Viking Lars - Saturday, December 31, 2016
Yeah - believe it or not, it's today! Time flies... I remember when I though a week was an eternity - a year seems shorter now. I suppose it has to do with how you fill your time, and over this holiday, I've been filling my time making a knife, shooting some studio photos and tying Dee-flies.
Tracy&James - Thursday, December 29, 2016
Well it’s nearly the end of 2016 and we’ve had some good fishing trips both abroad and in the UK. My most memorable fish of the year has to be the 100lb+ shark I hooked in the Bahamas in April, played for 40 minutes and then lost – looking forward to my next trip in 2017 to try and get one in!
Bernd Ziesche - Wednesday, December 28, 2016
Spending my time with fly fishing is not a gift, but my decision!
Jason Borger - Tuesday, December 27, 2016
Last week, I wrote a little blurb about counterflex and rebound ( http://www.sexyloops.com/index.php/ps/fun-with-counterflex-and-rebound ) and tossed in some video frames to keep it visually interesting. This week, I want to expand on a few thoughts related to cameras and casting angles (apologies to my pal, Mac Brown, for stealing his book title here). This is especially pertinent if you plan on video-ing casting for yourself.
Paul Arden - Monday, December 26, 2016
A very happy Christmas to all our fantastic readers - I hope that you all are having a fantastic time. Maybe with some fly tying, tinselling and of course fishing! Ashly and I are having a fun time playing pool and running the Rainforest Bar for a mate. It's nice to be sociable at this time of year, but we are now both particularly looking forward to January 1st (or more likely January 2nd!) when the Jungle fishing starts in ernest and we head off into the wilderness!
Daniela Misteli - Sunday, December 25, 2016
I hope all of you had a nice x-mas with a lot of food, friends and hopefully also some fish. Me and my husband decided to drive up north for some fishing instead of some presents - that was a awesome good decision :) The Danish cost, welcomed us with some small seatrout in the first days and yesterday I got the big suprise...
Viking Lars - Saturday, December 24, 2016
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL OF YOU FROM ALL OF US!
t.z. - Friday, December 23, 2016
Seasons greeting to all! - A very interesting year, was it a good one for you? This year has been filled with some great and some very strange events. From the Rio Olympics to Brexit, and the American Election you can't say this year hasn't been eventful! For me it was an very exciting year with lots of fishing and tying. However, Konstanse and me will try to fish more next year and hope to meet many friends by the water and around the campfire.
Tracy&James - Thursday, December 22, 2016
Tracy and I are back in North Wales for the Christmas holiday catching up with family and friends and fitting in a bit of fishing and casting practice when we can. During the break I intend catching up with a friend of mine with whom I shared some spectacular drinking sessions with in our earlier years. We used to call these all day events Norris’s as in ‘are you up for a Norris this Saturday?’ The name came from Norris McWhirter who presented a children’s show about records – we suspected we drank so much in the course of the day that it must be some kind of world record (such records were never ratified though – to be fair after about 9:30 our recollection of what exactly we’d drunk always became a bit sketchy, often to the point where we couldn’t remember who’s round it was despite there only being two of us!)
Bernd Ziesche - Wednesday, December 21, 2016
Just back home - fly fishing trip reports 2016 are online (www.first-cast.de) - trips for 2017 are organized and the details are on our website either. If you are looking for an (educational) hosted fly fishing trip or any sort of fly casting lesson, pls. check our website.
Jason Borger - Tuesday, December 20, 2016
Controlling and/or modifying blink-of-the-eye stuff is always a fun topic in fly casting discussion, especially when real physicists and so forth show up to put a damper on pet-theory enthusiasms. In any case, cheap high-speed video has made things much more interesting these days (my phone, which I believe can now be had for free with a data plan, shoots 720/240p or 1080/120p). For the geeks who dig this stuff, I've attached a few video still frames from a recent illustration project.
Paul Arden - Monday, December 19, 2016
Those of you who have been here for a while will remember Carl Hutchinson - "Berlin" on the Board. Ashly had asked me how I met Viking Lars, and it was an interesting story, because it was on a fishing trip to Denmark, "Denmark or Bust", with Carl and Chris Rownes, where we had a "Viking Slaughter" and caught one fish each. We made a similar trip the following year where Lasse beat me in a shooting-head shoot out, for the first and only time in his life, and since I'm friends with Carl on Facebook - and he's moved to Canada and is now a fishing guide - I thought it would be quite easy to get in touch, and welcome him back to the Board, so we can find out what he's been up to. This week he is back!
Matt Klara - Sunday, December 18, 2016
The temperature at West Yellowstone, MT bottomed out yesterday morning at 40 degrees below zero. I don’t need to tell you whether that is in Fahrenheit or Celsius because, in fact, minus 40 is the only temperature that is THE SAME in both systems. Do that math. Or look it up. Finally, we Americans can agree with the rest of the world about something!
Viking Lars - Saturday, December 17, 2016
For your rods, that is. Did you see Paul's post froma couple of weeks ago about the new rod socks for the Hot Torpedos? Well, I did and I just have to have them for all my Hot Torpedos :-).
