Bernd Ziesche - Wednesday, July 31, 2019
During the past days I shaped a lot of different flies out of balsa and foam. My goal was to create a fly moving 10 to 30cm below the surface - depending on my retrieving speed and the current. The fly then should go wild (left, right, up and down = running in all directions). Finally I am getting very close to be satisfied!
Gary Meyer - Tuesday, July 30, 2019
I really want to go fishing! It does not seem right that I have not been out on the water for a “real” trip in over a month. I make tentative plans, semi-organize my equipment, and begin to contemplate my options, but then as the weekend draws near the weather reality sinks in and, defeated, I recognize that I will be staying home once again. In the past, I have half-jokingly suggested that the reason there are so few true fly casting addicts in Florida is because we can fish almost 365 days a year. Who wants to practice casting when fishing is always available? I now believe I need to amend that statement – not the part about the lack of comp level casters, but the suggestion that we do not have an “off” season.
Paul Arden - Monday, July 29, 2019
Graeme has really come in flying. First Snakehead was 5KG followed by one of 4.7KG. Then a free-riser of 4.3 and a smaller one just to show that it wasn’t an accident. On Saturday he hooked and lost a Gourami of ~3.5KG, on a static Popper :))) There are not a huge number of available shots at the moment, so this has been a truly excellent week - particularly so because I haven’t been on the lake for about a month and so we not only have to catch the fish but also find them first.
Martyn White - Sunday, July 28, 2019
For various reasons not been fishing for almost a month. I've made it out for some lawn casting, but as this year's rainy season has already dragged on weeks longer than is normal and the rivers are blown, I'm developing acute cabin fever, and am much less keen on the season than I used to be.
Mika Lappalainen - Friday, July 26, 2019
Winnie the Pooh or like we called Nalle Puh is our national fly. It has been invited in 1968 by Simo Lumme and every flyfisherman in Finland knows this fly. Or at least they should know it. It has some tricky parts when you are tying that but you can make it easier also. Fly is imitating trichoptera adult. It is very good fly for trout and grayling. Floating high in the surface and you can make lot of variation with fishing techniques.
Viking Lars - Friday, July 26, 2019
Following up on my FP about the Amok Equipment Draumr hammock, I thought it was interesting to do some comparisons. Advantages? Disadvantages? Let's take a look.
Tracy&James - Thursday, July 25, 2019
This FP is going to be about Bernd’s Dangly Bits or ‘BDB’ when it’s added to the Sexyloops' acronym listing. Bernd Ziesche is Wednesday’s FP contributor and he first went public with his dangly bits some years back – I hope he doesn’t mind me bringing them up and to the fore again (I suspect he’ll be too busy fishing to notice). The thing with Bernd’s Dangly Bits is that they’re magnificent, perfectly shaped (maybe a little over stylised for some if I’m being super critical), insightful and above all demonstrably correct. They are a little smaller than normal but then you can’t flop down a full size rod on a sheet of A4 can you?
Bernd Ziesche - Wednesday, July 24, 2019
During the past 7 days I was fly fishing all around the clock. During the night I was designing new flies for catching asp, while in the days I was chasing asp, carp, pikeperch and some more.
Gary Meyer - Tuesday, July 23, 2019
I really want to go fishing! It does not seem right that I have not been out on the water for a “real” trip in over a month. I make tentative plans, semi-organize my equipment, and begin to contemplate my options, but then as the weekend draws near the weather reality sinks in and, defeated, I recognize that I will be staying home once again.
Paul Arden - Monday, July 22, 2019
It’s back to the jungle life for me. Graeme Hird is visiting from Perth, Australia for the next ten days. Tonio arrives from France for two weeks. Ronan drops in for four days on his trip through from NZ to Ireland and then I have a special guest from the USA who lives in Hong Kong and who is joining me for one week. That will see me flat out through to mid August when I head over to Europe for a month.
Andy Dear - Sunday, July 21, 2019
My first exposure to Fly Fishing came somewhere around 1978. I wasn't but 8 years old, but the experience of seeing an angler fish in a way so radically different than what I was used to left a very deep, very profound imprint on my soul. And although this happened 40 years ago, today it came full circle in a very meaningful way.
