Well, another week has passed and disappointingly I did not get down to the mangroves once again. There are three major impediments that I have to overcome to fish down there the way I prefer this time of year: heat, bugs, and rain.
Heat is no joke, but it can be tolerated with the right attitude, knowledge, and good planning. The activity required of flycasting, fighting fish and paddling a canoe almost guarantee that excessive uncomfortable sweating, muscle cramps, and aggravation can be expected daily. But it goes a lot further than simple discomfort: heat stroke can kill you! Some think I’m secretive or maybe not a generous person because I seldom offer to take others fishing this time of year, but I have in the past and once put the other angler and myself in a very uncomfortable situation. They could not take the heat and started down the path through heat exhaustion into stroke! Miles from the launch, which was miles from civilization, I had to paddle us both back, and quickly. We both survived, but we felt the effects for days. That ain’t happening again.
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It’s my last week here for the time being. Five more days of fishing, 20 minutes of packing, then it’s all hell for leather off to KL and then onto England. The world championships are coming up soon (I’ve started practising!) and there is a Sexyloops Hot Torpedo Owners meet the weekend after.
At the end of September I’m racing in a triathlon with my sister in Portugal (I have started training!), then middle of October it’s back to Malaysia for a fly fishing show at the end of that month and then it’s Jungle Perch time in the Wet Season. Fantastic!!
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Warning – This is an opinion piece based merely on my own thoughts and experience on the water.
Trout Spey has become one of the quickest growing genres/topics in freshwater fly fishing in the past couple of years. The growth can be attributed in part to a large marketing push by industry representatives, but also to a genuine interest by long-time trout anglers to find new approaches and methods to fish water that they know and love as a way to not only catch fish, but also keep their sport fresh and fun.
But what is Trout Spey, really? The industry, I.E. rod and line manufacturers, has essentially defined it as the pursuit of trout with a swung fly using light, 2-handed rods in the two through 4wt range. Essentially a scaled down version of traditional Atlantic salmon and steelhead angling methods. The rods and lines are new and fun and definitely add something to the pursuit of trout by diversifying our approach. The definition serves a clear purpose, defining a specific subset or niche of gear and angling tactics, and makes talking about it a bit easier.
But I disagree with the definition.
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We're experiencing the most extreme summer I can remember. Basically it hasn't rained since the end of April or something (other than a few drizzles here and there). The temperatures are gruelling and has passed 30 degrees C on a daily basis for a week or two, and been above 25 C for months. We've had several nights with temps above 20 C, and all that's quite unuusual for Denmark.
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eat, sleep, fish
fishing in Skålestrømmen
Konstanse and I are again fishing our favourite spot, the Skålestrømmen. The name drives from a) Skåle - a tiny village of maybe 6 houses and b) the word strømmen. Strømmen means stream. The strømmen is the connection between two big lakes, the Ulen and the Rengen. Depending on water level it has more or less current. Very nice flats one can easily wade, a deep channel which is good for boat and few deep, large pools. The insect life is rich and so is the birdlife an other animals.
The fishing itself is best at night. Nights are bright up here, the wind calms down and one can experience really epic, unforgettable moments. The fish are plenty and a very good eat. It is a bit like the scenario described in old books. The average size for the well fed trout is around 1,5 pounds. Taking them on the fly is a very good sport. These trout really fight hard.
The area Skåle is located in is also known for good moose and grouse hunting. One really has to be careful when driving. Grouse seem completely unaware of cars. The other night when driving to one of the good fishing spots we had one standing next to the car. It would not want to move. I could have literally plucked it’s feathers, which Konstanse plead me to do. she recently has developed a love for soft hackle nymphs & wet flies. She uses the feathers I gathered from a roadkill grouse a few years back.
So the days go by in a lazy but steady rhythm of eating, sleeping and fishing. We eat and sleep during the day, tie few flies, visit friends in the area and fish at night. Fantastic.
Tomorrow clients for guiding will arrive and it will be interesting how they cope. It will be good. Very good. I must say I shiver a bit when using the term “client”. To me every fisherman is a friend.
enclosed a little video of what it is like here ....
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This weekend James and I will be going to the Game Fair at Ragley Hall in Warwickshire. We are part of the BFCC team that is organising the fly casting competitions, a team that includes quite a few entrants to the World Championships next month in Cumbria. Besides running the comps, we all hope to do some practice in preparation for the competition in August, so have this year made the trout distance championship identical to the Worlds #5 event. Whereas we have kept the Daily trout distance event a #7 so that casters not into distance casting can use a ‘regular’ outfit to compete with.
