I’m not sure whether this FP will be published on time as I know Paul is down the lake somewhere and may not have a signal. He did get in touch to tell me this and to ask if we could supply the post early, however Tracy and I were competing in the inaugural UK Fly Casting championships in Millom, Cumbria so were too busy having a good time.
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Last week was a blast in regard of catching pike!
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I’m currently in the middle of two weeks back to back guiding for Snakehead. Brilliant fun as usual, highly challenging but also one of the world’s most incredible fish. I think I might be the only Giant Snakehead fly fishing guide in the world. Which also could make me the ugliest Snakehead fly guide in the world. Yay all round!!
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I used to play 36 holes a day when I was playing in tournaments. The first 18 I would play on the practice tee in my head. I would hit every shot I needed to play (when I was on the course) until I could really hit it right. Then I'd get called on the tee and I'd play my other 18 on the course. I did it every day, and I got up early to do it.
---Ben Hogan
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Continuing on from last week’s FP, let me introduce you to a really simple fly, tied on a tube. There are reasons for tying it on a tube, which I’ll get into below, but it could just as easily be tied on a hook.
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Now and then you really hope that you would own one, magical crystal ball which would give answers for everything. If you are planning fishing trip as long term, like on next summer. You would like to know how weather is and if how fishing will be etc. And especially if you are talking this with someone who doesn’t understand so much about fishing.
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It's October, I've been fighting off my annual anticipatory depression about the coming winter for weeks now. The insane Indian summer we've been having has helped a lot - we had 2 days over 30 Celsius last week.
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It really is. Constantly catching proper sized fish always means a lot of work pre AND post every single catching day.
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It’s taken over five years - my how time flies! The first prototype 7’6 I had for the Scottish Meet in Spain, just over five years ago. I think this story might tell you quite a lot about me and why we currently only have 4 finished Sexyloops blanks in general production!!! (We have a few undercover ones, like the Rampage).
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It occurs to me that there are so few true adventures left, especially near home. I mean it's just...things have changed. And, I'm not talking about adventures where you back down to a dirt ramp that you didn't know about. I'm talking about things where you stick a Canoe in, or wade somewhere. I'm talking about something that requires a lot of thought and planning and exertion.
---Flip Pallot, Flats Class Episode 5 Season 13
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Good fly lines are expensive and with anything expensive, it makes sense to get the most out if it. One thing is using the fly line, casting it, fishing and letting it do what it was designed to do. But another thing is keeping it alive for as long as possible - and perhaps even more impotant - keeping in proper shape so it delivers optimal performance for as much of its lifespan as possible.
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My last fishing day for this season. Fishing was great but I found myself more training casting than fishing in some point. Paul once said to me that double hauling will be life changer or something like that. I have found out that it is true, earlier I have fished in places where it doesn’t really matter or that what I thought. How wrong man can be?
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Tracy and I are looking forward to competing in the inaugural UK fly casting championship this weekend in Millom Cumbria, the same venue that hosted the World fly casting championship last year. Although the weather forecast is decidedly ‘iffy’ I’m sure it’s going to be a fantastic few days and it’s going to be great to catch up with a lot of our casting chums for a drink or two afterwards.
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Starting 8am and then walking (sometimes running) 6 to 10 Km thru water every day until darkness at around 6:30pm. Quite long days though!
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I literally had to drown my sorrows with drink this past weekend. I so much want to get on with the Autumn fishing season, but the weather gods keep rolling snake eyes for me. I have planned, and tied flies, and cleaned lines, and scrutinized the predictions… and, once again, I stayed home due to unappetizing weather conditions.
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“The Slump” is always very difficult to deal with - it’s that feeing of being “fished out”, of being in a hole where nothing quite comes together in your performance and of not being on peak form.
The origin of the word “slump” is Norwegian and means “to fall into a bog!”
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Not long ago I was rummaging through a book of printed photographs that dated back to the mid/late 1990s. Digital camera technology hadn't yet matured to anything even remotely close to what we see today, so everything in my archives from that era were all taken on film. Mixed among the photos of various hunting and fishing trips was a photo of a singular Redfish lying in the marsh next to a fly rod.
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It's hard to claim that a fly design is one's own. There are only so many materials, so many different ways of combining them and so many different ways of tying them on. It's not that long ago I tied a yellow, oversized Irish-style mayfly for salmon that I thought was very original. And just a few weeks ago I discovered a similar, yellow mayfly-style salmon in Jan Grünwald's famous little book on salmon flies.
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It is time to pack and store my fishing gears. First snow came this week and winter is pretty much behind the corner. Reindeer round-ups are starting and then sleigh ride season. There is lot of things to do before winter season and working with reindeer, but most important is now to store my fishing gears.
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We had a busy weekend with a very well attended BFCC Meeting; lots of UK and international casters, some who had travelled from afar. We started the day with the accuracy event that got everyone involved, though an annoying cross-wind led to quite a range of results. Bart had the best score and Larysa who is new to the casting competition world took the ‘ladies’ title – well done Larysa and look forward to seeing you at more Meetings. Mike H very kindly followed the event with a master class on accuracy casting – though some of us could have done with the brilliant advice before the event. I certainly need a lot more practice.
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This time of year I am hosting our fly fishing trips for pike in Germany. Best time of year and we indeed had an excellent time so far!
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Finally! The weather is beginning to change. The air temperatures have dropped a tad, although many folks likely lack the dedicated scrutiny to notice. The humidity is still way up there, and in fact it will rain for the remainder of this week. And, the winds have been blowing. All that might not sound so great, but it really, really is! This is how it begins, and it means the best fishing of the year is just about to start!
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First up, there is a small increase in our Hot Torpedo flyrod prices. Basically I want to pay our incredible rod craftsman Lee Martell a few more beans! Building a HT takes both incredible skill and time and I fully respect that. Lee didn’t want any extra beans but I insisted on it! :)))
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There are very few things in life that still hold the power to keep me awake at night. Fly fishing for record size Redfish with a fly rod is one of those things.
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Often it’s the small things that make the difference. Sometimes they’re obvious - sometimes not. When the trout takes a dry fly after the fourth drift over its lie, who can tell what the difference was? Maybe simply that it was the fourth time? Maybe just a few inches off to either side is all it took for the fish to react? Sometimes when covering a salmon lie, it also takes 4-5-6 swings to get a reaction, sometimes not until you’ve changed the fly.
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After last Thursday I was pretty sure that it was it. For Friday forecast was kind of okay but not sunny anymore and much colder. I didn’t know how wrong I was on that time. In the morning I bought license on same strecth than Thursday. Also another guy was there. I will call him now Håkan. (name changed and Håkan is common name in Sweden). At had slow morning, long coffee in the GC. I was not really rushing to river because there was lot of mist and I had feeling that fishing is not coming until later.
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Climate change has been in the news a lot again this week, and I suspect the subject is going to be given a top billing for many years or decades to come. The headlines routinely generated produce an outpouring of opinion on social media and other platforms that, at times, lead me to despair.
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Fly fishing for pike Germany offers fantastic water - Rügen island that is! Right now I have started my hosted fly fishing trips for October and November.
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I finally got out and went fishing. One thing after another had kept me landlocked. The things responsible were not small - they were more like climate anomalies: record- breaking monsoons, massive hurricanes, and week-long wind events that seemed like hurricanes only different. As it turned out, fishing felt more like yanking out a large splinter: it was something that had to be done even though I knew it wasn’t going to feel good doing it.
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