{"id":458,"date":"2019-01-31T06:41:09","date_gmt":"2019-01-31T06:41:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/flycast\/?p=458"},"modified":"2019-01-31T06:49:06","modified_gmt":"2019-01-31T06:49:06","slug":"safety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/flycast\/safety\/","title":{"rendered":"Safety"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/b3MpWzWtKAo?rel=0\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>I learned to swim properly at the age of 27. Before that I could float around and that was about it. Nowadays I can swim a couple of miles without any problems whatsoever. I don\u2019t consider myself to be a great swimmer &#8211; triathlon tells me that I\u2019m not! But I\u2019m ok. And let me tell you  swimming is 95% technique and 5% effort. If you can\u2019t swim then go and get lessons &#8211; please &#8211; it\u2019s one of the best things you will ever do in life.<\/p>\n<p>Being a relatively strong swimmer I feel very comfortable in and around water. When I say that I can swim a couple of miles without problems I mean it. If you are not a strong swimmer then you should always wear an inflatable life vest. I have fallen into a countless number of rivers. When I was fishing hard in New Zealand, I would fall in at least once per week. Anglers drown when fishing and it\u2019s normally panic that kills them.<\/p>\n<p>The other thing I mention here is eye protection. Not only do I always wear sunglasses when I fish (I have dark ones for bright sunshine, and light tinted ones for evening and overcast conditions) but I also have clear lens safety glasses for night fishing. The fly can be moving at speeds in excess of 100mph. I know a magazine editor who lost most of his vision in one eye when he took his sunglasses off to photograph an angler casting &#8211; and took a Clouser to the eyeball.<\/p>\n<p>Even when not casting flies, but also when practising with wool on the end of the line, I will wear sunglasses. This is because knots sting like hell when they whip you and a knot travelling at 100mph clipping your eyeball will cause damage. In these videos I am not wearing eye protection only because I am teaching you and I know from experience that eye contact from teacher to student is essential for good instruction, but under all other circumstances I always protect my eyes while casting.<\/p>\n<p>Finally &#8211; barbless hooks. I haven\u2019t fished a barbed hook in 25 years. You land more fish, you don\u2019t lose any more (ok, maybe for the first week you might lose a couple more until you adapt your technique). It\u2019s extremely good practise to fish barbless; it better for the fish making it very easy to safely and quickly remove the hook. Barbed hooks really are a thing of the past &#8211; they were predominantly there for holding bait on the end. And you are a fly fisherman, right? So please fish barbless &#8211; and you will thank me the day when you hook yourself in the arse.<\/p>\n<p>The very best fly rods in the world&#8230;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_115\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-115\" style=\"width: 851px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-115\" src=\"http:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/flycast\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/hot_torpedos.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"851\" height=\"315\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/flycast\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/hot_torpedos.jpg 851w, https:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/flycast\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/hot_torpedos-300x111.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/flycast\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/hot_torpedos-768x284.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 851px) 100vw, 851px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-115\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">It&#8217;s an exploration. Bring a fly rod. Designed for you by Paul Arden.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Not enough? Still think it\u2019s a good idea to fish without sunglasses? I searched YouTube for a video with a fly, which I\u2019ve seen before. Can\u2019t find that one but hopefully <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/wJxGeyxbE4Y\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">this should make you think again<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>Cheers, Paul<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I learned to swim properly at the age of 27. Before that I could float around and that was about it. Nowadays I can swim a couple of miles without any problems whatsoever. I don\u2019t consider myself to be a great swimmer &#8211; triathlon tells me that I\u2019m not! But I\u2019m ok. And let me &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/flycast\/safety\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Safety<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/flycast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/flycast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/flycast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/flycast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/flycast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=458"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/flycast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":462,"href":"https:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/flycast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458\/revisions\/462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/flycast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/flycast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/flycast\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}