One of the more vivid memories of my younger days fishing in saltwater is fishing off of a lighted pier at night for Speckled Trout. Back in those days, we used live shrimp, and occasionally a gold or silver Johnson Sprite spoon. When I started fly fishing in the early 1990's I realized very quickly that one of the most enjoyable ways to spend a summer evening is with a 5wt. rod and a size 4 Clouser Minnow on a lighted pier. When the tide is right, and the bait is around, the action can be really fast and furious, and to put it mildly, it's a TON of fun.

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The current On The Fly episodes on Discovery Asia are Gourami and Ikan Kelah. The Gourami was shot up here on Mystery Lake X and the Kelah down in Taman Negara. That was certainly a fun trip! If you are in SE Asia you can see this show, otherwise it might be possible with VPN. Certainly I’m watching the Rugby World Cup through VPN and enjoying that thoroughly.

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Joists, sister joists, blocking, joist hangers, footer blocks, structural screws, decking screws, facia boards, grooved composite boards, square composite boards, breaker boards . . .. As you might guess, we’re (98% Steve) building a low-to-the-ground floating deck (not attached to the house) in the back yard. Never having built a deck from scratch, Steve’s doing an amazing job: the 12’ x 22’ foundation is only out of square by 1/32nd of an inch. He’s been meticulous about measuring, leveling, following best practices, and over-building to ensure stability and durability.

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An odd week for me,my days off fell on a public holiday this week so I decided to go and climb a mountain. I've not been up any since about April-it's just been too hot- and I certainly noticed a drop in fitness, but a few climbs will sort that out.

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A fly fisher needs to know maybe a handful of knots. As everything from the fly and back to the arbor of the reel is held together by knots, it’s worth practicing these knots and knowing them well. Once you know a knot, there’s one rule. Look at it and if it looks good, there’s a good chance that it’s tied correctly. And never ever use a knot that needs glue or other applications to hold. Whatever you put on, it’ll wear off and weaken the knot. I sometimes use a soft(ish) UV resin from Pro Sportfisher to smooth over a connection, but never to strengthen it.

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Last weekend James and I were at the Welsh Game Fair near Bangor helping to run the fly casting competitions. We had a good number of entrants for the Daily and Overall events and had lots of prizes to present on the Sunday. We ended up changing the men's overall comp into an open event so that I could compete as there were no female entrants. I thought I would just make up the numbers and hoped to qualify with some of the male entrants. James had qualified at the Scottish GF with a young Scottish lad called Robert and Steve P had qualified at Ragley so they helped to run the qualifications for the Welsh entrants and supported running the junior comp. We had three juniors from the two other GFs who had come to Wales to compete but sadly we didn't have any junior entrants at the Welsh GF.

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