Daily Cast Archive

This week's pattern is a wonderful exercise in simplicity, that could teach a lot of people a few things about what flies really need. It's Lefty's craft fur shrimp.

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Down on the Willow brook it’s been a challenging summer for both fish and fishermen. Firstly someone upstream appeared to be messing about with the levels , we were plummeting on the gauge to very low flows and then sudden spiked recoveries. As the heat of late spring grew, this became more concerning. We are not a freestone river at the mercy of the mountains, but a long slowly gathering midland channel  with three sources at least, which then flows through a few stately homes that dam the brook for ornamental lakes and have sluices that can regulate the flow. Therefore levels for us don’t change dramatically.

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Some kayaking friends told me last week that dolphins had been swimming in and out of their group, ducking, diving and jumping. Birds were hitting the water and fish were jumping, work-up style. Auckland has spent years putting a large sewerage pipe under the city. Not a pretty topic, but the water is cleaner already and the life in the harbour has responded. That was enough to get me out, even though not all the stars were aligned for harbour fishing. The temp of the water is 14.4 degrees C, still a little cool for the migratory species that are some excellent sport on a fly rod.

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I’m writing this FP while on the indoor bike. A gentle 90 minutes. Last week was intense. 15 hrs. This week I plan 20 hrs or thereabouts. I’m definitely getting there. Swimming is coming together. Bike is strong. Running is good. I’m looking forward to the Ironman in 11 weeks. It’s been a good week for Tornado sales and I have some new students too. Now if the bloody fish that ate my fly this evening hadn’t swum around a stump and left my fly there, then life would be perfect!

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I took a lesson on Zoom with Paul on Friday. As usual it was grand! We worked on my carry. It needs longer (as they say in Pittsburgh). To get there other stuff needs fixed. What they are has led to an epiphany and since it arose from my teachers advice (I have it on film) it might endure.     Paul noticed that my haul needs to be better aligned with the rod at the stroke’s stopping point and should be smoother. Also pointing my elbow along that line as well to encourage efficient, natural straightening of the arm to maximum effect. It works but somehow I found something a little less efficient and repeatable to become my second nature. Too long between lessons. 

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The disciplines left to write about is seatrout distance and salmon distance. I had no real clue what equipment I would use for seatrout distance. I had brought two rods and some heads. I spent some time after the trout distance qualifiers to find what I liked the best. I ended up going what I initially thought. And found some improvements to be made in my back cast in the process. Still not good to reach a WCs final. Not much interesting to say there.

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I wake up on Friday morning, it would be time to write FP. I haven't got message from Paul, How it is going? That's how he reminds about FP. It is slow morning, I have to pick up guest from airport after 11 am. It is heavy rain and forecast is that it will rain whole weekend, tough fishing coming.   I lay in bed and I feel how small creatures are working in my muscles, like mining people or in server center. Rebuilding connections and muscles, overwriting muscle memory. I can even hear they chatting.... It will take time, yet work has begun.

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I was going to do a different fly this week, but then I just happened to tie a little brush fly for a bit of fun yesterday and I thought how nice and versatile they are. So that's what you're getting this week.

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I've written about 'carry' many times on the FP previously, but being as there's an active thread on the board about it, I thought I'd revisit the topic today. I think everyone would agree that increasing your carry is a sure fire way to increase your distance for competition casting, and to make your fishing casts more efficient and therefore easier.

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New Zealand is stuck in a weather pattern at the moment. Cooler, and windier than our usual conditions. Not much rain either, for a lot of the country. Once again snowing on the central North Island mountains adjacent to Lake Taupo. Given Taupo sits at 400m above sea level, it's cool. Mixing life with fishing is a challenge. I try to make my chances. My daughter had football at one of my favourite fishing spots, so I drove down early. Heavy winds, but on a big lake there is always a shore where the wind is behind you and the casting is easier. Taupō is New Zealand's biggest lake, and after three days of wind the waves on the beach were substantial by lake standards. I avoided those. But they gave me a thought, which I filed away to test later.

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