Bernd Ziesche - Wednesday, September 30, 2015
I met a lot of fly fishermen only fly fishing in their holidays and on a few long weekends. Some of them seemed to be happy to just fish some days per year, while most told me not to have any proper possibilities to fly fish near their hometown. The truth was that a fair number of these fly fishermen didn’t find out about having some great opportunities to fly fish within a small circle around their home.
John Field - Tuesday, September 29, 2015
I had been wintering and fishing in Florida since I was a teen. I would visit an old sporting goods store in West Palm Beach called Keiser’s Sporting Goods as one of my rituals whenever I arrived back at my family’s winter residence in Florida. This store had a wide-ranging variety of fish and animal mounts and antique tackle on display. Since it was located near the eighty-one year old West Palm Beach Fishing Club, some notable anglers had passed through its doors.
Paul Arden - Monday, September 28, 2015
"Stumping" is a new fly fishing term I've just invented, which means when a fish is going up to a tree stump and sucking in the algae/weed growth with a loud kissing/sucking/popping sound - i.e. "The Gourami were stumping well this evening". It can also be used to mean the process of fishing for these fish - i.e. "I went stumping for Gourami this morning". It's a handy new term if you're doing this sort of fishing, but since I'm most probably the only person who is actually doing this fishing, pioneering the way forward for everyone else as it were, then you're probably not. However if you ever do go on a "stumping" trip of your own, then I'm sure that you'll become totally obsessed by it, as I am now, and for you "stumping" will become a handy descriptive term.
Paul Arden - Sunday, September 27, 2015
I'm covering for Scotty today. A bit last minute but that's Sexyloops for you! I have another Gourami page for tomorrow and a new fly fishing term. So that's something exciting to look forward to. I enjoyed one of Bernd's recent FPs about flyfishing moments, and I know many others who feel the same. Ronan is very much into his "moments" and they certainly define the flyfishing life, maybe even your entire life - I know it does mine. It really is the thread that runs through it. But I have something else going on too...
Viking Lars - Saturday, September 26, 2015
Last weekend I spent a the island of Møn in the south eastern part on the lovely little kingdom of Denmark. Fishing there is quite good - around the island is fantastic sea trout fishing, and in the brackish water, pike roam. "Session" was an informal gathering of flyfishers, arranged by friends Gordon P. Henriksen and Frederik Lorentzen.
t.z. - Friday, September 25, 2015
Let´s have a more technical look at flies. What is a fly? … technically speaking from a handicraft point of view I mean. I would suggest to break it down in it´s components. For starters - pretty much every fly is constructed around a hook. Based on targeted species the fly tier chooses a hook appropriate for the job. Size and shape should support the fly design. To find the right hook for the job it helps to scribble a little sketch of the intended fly. Even the very beginners profit from this simple trick. A little drawing always helps if something is to be constructed. It does not need to be fancy and super correct. This little sketch is for you - the fly tier - to understand the proportions and elements of your construction. The next thing no fly is without is thread. There is flies without hooks (tube flies for example) but thread is used in all flies. So lets´s stop here and look into the techniques and concepts behind wrapping thread around a hook or tube.
Alex Vulev - Thursday, September 24, 2015
For more than a dozen of my early flyfishing years I managed my flyfishing life in a way to be able to fish during the working days. Needless to say it was much more convenient, because you get all the waters and the fish for yourself, with no one around to compete for the best spots. Planning was easy - just drive to the river, propel somehow the foam beetle dry fly (Chub) or pitch the two nymphs rig (Trout) to the best looking places and spend as much time on a spot as you like! You even get the luxury to save the good looking dry fly spots unfished and undisturbed until late in the evening for the best dry fly action! It worked just fine for me and I was able to extract the best local flyfishing experience available.
Bernd Ziesche - Wednesday, September 23, 2015
Excitement, Thrill, Passion, Obsession, Happiness, Joy, Fear, Anger, Sadness, Levitation, Love - All these mixed together were the motor driving me out into the deepest wilderness trying to catch the one special fish marking a perfect moment. It never really was the fish but the moment I was after. I needed to live these moments from time to time. The more of them I was in, the harder it became to catch the next one!
