I have a couple of videos/podcasts to edit. One is a long and interesting discussion with Andy the Redneck, the immaculate Sexyloops rod builder in Texas. And the other is with Nick on the flycasting drills for lesson 2 on the Sexyloops courses.

I’ve also been busy teaching this week, one of my long term students has his CI exam next weekend. So good luck! Rickard and I ran him through a preparation test yesterday.

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I was still down south in New Zealand.

Ronan said the fishing was on, even in the cold. The forecast's main problem was ice over the high passes after snow. Black ice, freezing conditions, dangerous driving. The other problem was that I was down with my family, and I wanted time with them too. I can't be all about fishing.

Off we set. The roads were okay and we took the pass carefully. Minus eight on the tops. The forecast said freezing fog, and we hoped that somewhere along the lake we'd drive out of it. We did. Brilliant blue sky, low wind, a classic cold South Island day.

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The Scottish Game Fair was a highlight for me as it was only the second time I had won an open competition against mainly male entrants. The first time was at the last Welsh Game Fair a couple of years ago, however there was no trophy and we went straight into a final with the winners of all the Game Fairs (the Scottish, the English and the Welsh) so there wasn't much time to post anything about winning. In that final I came third behind James and Steve. This year I won the Scottish cup so my name will be engraved on it alongside a long list of good casters. Not bad for a busy weekend where I only had one entry into each of the 3 events that make up the championship.

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One for the purists this week! The rattle clouser. It's an ugly fly that, much like the ugly duckling, undergoes an amazing transformation and looks amazing when it's hanging from the jaws of a fish.

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That is most used sentence nowadays. Everything is rigged if things don't go on your way. Presidental election, football matches, hockey games.... It is rigged. This would be funny if it wouldn't be sad. Imagine adults can't stand lost in fair game.
 
Football world cup is coming to finale. It has been some amazing matches and performances on field. Some teams has truly done more than anybody could imagine. Capo Verde and their 41 yrs old goalie, wow, they believed themselves and didn't back up, they played 0-0 with Spain which in final now and gave some hard time to Argentina, losing during overtime match. Argentina is also in Final by the way.

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We usually stay one week a bit north on the Swedish west coast each summer. So we did this year also, or almost a whole week. This week is spend swimming, fishing, eating ice cream. This time of the year is usually a good time for mackerel fishing. But I’ve seen the ocean change over the years. Less fish caught, less life in the ocean and more algae in the water. 

This year it is a lot of algae in the ocean, though a bit less of it covering the seaweeds on the rocky shorelines. But a lot of it every where else. 
Something has been different this year. The first evening by the ocean there were a decent amount of small herrings swimming around. The fish that has been gone the latest years. So absent that people fishing for them has quit or even went bankrupt. But now they were there. And this wasn’t in a good location. 

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