.…
-
Housekeeping 2021
Dear readers, listeners, viewers, followers and subscribers! This is the 4th annual housekeeping blog. I summarize the past year and outline my plans for Tommy’s Outdoors for the coming year 2021. Last year, like those before, was mainly dedicated to the podcast. I published 26 episodes and this year the podcast will remain the core of Tommy’s Outdoors content. One significant change, made late last year, was to switch the category under which the podcast is listed from ‘sports’ to…
-
Angling for Critically Endangered Fish
My good fishing buddy posted some photos from his two-day boat fishing trip. One of the typical grip-and-grin photos showed him with the porbeagle shark (Lamna nasus). This made me envious. As a compulsive-obsessive shark angler, I chased these sharks for many years. I was only successful once and the specimen I caught was very young and rather small. To me, it didn’t really count. So this species of sharks is still on my to-do, or more precisely, my to-catch…
-
Lockdown Fishing
Like most of you I feel the impact of the covid pandemic. Outdoor pursuits are among the impacted activities. Even though many of them could be considered the original forms of social distancing. Obviously any travel, even very near, is off the table. Luckily for me I have access to a beautiful coastal area just a few hundred meters outside my front door. That of course means that angling is my daily exercise of choice. I know a few tried…
-
I have a killer podcast for you
This week on Tommy’s Outdoors was a little quiet, but not because of the unfolding situation with COVID-19. It was due to some high priority work that I’m involved with. You can read more about it in my housekeeping blog from the beginning of the year. But worry not, as per the usual schedule, next week I have a killer podcast for you. It’s going to be about nature, conservation and hunting. But it’s not going to be the usual…
-
Housekeeping 2020
It’s been a while since our last housekeeping update. So in this blog, I’m going to tell you what I’ve been up to recently and what to expect from Tommy’s Outdoors going forward. First, I need to give myself a pat on the back. At the beginning of 2019, I promised to put out at least 30 episodes of the podcast. With episode 60 published on the 25th of December, I have successfully kept my promise. In the coming year,…
-
Tommy’s Outdoors Top 10 Photos of 2019
After publishing two podcasts back to back in previous weeks today, for something different, I am posting the top 10 outdoors photos that I took in 2019. Most of them have already been posted on my Instagram page, but if you missed some or all of them, or Instagram is not your cup of tea, then here you have it.
-
Is Angling a Blood Sport?
Just the other day, my buddy and I were unpacking our gear and were about to take a walk to our fishing mark. A passing family with two small kids waved at us and wished us good luck. This was not an uncommon occurrence. Many times, over the years, I have been greeted by, and even gotten into friendly chats with, non-angling passersby. On that day, while walking to our destination, we began to talk about how nonparticipants accept angling…
-
Charter Boat Sea Angling
I was sitting at my desk working when my phone rang. It was a text message from my friend and charter boat skipper Luke, who was our guest on episode 41. He had some spaces free on an upcoming fishing trip and was checking if anyone was fancy to go. Regular listeners of the podcast already know that for more than five years I went crazy for sea angling. It would be hard to recall all the trips I took…