Month: December 2017

For me the HTOC journey started when me and my friend Simon where discussion different rods as we were starting to prepare for our upcoming FFI CI-test. He have had the HT 6wt for some years, and he had mentioned it earlier but it was now, during our discussions and preparations that we started to talk about this rod for real!

As we where going to work together at the Swedish Sport fishing fair in March 2017 I told him to bring along his HT 6wt so I could try it out! Every night after the fair had closed we headed over to the casting pound and started casting, discussing and comparing the rod to other premium rods.

Aside from all the things you would expect from a premium rod; a really high grade cork, lightweight, excellent wraps on the blank and so on, the HT 6wt was a little different from other rods I’ve tried before, it had a different feel and a vibe to it.

I can honestly say that I had never tried a fly rod before that made it so easy for me to get those really tight sexy loops, it felt effortless! The HT 6wt had a really nice action in the tip section which I love. Light, fast, crisp and sensitive but yet powerful and compered to other fast rods the HT wasn’t as stiff in the lower part of the blank. Power and feel thought the hole blank, I love it!

At this time I had been doing casting lessons on a regular basis for a little more the 2 years and I really would love to have the HT Instructor, a white visibly rod for my casting lessons.  To be honest, I have had fly rods with white blanks before but those rods where not that good, not even close!

The white blank would also be really good for me as I was starting to practicing for the upcoming CI-tests. It’s perfect because of the visibility when looking at video recordings of my casting. Aside from my personal progress and casting lessons I was looking forward to fish with this rod!

It’s been almost 6 months since I got my Hot Torpedo Instructor rod and it has been through a lot.

I bought the HT Instructor Nr: 131

First of, this rod has been trough a lot of casting, a lot! During the whole summer I’ve been practicing for the FFI CI-test. Hours and hours of casting, filming, reflecting and hours of discussions.

It’s been with me while I’ve been traveling and fishing. In the hunt for giant 30lb sea run browns in the Swedish river Em, casting for salmon in river Klarälven, chasing sea run browns and European flounder in the archipelago of Stockholm and it has been my go to rod when street fishing perch in Stockholm City.

To sum it up, my Hot Torpedo journey has been nothing but awesome! As stated above It has been through a lot of casting, fishing and I do feel a little bit ashamed to tell you this, but, I even forgot my Torpedo in a mall once, luckily it was still there when I got back 10min later!

I’ve lost ha HUGE Sea run in river Em, I caught salmons in River Klarälven, I’ve caught sea run trouts and European flouder in the Baltic sea, I’ve caught perch in central Stockholm and I reached my biggest goal of the year when using this rod, I become a CI.

I can honestly say that I’m a very proud member of the HTOC!

LOST VIRGINITY- AT LAST HA HA HA

This HT entry should be no more then a picture and a full page of HA HA HA, but I will add a little story to it.

Since I own HT 10WT no.1 (it’s been a while now) I’ve only used it to cast my 5wt line for my distance practice. For my usual flats fishing I’m using 8WT rod, but today I decided to finally take the HT to the flats.

Set with intermedium line and a clouser, NO LUCK, as usual BTW.

Of course my main goal is to catch a fish when I’m on the water, but if this doesn’t happen, I really enjoy fly casting, and HT doesnt disappoint here. Current gets a little faster on the outgoing tide, I wanted to fish some deeper holes, and steep drop-offs. For that I reached for my big gun – RIO LEVIATHAN 400GR (26feet of fast sinking head) and a heavy prawn.

Again casting was fantastic, but then there it is. After stripping my fly to my feet, I notice something blackish on my fly – weed I thought – as I’m going through the bottom.

Looking closer and I recognised a familiar flapping tail motion – HEY, THERE IS A FISH, YES, FINALY I CAUGHT THE FISH, MY FIRST FISH ON MY HOT TORPEDO 10WT…..

Let the pictures tell the rest of the story ha ha haha

Cheers,
Mike

I received my 6 weight Hot Torpedo (No. 2) just about five years ago, in the middle of the winter, a month before my job was to be terminated in the spring of 2013. My heart was broken, my life turned upside-down, but I had a wonderful wife and I had fish.

Of course, upon hearing that news, I went fishing.