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For more than 5 years I was studying all details of fly fishing for asp to now be able to run workshops about how to catch asp on fly. My first workshop went pretty well!
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Since I have not been able to bring myself to revisit the devastation of my beloved Everglades fishing spots post the hurricane, I did a bit of local fishing this past week. I do this occasionally for a cheap fix. I see it much like visiting a brothel instead of actually putting in the work for something really meaningful. That may be a sad comment on a rather spectacular fishery but one of which I have become rather spoiled by familiarity.
Excluding the coastal dunes, which are a tad above sea level, the remainder of South Florida is essentially a reclaimed swamp. To do that many, many miles of drainage canals have been dug. With the exception of the brackish coastal rivers close to the coast, all of these canals are freshwaters with a direct connection to the upper Everglades prairies. And in these freshwater canals reside an impressive assortment of fish willing to take a fly, both native and exotic.
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If you ask fly fishing guides what is the one thing that they would like their clients to be able to do better in order to catch more fish, the answer is not that they wish that they could tie better flies, tie better knots or owned better equipment. It is resoundingly that they should cast better.
If you ask fly casting instructors what is the one thing that they wish that their clients would do better, the answer is not that they read more books, watch more videos or even that they have more lessons (although that can help!). It is that they practise more.
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Would have never thought I´d be longing for lower temperatures, but the current insane heatwave in southern Scandinavia is madness. Temps mostly around 30 C, the forest is bone dry. All open flame is banned, so no campfires. What is a fishing trip without a proper fire? ... Ah well ... good we are heading north today. The weather report promises lower temps. Oh I am so looking forward to an amazing trout and char fishing in Skålestrømmen. So see you around folks ...
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Tracy and I had a very pleasant evening’s fishing on the Dee in Corwen at the weekend, due to the very hot daytime temperatures we didn’t leave our home until 6pm but our new proximity to the river meant we were tackling up by 6:30. We headed for a spot where I’d seen rises on my previous visit and, sure enough, there was numerous tell-tale dimplings to indicate that there were still fish in the same location.
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Graphite fly rods did break 30 years ago, they still do break today and I think they will break always. Mostly that is when we do something wrong.
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.jpg "Hotter than a Potato")
The Sexyloops Hot Torpedo is only fly rod in the world that comes with a full operator's manual and free lifetime support. Not only that but it knocks the spots off all other fly rods both in performance and in looks and can be fully customised for no extra charge. These are fishing rods however, and have a stealth matt finish, without the bling of gay fly fishing rods. If you want a pink or yellow gay fly fishing rod, that spooks fish, then drop us a line and we will recommend a local doctor who can help you and we will send you some bangers so that you can let the fish know where you are at all times. Sexyloops fly rods catch fish, and unlike the competition, you don't need to up-line (use a heavier line than AFFTA standard) to use it, because a) we design Sexyloops rods around AFFTA conforming flylines and b) we will teach you how to handle your rod like a pro. If you can't double haul yet then you have definitely come to the right place because over the past twenty years we have taught more people to Double Haul than anyone else!
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I’d bet that if you asked most anglers what a fishing guide’s job is, they would respond with something like “to put me on the fish”, or “to help me catch fish”. I was a (trout) guide once, a few years back, and, while I did help a lot of people catch fish, I can remember the many other roles that I played. Most were enjoyable. Some were also ridiculous. I didn't get rich, but I had a lot of fun, and met some great people along the way.
Above all, I believe that the guides job is to show his/her clients a good time out on the water, while at the same time respecting the resource, and spreading goodwill. It took me a year of guiding to realize that it might not always be about catching loads of fish. Here are a few of my favorite roles that I played as a guide. Maybe a couple you haven't thought about.
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Scandinavian inventions. The Vikings are smart when it comes to coming up with small solutions to every day problems. IKEA is maybe one of the most known, but have you seen the fold-a-cup?
It’s a nifty little cup made from soft plastics so it fold in itself an so takes almost no space in your pocket or pack. Taking a cup along on the hike and travel is an age old concept. Maybe the most original one is the cup made from wood. Up in the north they call it kuksa. I like them very much. They are nice to the hand sand you don’t burn your fingers when holding a warm beverage in the them.
However, these devices are used to drink water too. Water from lakes, rivers and creeks.
So for me the kuksa is much more than just another cup. I wouldn’t pour some sugar loaded black water in it either. I carry it on me to drink the water around me. Hang on you say - you cant do that everywhere. Exactly my point. I let this device decide where I go fishing. Wherever I can not use my kuksa I do not go. I do not see the point in fishing water I can not even drink.
