{"id":1066,"date":"2019-05-09T07:26:15","date_gmt":"2019-05-09T06:26:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/htoc\/?p=1066"},"modified":"2019-05-09T08:31:06","modified_gmt":"2019-05-09T07:31:06","slug":"the-story-of-ht6-no4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/htoc\/2019\/05\/09\/the-story-of-ht6-no4\/","title":{"rendered":"The story of HT6 No4"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since we are having a competition for HT rods, my HT6-4 was keen to have his say, even though he knows he\u2019s not allowed to win!<\/em><\/p>\n

Hello, I\u2019m Paul\u2019s HT6 number 4. I am one of the original HT6s coming from the very first batch of eight production rods. The reason I ended up being Mr Sexyloops\u2019 HT6 is because when Paul took the first set of rods to Malaysia to sell, no one would buy me because 4 means death in Chinese. Anyway, because there is no four on Sexyloops it was only fitting that Paul should get me!<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not completely as I once was when first made; about three years ago after getting into one too many fights with aggressive casters, one of my middle sections needed replacing and last year Lee took pity on me and gave me a complete pimp up. To be honest I\u2019m sexier now than when I was first built! Although no glam for me; I\u2019m understated and stealth matt like all fishing Hot Torpedos.<\/p>\n

I was originally designed as an \u201call-round great trout rod\u201d. Instead of having a normal life, Mr Sexyloops spent 3000 days fly fishing backcountry and lake flats in New Zealand and so as a result of this he really knew how a 9\u2019 6WT rod should perform. I should be tough, fast – but with lots of feel – and have a tip that damps outstandingly well (apparently). I should be a genuine 6WT rod and not a rod that requires anglers fit a 7 or 8WT line just to feel anything.<\/p>\n

Before they were all sold, I had a chance to talk to the prototypes that came before me. Man, they had a hard life! One was lucky enough to be in the world championships finals for distance as well as many other competitions (Mr Sexyloops thinks distance competitions are a good way of finding our weak points!) and was cast by over 500 anglers at various events!<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve also been cast by a few hundred anglers – they always “oooh” and “ahhh” over me – but where I\u2019ve been truly fortunate, is that I\u2019ve had some of the finest fly fishing that any 6WT flyrod could hope for. But there is a downside in being Mr Sexyloops\u2019 6WT fishing rod; I am expected to excel in everything I do, I\u2019m not allowed to fuck up in the slightest and every damned cast is taken as if my life depends on it! And he’s a rough owner too – he makes me live outdoors with him, I look like I’ve been dragged through a swamp (which I have of course – many times) and infuriatingly, he often sticks his fly in the cork grip!<\/p>\n

One of the highlights in this rough fly fishing life, was to be part of Mr Sexyloops\u2019 best ever night’s fishing. We were in Russia and while having the river all to ourselves, we watched two hours of a spectacular Northern Lights show before we went fishing. (Technically we were already fishing but neither of us could concentrate on the casting and so instead we sat back and enjoyed the \u201cdancing spirits\u201d).<\/p>\n

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Back at camp the camp manager too this photo – which is just as well because none of Paul’s came out.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After that extraordinary start, we headed to a part of the river where there was a fantastic rise. I caught the first 8 fish on a black fidget fly in the dark and then my bigger brother, the HT8, caught two more trout, one of 8lbs and the final fish was a stonker of 11.5lbs. 10 fish for 55lbs! We were tired but ecstatic. Paul still talks about this night as if it was him casting and not me.<\/p>\n

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A typical Varzina Trout – as caught by my twin brother, the Comp5 V1.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But even more memorable for me, has been my part in pioneering fly fishing for Giant Gourami. Mr Sexyloops quickly became obsessed by these fish because they are so fussy and difficult to catch – he is often calling them \u201ccomplete bastards\u201d but they take no notice! I remember our first \u201cstumper\u201d together, a 4.5KG Giant Gourami that may be one of the most remarkable catches of all time (anyway, he likes to think so) and almost certainly the first stumper ever caught on fly. I thought I was going to break but Mr Sexyloops looked after me by pointing me straight at the fish – it was only at the very end of the fight did I have anything to do. But hey – I made the damned cast!<\/p>\n

The irony is, that despite being designed as an all-round Trout Rod, my owner nowadays chooses to fish his HT4 for virtually all his trout fishing. On our last trip to Tasmania, the lovely Mrs Sexyloops fished me and the only time I saw Him was when we were \u201cSharking\u201d on the Great Lake and the 4WT line was too light for the strong crosswind – so I do still come in handy for trout, even for Paul… but not very often!<\/p>\n

But I am quite happy as the Gourami Rod (of which I\u2019ve had over 50). The HT4 has had a few Gourami too, when I was being “pimped”, but she is not happy about them at all! Anyway, I am the Gourami King \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

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Giant Gourami – my speciality.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Here are the rules:\u00a0The Great Hot Torpedo Competition 2019.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since we are having a competition for HT rods, my HT6-4 was keen to have his say, even though he knows he\u2019s not allowed to win! Hello, I\u2019m Paul\u2019s HT6 number 4. I am one of the original HT6s coming from the very first batch of eight production rods. The reason I ended up being … Continue reading “The story of HT6 No4”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1068,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/htoc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1066"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/htoc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/htoc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/htoc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/htoc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1066"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/htoc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1066\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1076,"href":"https:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/htoc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1066\/revisions\/1076"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/htoc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/htoc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/htoc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sexyloops.com\/htoc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}