| Monday: | Paul Arden |
|
| Tuesday: | Gary Meyer |
|
| Wednesday: | Bernd Ziesche |
|
| Thursday: | Tracy&James |
|
| Friday: | Martyn White |
|
| Saturday: | Viking Lars |
|
| Sunday: | Andy Dear |
|
Teaching on the lake
Monday, 17 February 2020
I’ve just spent the last five days teaching a complete fly fishing beginner here in the jungle. Obviously this is always going to be a tough place to learn to fly fish! In fact I doubt that there is anywhere harder. But we had plenty of time to learn fly casting, cover tackle, leaders, knots and even tie a fly!
Odds and ends
Tuesday, 11 February 2020
I am still digesting the feast that was the Fly Show in Atlanta. Yes, I know in a way they are lame and not a real substitute for fishing trips or casting comps, but it was such a pleasure to just hang out with a bunch of similarly afflicted individuals.
Fantastic Fly Fishing Weekend in Basque Country
Wednesday, 5 February 2020
Teaching Distance Fly Casting, catching a Basque Grand Slam (Pike, Perch and Zander in one day), midnight fishing for mullet in Bilbao, lecturing about Fly casting, great food and a hell of a fine company with good friends! The last days couldn't have been any better!
Coffee? Would you care for 'dead sheep' syrup in that?
Thursday, 13 February 2020
Health has been in the headlines a lot lately with the latest coronavirus getting significant coverage. I always find the alarmist media response to such occurrences interesting, more about selling newspapers and making people watch digital marketing than actually passing on any real facts. For example, rarely will they tell you the normal death rate from pneumonia to which the latest coronavirus adds a small number of percentage points – they’d rather stir up panic by concentrating on the 5% of cases caused by a ‘foreign’ virus than the 95% from the home-grown ones (up to 30,000 people die in the UK from pneumonia every year – depending on source). It’s no wonder the public response is so weird at times. Tracy recently returned from the hairdressers and told me about a conversation between other customers that she couldn’t help but overhear; one was explaining to the other that they should avoid Chinese food and restaurants just in case they’re served up the coronavirus on a plate, FFS! I also find the wearing of face masks intriguing, there is no clinical evidence that these significantly reduce the incidence of infection, if there is any benefit from them at all (and it’s not certain there is), it’s because it stops the wearer touching their own mouth and nose as much.
The Bucktail Experiment
Friday, 14 February 2020
Some of you might remember that I decided to limit myself to fishing only traditional bucktail streamers for smallmouth bass last season. Well that season is definitely over and I'm getting ready for the 2020 smallmouth fishing to kick off soon, without the limitations of last year.
It should be obvious that this wasn't about finding out if the old streamers still work. Of course they do! Although I hear myself and others say it often enough that I have to wonder who we're trying to convince. I actually caught more smallmouth bass last season than I ever have, probably because I spent more time on them than I ever have before rather than some X factor inherent in the bucktails.
Back into the groove
Saturday, 15 February 2020
It's February and it's time for me to get back into the groove. A back injury kept me from fishing and casting most of last year, and I really need to get my casting back together again and it's a process I look forward to (and something I've done before). My goal is certainly not getting into competition shape, but getting a propoer cast back togehter, both with the single hander and the double hander. I started slowly last fall, but my back wasn't too happy about the torsion when looking at my back cast (yes, I often look at my back cast). But finally it's mobile enough to get going.
The Search Part IV---Rhythm
Sunday, 16 February 2020
Figure out the rhythm of life, and live in harmony with it.
---Lao Tzu
