Andy Dear - Sunday, March 31, 2019
Trying to predict the weather in Texas is a crap shoot at best. Especially during the spring when you'd probably have a better chance at winning the Powerball lotto than getting an accurate weather forecast. It can be frustrating, but when the stars do align and the climate decides to cooperate, the Largemouth Bass fishing in South Texas can be downright obscene.
Martyn White - Saturday, March 30, 2019
Now that spring is in full swing, the cherry blossoms are opening all over Tokyo and the carp are mostly finished spawning it's time for me to start hitting the rivers in search of mud bones. So yesterday I went to a river near my apartment to see what I could find.
Mika Lappalainen - Friday, March 29, 2019
Last weekend I cleaned little bit snow from field. We have now about 120 cm snow and I thought to make casting area so I can start to practise again. Days are getting longer and we have daylight until 19.00. Due the heavy winds I have not been able to train and with heavy wind I mean about 10 m/s wind, so maybe it is just excuse but …. Then this pop up on my mind. I have seen so many times that fisherman mend they line and fix it during fishing. The thing is that there need to be timing, power and reason to mend.
Tracy&James - Thursday, March 28, 2019
This is going to be a very quick FP plugging the upcoming BFCC Cullompton (Devon) meeting. This is the first event of the year where we’ll be holding all the usual competition events plus providing tuition under the expert leadership of Mike Heritage MCI. Tracy and I haven’t attended a Devon meeting for a few years as normally we’re on holiday somewhere – this year we’ve managed to fit in the meeting just a day before we fly, so it’ll be a very busy weekend!
Gary Meyer - Tuesday, March 26, 2019
Again. no fishing for me, which is rather disappointing since it is a great time of year for doing just that. Mostly, I blame my lack of fishing on a touch of the Flu, but maturity gets some of the blame too. At first, I had it all figured out. I had my schedule organized just right to where I could slip in a full day on the water. I really wanted to go. I have some new ideas I want to try out, but at the last minute some sort of sensibility sunk in, and I decided not to chance over-doing it and then be out of commission for a much longer period. In the not too distant future, I will slink into retirement, and then, hopefully, I will be healthy enough to fish whenever the mood strikes. Until then I can’t really complain since even though I wasn’t on the water I was quite busy giving lessons.
Paul Arden - Monday, March 25, 2019
I had an extremely enjoyable four days fishing with Martyn White last week. So very close to a few fish. We didn’t get many babies shots - which is unusual for this time of year, maybe four sets in total - but we did find some big free-risers (Martyn put a shot in at a BIG Snakehead that could have been good enough) and a few fleeting-window shots at Giant Gourami; a number of wind-laners and a few shots around the stumps. Martyn had a chase from one Snakehead, a possible Gourami eat and some long inspections. Pretty tough, but that’s normal. Just to get close on his first trip was an outstanding effort - four days is on the short side. A small tightening up with the casting accuracy with both sets of tackle, putting the fly down first, before the line for the Gourami and speeding up the reaction time to make the cast, will see eats and of course a whole ‘nuther set of problems then begin... it’s not over until the fat lady sings!
Andy Dear - Sunday, March 24, 2019
I've been fishing the Upper Guadalupe River with a fly rod since 1996. If ever a body of water could be considered an old friend, the Guadalupe would be one of my best.
Martyn White - Saturday, March 23, 2019
Is chicken eugenics the enemy of good fishing flies? I think it is, and the fly tying fashion that is going hand in glove with "improved" genetics is creating a, possibly, vicious cycle.
Mika Lappalainen - Friday, March 22, 2019
Everybody knows that splashing water will spook the fish or it might cut your tippet or even break your fly. But does splashing really disturb fish, yes and no. In some cases it doesn’t matter and you can even active fish with that but….. I mean really big BUT. Let’s go to back to Varzina trout camp, where I splashed water but….
Tracy&James - Thursday, March 21, 2019
My fishing season should be well underway by now, however my elbow injury has completely scuppered any thoughts of fly-casting. I did have a couple of days last week were I woke up and the ache was gone but this turned out to be a false dawn, with the pain returning for no apparent reason. Dr. Internet doesn’t imbue me with a lot of confidence for a quick return to action either – most sites tend to suggest that tennis elbow is going to take 6 to 12 months to improve. This is not good news for me when I have a flats trip coming up in less than two week.
Bernd Ziesche - Wednesday, March 20, 2019
During the past weekend I was teaching fly casting in Switzerland. Fantastic weekend for sure!