Tracy&James - Thursday, December 15, 2016
Last weekend, I observed a fishing competition at our local trout fishing lake. Competition fishing is not something that has ever interested me as I fish to relax, enjoy the surroundings and wildlife and if I catch, that’s a bonus. (I tend to only compete at fly casting.) Those who had entered the competition had a fun day, socialising with other anglers and having a break when they felt like it. The organisers brought round sloe gin and mince pies during the event, which seemed to perk up everyone as the catch rate went up; James certainly caught more after they gave him a rather large measure of sloe gin! This seems much more appealing to me. Overall the anglers seem to enjoy the comradery, discussing tactics and comparing outfits and fly boxes. Although observing was very enjoyable, walking around the lake several times chatting with the competitors and discussing tactics, gaining the knowledge of what was working and what wasn’t and passing it on to others. However when I saw moving fish on the surface or ‘head and tailing’, I was so tempted to grab a rod so perhaps next time I’ll join in just for the fun of it!
Bernd Ziesche - Wednesday, December 14, 2016
Should a fly fishing guide demonstrate how to present the fly, hook, fight, land and release the fish to support you learning by watching him or not? Several pros and cons came up after my last front page about guides in fly fishing.
Jason Borger - Tuesday, December 13, 2016
I'm pretty tired, so I'm running an old FP of mine to fill in. It's still a decent one; a favorite, actually. I hope that you find it to be worth a second read.
Paul Arden - Monday, December 12, 2016
It's Monsoon Season the Northern Malaysia, only the weather doesn't know it yet. Instead of 24hr downpours, all week long, we are getting one-hour downpours every three days, which is pretty normal for most other times of the year. The lake level is coming up - albeit very slowly - and it's still some 6m (20ft) lower than normal for this time of year. This is the time that many anglers come here for the Jungle Perch fishing, and you really need a houseboat to fish the lake at this time, because it's no fun fishing all day in a wet boat and then sleeping in the same. Especially one that looks and breathes like a condom! However the Jungle Perch is currently not happening at all as of yet; these fish rely on high water levels and flooded rivers to spawn.
Daniela Misteli - Sunday, December 11, 2016
It's getting cold now in Switzerland! Our last chance to go out fishing is the grayling :) in several rivers we have a quite good amount of graylings and it's a really nice way to spend some of the cold days outside. In some places the even go for dries but mostly I'm fishing with a nymph and the ugly "red-hook".
Viking Lars - Saturday, December 10, 2016
Fly fishing festival season is slowly creeping up on us. After New Year there are several great shows across Europe. UK, Germany, Sweden, Denmark and probably more all have shows on the calendar. I'm going to recommend that you visit the Danish Fly Festival in March next year.
t.z. - Friday, December 9, 2016
new series every friday --- The sexyloops fly tying focus hosted by t.z. The goal is to show the different approaches to fly tying around the globe ( we believe in that the world is a globe actually) ... sharing and learning from each other - these are the key words. Most of the tiers will are active on the sexyloops forum - "the board" - so join the very open and friendly club of flyfishers here on s-loops. The sexyloops fly tying focus is hosted by t.z. His goal is to show the different approaches to fly tying around the globe ( we believe in that the world is a globe actually) ... sharing and learning from each other - these are the key words. Most of the tiers will are active on the sexyloops forum - "the board" - so join the very open and friendly club of flyfishers here on s-loops. http://www.sexyloops.co.uk/theboard
Tracy&James - Thursday, December 8, 2016
This week I thought I’d get the pushy/pully, crushy/breaky machine back in action (or the Instron mechanical tester for those unfamiliar with its technical description). The subject of my test was fly line loops, in particular the ones I’d use for saltwater fishing. I pretty much settled on a default loop several years ago, a 3 nail-knot loop (does this have a catchier name?), although I was aware that I hadn’t done any strength testing, until now.
Bernd Ziesche - Wednesday, December 7, 2016
I saw a fair number of fly fishermen starting to offer a guiding/teaching service in fly fishing during the past ten years. As it seems to me quite some of them didn't even think there would be a need to first understand the species of fish (in detail) as well as knowing the water in which they were trying to get their clients hooked to a fish. Obviously most of them failed pretty soon!
Jason Borger - Tuesday, December 6, 2016
A little snip on fixed-line fishing from my new (and delayed, but now back-on-track) casting book....
Viking Lars - Monday, December 5, 2016
Paul had to jump in a cover for me with short notice on Saturday, so I'm covering for Paul today. See, we very meticulously keep track of stuff like that here on Sexyloops. That's a necessity on a smooth running machine like 'Loops. Simple fact.
Matt Klara - Sunday, December 4, 2016
Why don’t more anglers incorporate aerial mends such as reach casts into their casting and fishing while using 2-handed (Spey and Switch) rods? I don’t know the answer, because I use them all the time. Here’s my pitch for why you should too.
Viking Lars - Saturday, December 3, 2016
I'm covering for Lars today (Paul). So I can quickly send you around the latest - and no so latest - Sexyloops happenings...
Tracy&James - Thursday, December 1, 2016
Last Sunday saw the BFCC’s last event of a busy year for the club. There have been 6 full competition meetings plus attendance at 6 country fairs or fishing shows where the club provided either tuition or a single competitive event. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone involved in organising the BFCC’s activities. The regular casting instructors do such a great job, not just with those requiring tuition but with other instructors who are wanting to improve their teaching methods or are looking to take the next step within their chosen organisation. Then there are the committee members who organise the events and other club activities, liaising with the venues and keeping the members informed of what’s going on etc. This can be a fairly thankless task at times, but vital to ensure the club members have everything they require on the day (those bacon sandwiches and coffees don’t turn up by chance). Finally a big shout out to the dedicated members who make the effort to attend the meetings. Without people prepared to travel and then help out with the competitions, marking/timing etc., the events would be impossible to run. This was particularly evident at this year’s Game Fair where the club volunteers ensured that the single handed casting competitions were a success (the first time that the BFCC had been involved in running them).