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The casting competitions are coming round thick and fast at the moment; last weekend was the BFCC event at Alconbury and in a couple of weeks there is the Game Fair. Then in August there’s the big one – the World Championships in Millom, Cumbria.
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After 3 weeks of outstanding fly fishing in Norway we finally are back home. Of course I directly went back into fishing my home waters.
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I don’t have much to report from South Florida. I have not been fishing since a tarpon trip to the Keys. Otherwise, my involvement with flyfishing has been limited to practicing my casting, evaluating some rods, and teaching.
It has been on the teaching front where I have been having the most fun.
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Hi everyone, I’d like to expand our readership and so would really appreciate some testimonials for you!!! So if we have helped you to become a better fly caster (and hopefully a better angler as well?) then please write me a short testimonial and send to paul@sexyloops.com
Many many thanks!!!
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I'm addicted of tying streamer, that means most of the time big hooks and much material. When I started to tie a lot with bucktail I ended up with some strong multi-fiber thread which gave me the possibility to tie tight and for a long time. I've need the power of the thread to tie tight enough and to have that quality I want to have. I had many different threads, flat waxed nylon or something else but I ended up with GSP from Veevus. A nice, strong and not so expensive thread from Denmark. Just perfect for my use, they produce it in different "strength" between 50D and 250D only in black and withe. I'don't use colored thread anyway because I don't like to see thread in my flies and the thin 50D is still strong but also enough thin for a dry. Really cool, stuff I'm totally happy, no broken thread at all and all the material is sitting there where it should!
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Summer is blazing away here in Denmark, thankfully with slightly lower temperatures and more wind than a few weeks ago. It's so dry here that there's a nationwide ban on bonfires, coal grills etc. because of the danger of setting a wildland fire.
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Oscar. No, I’m not talking about that weird statue they fight over in Hollywood. We call our "camp fish" Oscar. The lad means good fortune. It’s always a good sign when you have a rising fish right by where you have rigged camp. It’s a cheerful, positive thing. The sign of hope, the ligt at the end of the tunnel and so on. Chose whatever metaphor you like.
K and me have started to call this fish Oscar. Of course he’s not to be fished for. That’ll be utter madness. No, we need him to keep the small light of hope alive. Bad nights sleep, grumpy ´cos it rained a bit and the f…. Knott are gettin´ at ya? No worries - Oscar will save your day. All is good when Oscar then makes a small splash, a tiny noise or just produces a ring on the otherwise dead and liveless water. The day is saved.
So don’t kill Oscar. Leave him alone … and that’s why we gave him a name. You don’t bother fish with names.
I’m off doing a longer motorcycle trip through the mountains of Norway. Might fling a fly here and there, but of course not to catch Oscar. Just the others.
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No doubt by now many of you will have heard about the incredibly sad and untimely passing of Ian May. A quick glance at the outpouring of tributes on Facebook etc. indicates what a truly well liked and respected gentleman he was.
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Fly fishing in Norway simply is outstanding - always. Within 25 years of fly fishing Norway, the Norwegian waters never let me down. This year again we are catching a lot of fine fish, many different species of fish involved.
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Gary has a case of writer's block today so I’m covering for him which gives me the opportunity to launch our two new fly collections for fishing in the Balkans. Tied by my good friend, MCI and local fly fishing expert in these parts, Djordje Andjelkovic. Lots of great fishing in ex-Yugoslavia, the River Pliva in Bosnia being one of my favourite streams anywhere. As an aside, if you’re looking for advice down here then do ask; I may not know the answer myself but I have many friends who will know!
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It’s funny but there are readers who don’t know that I’m a traveller - as in have been travelling for well over 25 years and really, while I may have dropped anchor for a longer stay here and there, it’s only ever temporary and I’m still travelling, even here in Malaysia. A few people seem to have a problem with that! I know it’s pretty unusual and in fly fishing circles I may be the only one - at least I don’t know of any other fly fisher who has been travelling for quite as long - but in other walks of life I have met many “travellers” so it’s not a unique choice; exploring the world, working as you go and I’m surprised more fly anglers don’t live out of a suitcase (or more practically, a rucksack).
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It is amazing how many big fish live in small streams. These fish have to be stalked and hunted. There is no room for traditional overhead or roll casts. There is only one cast when fishing for trophy brown and rainbow trout in small, narrow, “heavy jungle” creeks in New Zealand…the bow and arrow cast. This is akin to hunting with a bow and arrow. Although this sounds daunting, this in fact is the easiest cast to learn, and with practice it is deadly accurate. I fished with a friend Miles Rushmer, the Big Trout, Small Stream Specialist of New Zealand.
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