Gary Meyer - Tuesday, March 19, 2019
No fishing for me this last weekend: I spent both days in bed fighting my way back from an attack of the influenza bug. It hit me on Wednesday and felt like a wall fell on top of me. I managed to limp into work on Friday but needed Saturday and Sunday to complete my recovery. Getting out and lawn casting on Sunday afternoon felt like a celebration. I have an unusually busy schedule for casting lessons coming up. While this is possibly my busiest period each year, for some reason I’ve gotten a lot more requests than in the past. On the one hand, it is nice to see some repeat students: it makes me feel like they thought the previous lessons were worthwhile. But, on the other hand, I have this nagging suspicion that I am not getting the job done. In the preliminary discussions I’ve been having, where I ask what the students want to focus on, I keep hearing the same concern. Tailing loops always are at the top of the student’s lists.
Paul Arden - Monday, March 18, 2019
It's now officially the start of my fishing season here at Belum Rainforest. I know that you are probably thinking, "well what were you doing the last few months, Paul?" Nothing serious! Just figuring a few things out, trying to put the yearly pattern in place, catching the odd fish and so on. But March 15th is when it all starts to happen around here. My guests start to appear after the middle of March and not before because it's too "hit and miss". And so it's not just the start of my fishing season proper, but also the time of year when I start to show others this incredible fishing.
Martyn White - Saturday, March 16, 2019
I've recently spent a lot of time looking at pictures of winged termites and hoglice (sow bugs for our American friends) trying to dial in some better imitations than I've seen so far. For termites there's not alot out there so there's a lot of messing around trying to get something that will look edible to a wild gourami. Because of Paul's input on gourami being very hard to fool and termites being a new imitation, I'm giving it much more time at the design and willing to allow the individual tie to be much longer than a trout fly would take-if my new hoglouse takes more than about 3minutes to tie, it's not acceptable when a Ray Charles will do largely the same job most of the time. So why bother? Well, it's a combination of things for me, a bit of confidence, a bit of giving them something different and just the enjoyment of spending time playing around at the vice, picking out the key features that I think will trigger a positive response from the fish before getting them on the water to test.
Mika Lappalainen - Friday, March 15, 2019
I was four days snowmobiling in Russia. It is total wilderness and nearest town, Pääjärvi, is about 80 km from lodge. In Pääjärvi there is mobile phone connection if you need one. Lodge have restaurant and they have wifi so you could make whatsapp calls and they have also somekind of old fashion phone connection. But if you go just few kilometres away…. you don’t have any connection to world. And I think most of us are use to have connection all the time. (well not Paul because he is jungle man). And that made me think about emergency situations when fishing remote places or any outdoor activities you do out of connection.
Tracy&James - Thursday, March 14, 2019
It’s getting close to the first BFCC Meeting of 2019 – Devon on Saturday 30th March – and I’m looking forward to it as it’s my tenth year of competing. Back in 2009 I entered my first ever casting competition and cast 71ft with a 5# outfit. It wasn’t my first visit to a BFCC event though as it took me a few meetings to feel comfortable to cast in front of others, some of whom were (and still are) amazing distance casters. The other casters were so welcoming that I eventually had a go and then got tuition from some amazing instructors (you know who you are). It was slow progress as I don’t consider myself a natural caster, though with lots and lots of practice (both on fields and whilst fishing) I was eventually able to cast around 90ft with a 5#, once I learned to double haul. I reckon I stressed out a few instructors who tried to teach me this as it took a few years for the double haul to feel normal – learning techniques to develop my dexterity helped. James and I are quite competitive at fishing and this improvement has definitely paid dividends with my fishing; when bonefishing James used to catch ~4 fish for each one of mine, that ratio is much more even these days
Bernd Ziesche - Wednesday, March 13, 2019
Last week I was testing some extreme line set ups in order to get the best contact between my fly and me.
Gary Meyer - Tuesday, March 12, 2019
This past weekend it finally happened! A buddy and I brought three beautiful snook to the canoe on our flyrods. We actually went 3 out of 4 that were hooked. For a brief moment, we even had on a double header, but that ended shortly after my shouts of exuberance, and number four threw the hook. There were a few others that tried to eat our flies too, but despite their best efforts, we were able to deftly snatch the flies away from them just in time. I wish I could take some credit for our success, but it really was all on the snook. After weeks of presenting flies and seeing fish either bolt away or very, very slowly slink off, this day they acted like they had not eaten anything for months. That is quite possibly very close to reality.
Paul Arden - Monday, March 11, 2019
Guiding season is kicking in next week first with a friend I met at the Malaysian Fly Fishing Show, Martyn White. Martyn has written a few pages for Sexyloops and is a hell of a fly tier. Hopefully by next week I’ll be landing fish again! We’re in the middle of a major heatwave at the moment here in Malaysia which is excellent because it’s bringing the lake water fast to free-rising Snakehead temps. While one may be left with the conclusion that the warm air temperatures have been to blame for the recent challenging fishing, nothing could be further from the truth and the lake water temps are not quite yet high enough for “summer” action.