Viking Lars - Saturday, July 20, 2019
My affection for the history of flyfishing shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who’s read any of my frontpages lately. Old flies have been on my Fps more than a few times the last months. A back injury has kept me off the water since March, but it hasn’t kept me from reading.
Mika Lappalainen - Friday, July 19, 2019
Last week was busy one, not because of fishing but because hay making. Beginning of July we had rain almost two weeks and temperature was around + 10 celsius. Then last week it warmed and dried so we need to make hay for wintertime. Last Thursday we started to work on 9 am and we were ready on Friday morning at 4 am. Just few hours before next rain. During the weekend we had ladies’ and master’s national finals in flyfishing in Kuusinki river. Satu took part for that. Same water will be on August when men have their finals and next year World Championship final will be held in Kuusamo.
Tracy&James - Thursday, July 18, 2019
All models are wrong, but some are useful. I’m sure many of you will have come across that saying before, particularly if you work within a science, engineering or technological industry. I’m fortunate enough to work in one of the country’s top scientific establishments which has an operating budget of getting on for £1 billion a year and only one customer to worry about. With such a budget I’m sure you can imagine how much we spend on our modelling efforts (especially these days when people get a bit twitchy about us wanting to actually test our product ☺ ). As such, you could reasonably expect our models to be perfect, right? Well no, because as already stated – all models are wrong! (They are certainly useful though).
Bernd Ziesche - Wednesday, July 17, 2019
Fly Fishing for asp often asks for the highest possible amount of action in one's fly. Otherwise the asp will refuse nearly all of the time! One way to increase action is to learn the best retrieving techniques. The other (very important) way goes down the road of fly design.
Paul Arden - Tuesday, July 16, 2019
When I first became a fly fishing Instructor I used to run weekend courses at Ardleigh reservoir for beginners. Now the problem I had is that flyfishing stillwaters is a huge subject, you have methods, you have seasons, knots, flies, flyline densities, trout behaviour. It’s a huge subject. And how to convey even part of this information along with learning to cast and going fishing? And so I wrote a small book.
Paul Arden - Monday, July 15, 2019
It's been and excellent and thoroughly enjoyable six weeks. I've done a massive amount of the hidden work that keeps Sexyloops running and have really put some miles into the bike. It's interesting how much time one hobby takes - fly fishing for example takes up an enormous amount of time, so much so that I don't even think of it as a hobby. In fact it's really a way of life. After all, like many on Sexyloops, it's also a full-time job for me. Triathlon is another major time-grabber. Even as a hobby and very much of amateur status, it still takes up around two to two and a half hours of training time every day. That's also a pretty major commitment. There are so many things I would like to do in life, like learn to play guitar, or learn some new languages, but I just don't see how I can fit these things into a life that's already very busy. In fact I haven't fished properly for a month, and that's the longest lay-off I've had in a very long time!
Andy Dear - Sunday, July 14, 2019
Every angler has fishing spots that will always hold a special place in the deepest recesses of their heart and mind. It may be because of an extraordinarily special catch, or because of a unique, memorable past experience. In my case, however, it's neither.....it's something much more.
Viking Lars - Saturday, July 13, 2019
The name alone - Thunder & Lightning - is enough to let you know that this is a fly to have in your box. It's also a very old fly (I know I've been going on about old flies, but it's just another fascinating facet of this wonderful hobby and lifestyle, and there's *always* something new (or old?) to be (re)learned). Just imagine the feeling of catching a good fish on a pattern that's been catching fish since 1850, or earlier.
Martyn White - Friday, July 12, 2019
When I first came to Japan, I thought I'd really get into bass fishing the lakes nearby but it just never happened. I tried, I really did, and despite catching a few largemouth I just couldn't really get into it. and I spent several years fishing almost exclusively for carp. I do fish for largies now and then from my float tube but they don't do it for me the way their little cousins do.