I brought the Sexyloops Hot Torpedo to Mexico for bonefish, ladyfish, and snappers on the flats, I lost a permit with it. It came as a lightweight rod to Cuba.The rod came north with me to Baffin Island, three times now, in search of land locked Arctic Char. The rod has been the first out of the truck on rivers in Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. It has stalked trout, and grayling, and pike, and carp, and bass. It has also sat on the bank or stayed in the truck during naps on the river, but always ready to cast.

I cringe when dumbbell eyes hit the blank on a bad cast. I have tossed the rod up on the bank as I fell into the water. I have forgot it at home and missed it during three hours of driving without fishing.  It has made time more enjoyable on many waterbodies, and I am thankful that it is part of an excuse to get out. If objects can hold memories, the rod has a fair share.

For me, the rod is more than a just a tool. I have other rods that I enjoy to cast – slow rods, large rods, long rods, even a rod without a reel. I fish in places where the 6 weight is not the most appropriate tool.

But for what it’s worth, I received the Hot Torpedo during one of the most unstable times in my life.  To me, it symbolizes more than just a piece of graphite. It is an escape, forever tied to being able to find a small piece of enjoyment and solitude during dark days. While things haven’t stabilized in my life, I know that tomorrow or next week, or maybe sometime next month, I can grab a box of flies and the Hot Torpedo, and head down to the river as a tonic for my soul.

Thank you for the rod and the memories, Paul!

What can I say?! The rod is great. A nice balance between a casting tool and a fishing rod.

I’m well on the way on my CI journey. The photo here shows some of the crowd we had in San Francisco for casting lessons and demonstrations this week. After 40 years of fly fishing, it’s great to put something back into our wonderful sport (or in my case and obsession and way of life). We had kids as young as seven and adults pushing 90! What a great buzz.

Keep up the good work and make sure you have a 4wt built and ready after the Christmas holidays.

The white HT6 is my magic wand.

I’m no wizard, that’s for sure, but I seem to be able to perform magic with that rod. With it in my hand, I can sometimes turn a casting toad into a Prince of the Line.

I first cast a Hot Torpedo when Paul made a visit to Perth. I helped him organise a casting weekend and he stayed with me – when he wasn’t fishing – that week. While he was here, I ordered a 6wt blank from him. Pretty soon I also had an 8 weight one too.

So, of course, when I decided I should attempt my CCI exam, it was only natural I also buy the famed HT6 Instructor blank, since there is nothing that inspires a student more than seeing his or her instructor produce tight loops with little apparent effort (or inspires an examiner, for that matter). The HT6 is far and away the best rod I’ve ever used for making such great aerial – though transient – sculptures.

My “build” is far from conventional. I use guides with SiC inserts to avoid haul lock. I use Maniform grips to avoid RSI. I build every rod with a fighting butt, regardless of its line weight. (I consider the fighting butt to be my “back-cast stabiliser”, another gift from Paul’s visit.) In any case, the unique action of the HT6 blank helps me produce loops I never thought I’d be throwing just a few years earlier.

In the Harry Potter series, it was said “The wizard does not choose the wand; the wand chooses the wizard.” It think the same is true for my White Wand. Through a very convoluted route, it seems I was always destined to be using this rod. We’ve already been through a lot together, but the best is yet to come, with many years of teaching ahead of me and a gruelling lead-up to my MCI test about a year from now. Will I pass that test? I don’t know yet, but I know if I fail, it won’t be due to my rod.

I met Paul last year in Milan. It was not long since the flycasting world championship in Estonia and my great friend Stefano managed to convince him to make a quick stop in Italy while going to Hungary, so that we could cast together and try his rods. We had just started casting with the #5 in races and Paul’s astonishing casts seemed impossible to reproduce.

My first impression among the HT10 was frustrating due to the fact that I found it hard to load it properly. Thanks to the amazing advice that Paul gave me and to the daily training, the stiff rod #6 I was using, after six months of casting sessions, seemed to become insufficient and that was the moment when my HT10 arrived.

The competition path is very hard and you go from moments of excitement, due to record distances, to moments of doubtful difficulties, but lucky enough… there is fishing! I long waited to take my HT10 to fishing because I only thought about it as my competition rod. When I first used it to pike fishing I understood that this rod can perform beautifully for casts with big pike streamers.

I’ve just returned from German Baltic sea, an amazing place where you can fish big pikes in low water. It wasn’t easy due to the high salinity but I had great moments with the always sexy HT!

Thanks again Paul, and see you at the World championship 2018!