Author: Paul Arden

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!

The first time I heard about Sexyloops was from my casting mentor Dron Lee. I was preparing for my CCI exams and Dron had very generously agreed to mentor me for the exam. He looked at my casting and said I need a better rod to use for the exam. I saw he was using a white rod, very sleek and sexy looking.

I asked him what rod it was. “Sexyloops #6 Instructor Rod,” he answered casually, “it’s only for instructors.” My eyes opened wide with excitement but I tried to hide it. I wanted very much to hold it and admire its beauty. I was only a novice, not worthy of such a beauty.

After months of hard practice and as the the exam date loomed closer, my casting was not showing any signs of major improvements. Dron looked at me and finally said, “Use this rod for your exam. Practise with it.” My heart skipped a beat. “No, I can’t use that,” but my heart screamed, “You are coming home with me!”. Dron insisted and I agreed. My heart was bursting with excitement.

Casting practice became a breeze and more enjoyable. I finally began to believe that I may just be able to pass the CI exam. Pick up and lay down, roll cast, 6 false cast, distance casting, accuracy casting and all the other tasks became easier with each practice and my confident grew.

May 11 was my big day. It was hard not to be nervous. Everything happened so quickly for me, but it must be a long day for my examiners. I couldn’t really remember what happened during the exam but in the end, the examiners went away to discuss my performance and it finally sank it what was happening. Minutes seemed like hours and I could see the examiners were in serious discussion. I looked at the Sexyloops Instructor Rod in my hands and whispered to it, “If I pass, I’ll get one of your friends to come home with me.

The examiners walked back towards me, looking very serious and solemn. My heart sank. Without saying a word, my Examiner, Mr. Shaun Ash MCI, handed me a CI patch. I looked at him in disbelief. I passed!

A few days later, I ordered my very own Sexyloops Instructor Rod. Now it sits on a special place in my fly fishing shelf. But it is not just for display and instructing. It is my go to fishing rod too. Many fish have been defeated by this beauty.