John Field - Tuesday, September 22, 2015
On a summer day in Maine about fifteen years ago, I was attending an FFF Certified Instructor Preparation workshop given by Macauley Lord at LL Bean. The property on which the school was located is called the Fogg House and has a converted farmhouse for classes and long concrete casting pools, like those on the West coast. Tall dark green pines flanked the long pools on the forest side.
Paul Arden - Monday, September 21, 2015
First Shot: while Google are running their "match donations towards the refugee crisis" we will donate 20% of all our Sexyloops sales to this cause. This means that if you buy a Hot Torpedo, 120 pounds will be donated to Google and therefore 240 pounds will go to the refugees! This applies to everything we sell - rods, lines, hats, socks, wire-cutters. Second Shot: I'm going to talk about the greatest fish of all... Gourami!
Scott Loudon - Sunday, September 20, 2015
Why do we do it?
t.z. - Friday, September 18, 2015
opus manuum - handycraft. Doing things with your hands. Bringing imagination to life. Imagination is the key. Without it you can not create. You have to have an idea in your head - long planned or rather spontaneous to create something. Fly tying is bringing an amazing amount of imagination to life. An imitation of life if you so will. This takes technical skills which can be learned. Don´t be afraid. It is not that hard, but very very rewarding on many levels. The most obvious reward is that you´ll be catching fish with your creations. I am sure you will. The other is the very process itself. Making things with your hand is very cool. Looking at your „finished product“ fills you with pride. It should. Even Paul does it. So in the next few weeks I will be following up with explaining the techniques I use for tying flies. Once learned the basic techniques you should be able to tie pretty much any pattern. The basics are pretty similar for all flies. Please visit the boards fly tying section if you have questions and ideas. Don´t be shy to ask. Sexyloops is the most informative website on matters flyfishing and has a broad rooster of very helpful people around which can answer pretty much any question about the topic. - warning: there might a good deal nerdiness involved If you want to learn fly tying you can also get in contact with me directly. I have taught the subject for some years and since Skype the world is not too big any more. We´ll get started next Friday with the first article about basic thread techniques.
Paul Arden - Thursday, September 17, 2015
It always surprises me, when someone tells me that they "can't cast for shit, but catch lots of fish!" I'm thinking, "I know a hell of a lot of places where you won't catch any fish!" Of course there is casting and there is casting. And there are certainly anglers around, instructors even, who despite casting very nice loops, think catching fish is incidental to being there and not the purpose - which is fine of course, we're all different. Some anglers will tell you that their casting is "functional, not pretty". As far as I'm concerned that's all that actually matters - my casting is "functional" too. It's only that for Snakehead it need to be "highly functional"!
Bernd Ziesche - Wednesday, September 16, 2015
During the past ten years I have been teaching fly fishing to a lot of students. A significant percentage of beginners have been included. They all had a lot of questions how to get started. In this front page I am offering some answers based on my experience.
John Field - Tuesday, September 15, 2015
When I was a kid, I dreamt about experiencing the elusive Eastern Green Drake hatch on a Catskill river. I knew their hatch didn’t last very long it’s often late in the evening and some anglers never get to see them! As a youth, I didn’t even know the fall of their spinners stimulated the most feeding and enticed the biggest fish. The spinner stage of the insect is still called the Coffin Fly, after the fly designed by Walt Dete and Ted Townsend in 1930, the day Ted attended a funeral. The more modern version designed by Walt’s daughter Mary Dette has a slightly different appearance. These Coffin flies are not to be confused with the one that feeds on decaying flesh etc.
Paul Arden - Monday, September 14, 2015
The past two months has taught me a great deal in fly fishing, which I think I can put to great use in the future, and one thing in particular I'd like to share with you at the moment, is related to fish fighting. Normally when trout fishing for example, we will use the rod to cushion the battle. Of course we also use rod pressure to change the angle of the pull - to turn the fish, but on the most part when trout fishing we are forcing the fish to tire itself. The same thing happens in Saltwater too - at least it does when you have the luxury of open water and can allow the fish to take off and run sometimes 100m or more. But what about when you simply don't have the luxury of space?