Tracy&James - Thursday, July 11, 2019
Tracy is currently organising things for the Game Fair, this year to be held at Hatfield House in Hertfordshire. Again the BFCC will be running the fly casting competitions and have assembled a great team of volunteers to help over the course of the weekend.
Bernd Ziesche - Wednesday, July 10, 2019
Last week we hosted a fly fishing trip to Smöla island in Norway. Fair to summarize we all had a blast catching a lot of excellent fish!
Gary Meyer - Tuesday, July 9, 2019
I would love to have something exciting to post, but that is not the case. Despite having an extended weekend off from work thanks to the US July 4 holiday, I never got close to fishable water. The weather is getting on my nerves. I suspect I could not survive in the northern latitudes where winter puts an end to fishing for some finite period of time. It’s not cold, but rain, that is driving me out of sorts. I imagine these last few weeks are a minor version of what it is like living in a tropical rain forest.
Paul Arden - Monday, July 8, 2019
Today I'm working on the Sexyloops 'datatables' which will be a reader's database of fly line weights and a rebuild of the CCS rod database that is on Sexyloops. Both of these will be available and live sometime in the week. I'm also working on the Sexyloops Newsletter Snapcast. I've been upgrading the software that operates behind the newsletter... and I'm also having my truck rebuilt! Yes this is clearly a time of rebuilding and upgrading all things in Sexyloops world. When I've accomplished these last few tasks then I'll be free to relocate back to the lake and retire. I've missed the place but Sexyloops needs a little bit of extra attention sometimes.
Andy Dear - Sunday, July 7, 2019
Yesterday Jackson and I spent the day fishing for Largemouth Bass on a private lake here in South Texas. The plan originally was to fly fish, but the unrelenting wind had other ideas. When we arrived at our destination just after daybreak, we also became immediately aware that the recent rain runoff and summer heat have initiated the growth of what looks to be an invasive species of aquatic plant known as Hydrilla.
Viking Lars - Saturday, July 6, 2019
I've been looking for an addition to my tent - not as such, but in fact an alternative in the shape of a hammock for some time. I've spent many nights in my cheap garden hammock, and nothing beats sleeping under open skies. Unless it's raining, of course. Hammocks seem to have had quite a revival over the last years, and new developments have sparked my interest - not least after I looked into it and saw all the hammocks that come with dedicated tarps.
Mika Lappalainen - Friday, July 5, 2019
I found this knot in end of 1990’s from flyfishing magazine. I think it was fly tying & fishing or something like that. It is really simple knot and I have use it since that when fishing grayling and trout. Dries, nymphs, wets and even with small streamers. Tippets from 0.12 to 0.28, monofil. I have memory that it was called mexican knot but I wouldn’t bet my head for that. It is easy to tie even in dark and it had hold really well.
Tracy&James - Thursday, July 4, 2019
I was going to re-visit some FPs that I’ve written previously about casting mechanics and modelling this week, however I’ve been completely scuppered by a problem with my computer. I’m writing this on Tracy’s laptop as even after a couple of evening’s worth of effort I haven’t got mine recovered sufficiently.
Bernd Ziesche - Wednesday, July 3, 2019
Last week I and another fly fisherman safed a life of an angler drifting down the river Glomma in Norway.
Gary Meyer - Tuesday, July 2, 2019
I have little to report after this last week. Our typical early summer rains continued, and while sporadic, they left very little space in between for comfortable fishing. Calling the recent weather “rainy” does not do it justice. Quite frequently the gentle rains turned into downpours creating localized flooding, provided lots of exciting electricity from above, and even some miniature hail. I had to back off on calling some of my acquaintances who forgo fishing when it rains “sissies” because even I felt it was a rather good time to have a roof over my head.
Paul Arden - Monday, July 1, 2019
Yesterday Sexyloops moved from a dedicated physical server to a dedicated cloud server. There are some benefits to this, a particularly appealing one is that we should now be approaching light-speed! The migration actually became necessary because the server database software was not upgrading. So a new server became essential to keep things tip top. Consequently we took the opportunity to upgrade the server at the same time.