Andy Dear - Sunday, March 10, 2019
Last week on the way to have lunch with a former business colleague, I passed by the University where I graduated from back in 1997. To be honest, I don't really have fond memories of my time in school like a lot of people do. I worked a full time job, 6 days a week my entire tenure in college to help pay tuition and living expenses. College to me was nothing more than a means to an end, and honestly, I couldn't wait to get out and move on with life. In spite of that, as I passed the campus, the brief trip down memory lane did get me to thinking about how my obsession with fishing, not surprisingly, took precedence over even my academic career.
Mika Lappalainen - Friday, March 8, 2019
It has been long time, too long time that I have been tying flies. Almost every day I’m thinking about it but… there is always excuse and not even good ones. It is same when you should practise your casting. I had to admit that, I have good reason for why I’m not practising my casting so much during wintertime but tying… I have been just lazy. When I’m doing 10-12 hours days with reindeer and we have daylight about 4-6 hours. Well, you can realize that all casting practise would be in the dark. I don’t want to do it dark because I want to film my casting and see what line and rod is doing. But tying…. laziness.
Tracy&James - Thursday, March 7, 2019
Bernd’s FP yesterday about how many takes go completely unnoticed by fly anglers who are ‘blind’ fishing got me thinking about the almost exact opposite scenario i.e. the kind of take that almost rips the rod out of your grasp.
Bernd Ziesche - Wednesday, March 6, 2019
That in my experience is the resistance, which our fly line provides to all fish taking our fly!
Gary Meyer - Tuesday, March 5, 2019
This past weekend I headed back out into the mangrove backcountry to be snubbed, once again, by a handful of large, beautiful snook. After the previous trip, I was sure that I had, this time, the right combination of location, tide, and flies. I launched my canoe, pre-dawn, into a very low but still rapidly falling tide. I knew I would have very skinny water throughout the morning, which would make the fish all that much easier to see. My little 2 HP Honda four-stroke outboard, clamped to the side of my canoe, purred hypnotically as I slowly made my way through fog-laden rivers and creeks. Even in the best of conditions, my canoe does not move very fast, and on this morning, fighting the strong ebbing tide, it moved even slower. No matter, I spent the time rigging rods and tying on my new creations from the vise. Besides, I was in no hurry. I would be in the best fishing areas almost too soon. The good sight fishing would not be until the mid-morning sun was high enough to help the visibility. So, I putted along and marveled at how easily the small motor pushed the canoe at better than a brisk walking speed. It may not be fast, but it is comfortably relentless.
Paul Arden - Monday, March 4, 2019
It’s been quite an eventful week. Squeaker, my dying truck, had its regular engine overhaul last weekend and was back on the road Wednesday. It’s still not squeaking perfectly however, and in fact I was sure it was going to blow up on the “Belum Mountain” leaving me stranded with angry elephants. It didn’t but it’s only a matter of time now, so Ashly and I are hastily looking for a new Sexyloops truck.
Andy Dear - Sunday, March 3, 2019
“It’s an incredible thing to go out every single day and know that you’ve gotta figure them (Bass) out. This amazing study of natural rhythms and how all things are connected — I can’t see myself ever getting tired of that.” ---Rick Clunn A couple of weeks ago I witnessed an event that brought back a lot of good memories...and taught me an important life lesson as well. I watched legendary tournament Bass fisherman Rick Clunn win a major Bassmaster Elite Series title on the St. John's River in Florida. I know a lot of you are saying to yourselves "that type of fishing has very little if anything in common with what we do here at Sexyloops", and for the most part, you would be absolutely right. However, Rick's recent tournament win has a profound lesson to teach all of us regardless of what discipline of angling we pursue....and it also has some personal meaning for me as well.
Paul Arden - Saturday, March 2, 2019
First up, the Hot Torpedo shirts have all been printed and I should have them in my hands later this week. As soon as I receive them I shall post them out to all competition entrants. After this we shall start a new competition for Hot Torpedo Owners with slightly different rules this year; monthly winners will receive a Sexyloops T-shirt with a picture of their choosing as the main image (this can be a picture of you holding a fish while looking surprised for example). The grand prize will be a custom built Hot Torpedo Rod. I’ll run the competition for 12 months, so the winner will be decided in April 2020. More rules for this exciting competition to follow.
Mika Lappalainen - Friday, March 1, 2019
I’m standing in the middle of river with guest. It is kind of shoal. He is fishing spot with dry fly where we saw some rise earlier. We hear loud rise from our left side and little bit behind. My guests is turning and he wants to try that one he heard. I tell him that why not but it is not big one. And then we start to discuss, it has happen often and will happen again on coming summers.