Paul mentioned in his column this week that most of his six kilo plus snakehead have come in late July and August. Think about that sentence for a second. He can only say it because he knows. Years of fish, dates attached. That sentence is a fishing log doing its job.

I've just found out what my memory is worth. This month I built a proper log, a spreadsheet, one row per day fished, and backfilled the trips I could reconstruct.

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The BFCC casting day at Ashford-in-the-Water in Derbyshire was very well attended and the team were kept very busy either instructing and/or coaching on the competition outfits. The weather was lovely, though the wind was swirly making it challenging for the competition distances and several people, including myself, had moments when the fly leg whipped the back of our legs. Thankfully I'd remembered to wear trousers and a hoody so other than a slight reduction in the line speed, I didn't get 'marked' though I'm sure a few of the others in shorts and t-shirts ended up with a mark or two. Over the years I have seen some amazing 'welts' on the back of casters legs and some on the back of their necks – painful! Regardless we had a great day and had lots of new recruits. We go back to the same area in October for a joint event with GAIA so hopefully lots of these fishers will come along.

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I'm organising my boxes for heading to Scotland next week. I'm expecting most of the fishing to be for bass, mullet and coarse fish given the temperatures, but I have put a coastal seatrout box together just in case it cools down -I hope it does because in Japan it's 39 and incredibly humid here today with more of the same forecast.

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Weather is pretty much perfect here now. Yes it could be few degrees warmer yet otherwise it is great. Late afternoon with sun it is +20 celsius, nights are around +9 celsius. We have had some rain but not too much. All of these makes rivers perfect, enough water, temperature around +13 celsius, easily under +15 celsius. I would say this has been as perfect as it can be for waters.
 
Wednesday I had guiding day. I had one lady as fishing guest 9 years ago, week from now it would exactly 9 years. (Had to check from photos). She was travelling to north with her dad, cousins and with her daughters. Younger one was still in manger size and older one could just walk. Older one was playing in river while I taught fly fishing to mom.

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It’s been an interesting week since last time. Last Saturday was spent nervous waiting for a message from Karel as he was doing his CI assessment then. I knew he was ready as I’ve seen his journey and the four hour pretest Paul and I did for Karel the Sunday before the event. 

I’m very happy to been part of Karels’ journey to his CI and was soo happy when he passed. Well deserved Karel! Thank you for letting me be part of your journey!

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Since most of what we do with a fly cast (and throws to any target more distant than a dart board) is converting rotation to linear motion, training swings seems to be on point.  So now with the permission of the Docs, it’ll be clubs and kettlebells again. I’m persistent if not strong or skilled.

I’m emphasizing inside and outside circles, shield casts, pull overs, eventually graduating to inside and outside mills. After getting “really good” at  the movements (there’s as much nuance there as in the flycast itself) I’ll move up in weight, probably capping it at 20 to 25 lbs but that’s at least a year or two or three off. I’m also working toward rolling kb kips and Turkish getups as it seems to me that the key to surviving fishing adventures is to fall well and get up easily. 

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