Scott Loudon - Sunday, September 13, 2015
It's been a good week this one. I've been hitting the gym fairly hard this week since my lower back is the weak link in the chain and I'm finally allowed to get weight on the bar again - what a relief! I've had the rod back in my hands and even took a girl casting, it's all happening!
Viking Lars - Saturday, September 12, 2015
This week, I've tested a "light" Skagit line on my single hand rod for salmon and sea trout. The plan was to try and see if I could down scale a "true" Skagit outfit to fit a more Scandinavian style speycast, and still be able to cast and turnover very heavy sinktip and heavily weighted tube flies.
t.z. - Friday, September 11, 2015
What Trout Want – The Educated Trout and Other Myths by Bob Wyatt Last week I got a copy of Bob Wyatt’s book – “What Trout Want – The Educated Trout and Other Myths”. Quite a promising title I must admit. So I dived right in and started reading. I find Bobs writing quite appealing. It’s like sitting by a campfire with Bob listening to his thoughts and views.
Paul Arden - Thursday, September 10, 2015
All up I only managed to devote perhaps two and a half full days to Gourami Hunting last week. Although I was on the water every day, making sure I was around at prime time. On Monday I had a very interesting experience with a Gourami that I spotted in the very early morning. I watched him cruising just subsurface - they're hard to see in low light conditions - before taking a spent fly of some sort - the only one I've seen in a while! I threw at him naturally. He came along and discovered my fly, inspected it for at least a full 10 seconds, slowly pivoted around the fly, so he could inspect it from 180 degrees, and sat there for a further ten seconds, made a full circle back to his original position, fully encircled the fly a second time, this time from a 18 inch radius, and finally buggered off!
Bernd Ziesche - Wednesday, September 9, 2015
Last week I had one day left before Marina and I were starting our fly fishing trip to Denmark. That day I spent fly fishing for asp. For the first time ever I felt to have cracked the code on asp!
John Field - Tuesday, September 8, 2015
After you’ve caught your share of “easy” fish on a fly in the Florida Keys, like bonefish, tarpon and sharks, your guide will probably say, how would you like to fish for permit? The first three are the gateway drugs of flats fishing.
Scott Loudon - Sunday, September 6, 2015
Saltwater to the freshwater fisherman is an interesting idea, it's confusing, intriguing and downright scary all at the same time. All of a sudden there aren't any boundaries like runs and riffles in a river or confined quantities of water in lake surrounded by banks. The water is endless, it all looks the same and to top it off there are waves!
Viking Lars - Saturday, September 5, 2015
It's strange how the furhter one gets into the salmon season, the more effective smaller flies become. The colour scheme of the best catching flies also seems to change quite a lot.
t.z. - Friday, September 4, 2015
I dug out an older text I wrote quite some years back. I recently heard from a quite respected flyfisher from Ireland that he found my artcile in 2007 and it was an eye opener to him. I think this text should be in the s-loops archives. Generally speaking (in fishing-lingo that is) a leader is the piece of line between the hook and the main line. This piece of line is normally somewhat smaller in diameter than the main line. Various sorts come into play, level line monofilament for bait fishing, wire (for pike and the like), a shock leader for fishing in the sea - and the so-called tapered leader for angling with the fly. That’s it. There's not much more to say, is there? Well if it were all so simple you’d not be on this web site, would you?
Bernd Ziesche - Wednesday, September 2, 2015
Last week I was teaching fly casting in the day time. In the evenings Marina and I fly fished for carp and asp. We had a great fly fishing week with some fine fish involved.
John Field - Tuesday, September 1, 2015
There are few fish in fresh water that stalk their prey and charge with such ferocity as a pike. A pike resembles and behaves like an inland version of a barracuda. Pike and muskies are related but the pike has a much faster metabolism and needs to feed much more frequently, depending on the water temperature and fish’s weight. Where pike are abundant, guides call small pike; snakes, big pike; gators, and when they dislike them; snot rockets.