This is the quiet spell on my local water. At this time of year you can cover great expanses of water looking to find only one or two shots at parenting Snakehead in a day. And sometimes you won’t find any. Gourami and Jungle Perch are rarely, if at all, seen at the surface. And free-rising Snakehead are either simply not surfacing at all, or if they do, they surface once and not again.

This is also the hottest time of year. We came out of the Wet Season approximately one month ago and it hasn’t rained since, daytime temperatures can be as high as 38C. The water temperature is still below 30C however (28.9C this afternoon). Free-risers are mostly seen by me when the lake water temperature approaches 32C.

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I guess it is probably impolite to complain about nice weather? While the rest of the US braces for another cold front, where hundreds of millions will face a second life-threatening temperature drop, South Florida is experiencing almost summerlike conditions. I had to mow the freaking lawn today! I just looked ahead and the entire next week is predicted to have daily high temperatures in the 80s. Come on down and get a sunburn!

But seriously, for most of my life, this time of year (mid-February) was always the coldest period. This may seem very petty, but the patterns I have spent years, actually decades, deciphering now appear to have been a total waste of my time. I miss the predictable lull in fishing. Well, not the lull actually, but the orgy-like feasting with abandon that followed that low and celebrates the coming of spring is what I will miss. That did not happen last year, and it sure does not look like it will happen this year either.

So, on another note, have you ever tried to explain to the uninitiated why you find fly fishing so interesting?

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PLUS 10° Celsius, blue sky, low wind - all that in February, of course we travelled to Rügen island to fly fish for winter pike!

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After my resounding thrashing at the last casting event held in Cumbria I decided it was time for a change to my competition casting style. Not just a tweak here and there this time, but a ground-up rebuild of my entire cast. This process started at the weekend – and it did not go well!

If you’re anything like me you’ll have loads of old fly lines knocking about, ones that you’ve retired because they’ve started to crack-up just behind the rear taper. Actually, if you’re like me these are likely to have the coating stripped to the core before the decision is made to ‘retire’ them. Anyway, these wrecked lines are perfect for making shooting-heads out of, and if you haven’t already done this I’d encourage you to chop off the damaged portion and replace it with mono backing.

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I spent lot of time to observe. It is teachable and our waters are clear so, it is possible. In some places is possible to be side on fish and see how it is reacting, when fly is coming. It is exciting but sometimes also it can be depressing because the guest can also see how nicely fly is going but no reaction from fish. In that case it could be wrong fly or wrong place to where fly has landed (stupid thing to say because it is going on water). I will give kind of formula how fish will take when it decide to do that. Is it waterproof, no of course not but it should give you idea about how fish moves.

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Drive for show and putt for dough.
---Bobby Locke

It's true...just like in fly casting, maximizing power and speed to send the fly line off into the deep horizon is not only an impressive display of skill, and strength, its a ton of fun as well. But as we all know, under most angling situations, precision, accuracy, and touch are what puts hooks in the mouths of fish.

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