Next week is my birthday, a big one! Tracy and I had big plans about how we were going to celebrate with a great fishing trip, but these have all been blown out of the water with recent events. The last ‘decadal’ birthday we celebrated was Tracy’s – we coincided this with a 2 week trip to Christmas Island with a further week’s recovery in Hawaii. Her birthday was spent targeting bonefish, triggers and GTs in the beautiful lagoon (I’m sure we’ll have notes somewhere on the actual day’s fishing), followed by fresh sashimi and baked breadfruit on our return to the lodge. In the evening we had a wonderful meal of local produce along with a few beers, Tracy was also presented with a hand-crafted necklace and bracelet made from shells collected from the shoreline by the staff of the lodge.
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Not easy to shift around the C-word these days. But it's exactly this what I am trying to do since it (the C-word) puts me in a bad mood.
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I'm doing a lot of fly tying, reading about fishing and tying and talking tying just now with the covid-19 situation basically shutting everything down. I've also started baking bread, which is nice.
Last week I was talking to an American friend about wet flies, specifically snatchers. He asked me a question that surprised me, but actually made a lot of sense. "What's the point of just tying a palmered wet on a curved hook?"
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Because we are born in a zone, many people feel a connection to that zone. “I am English” “I am Scottish” “I am Antarctican” How totally ridiculous. That’s not owning the zone; that’s the zone owning you! Who even cares where you were born? All that matters is that you are alive. This bullshit “identity” determined by where you were born, or where your parents were born, or your parents’ parents? How far back do you want to go?1000 generations? I like my parents very much, but they have their own lives as I have mine. Just as they were separate individuals from their parents too.
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For the last 5 weeks the county I live in had posted large signs at all the local public bridge crossings prohibiting public access to the river below. For Jack and I, this has meant that we've had to delay the start of our spring Panfish and Carp season.
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I took up leather work some years ago - primarily to make leather sheaths for knives I make myself, and make sheaths for some knives I had bought. The (really nice) knives came with boring index, plastic sheaths, and that’s a shame. So I began making sheaths and other items and of course, even that hobby began merging with fly fishing. I’ve made many fly fishing related items in leather over the years, and a few years ago, I began making fly pouches.
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I heard from radio that world has found out why Finnish people are one of the happiest people in the world. Our best and worst ideas are coming when we are under that secretly thing. It is up to you decide which one is this but it is either great or awful. Anyway idea to subject came when doing this. And what is this secret behind of our happiness. It is something we have been doing probably centuries and now when bars and pubs are close, we know how to do it. It is called kalsarikänni, translation would be something like ”drunk in panties”. It means that you stay at home alone, drink booze and maybe listen music or something like that. But main idea is get drunk in panties alone.
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We’ve spent this last week coming up with casting challenges with an MPR as that’s the only thing we can cast in our garden. We’ve had to replace the wool-end of the rope with something less ‘grabby’ as our artificial grass is really tearing up the wool. Initially I thought the friction was useful when practicing roll casting, until I realised I had left some of the red wool stuck in the grass behind me! The good news is that it’s impossible to blow an anchor though.
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For a very long time the whole fly casting community including all experts were saying: "Fly casting is all about loading and unloading the rod." Today some of us fly casting geeks know, that loading the rod was significantly overrated! But how do you get rid of an old concept, that was nailed down for 100 years!?
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“First you guess. Don’t laugh, this is the most important step. Then you compute the consequences. Compare the consequences to experience. If it disagrees with experience, the guess is wrong. In that simple statement is the key to science. It doesn’t matter how beautiful your guess is or how smart you are or what your name is. If it disagrees with experience, it’s wrong. That’s all there is to it.”
Richard Feynman. Nobel Prize in Physics, 1965.
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We have been selling a lot of rods this past week. Thank you!! We will survive this epidemic. But right now is a great time to order rods. Thank you again!! We had a flat three weeks, where we managed to catch up and get a little bit in front. But this week: we are back on track. I really don’t know what’s going to happen this summer - who does? In the meantime I hope that you are all safe and enjoying flytying - or fishing, if you are lucky enough to get out.
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One of the things I have always loved about fly fishing is the long standing associated literary tradition with the craft. More specifically I love the old out of print books that showcase what fishing was like back in "the good ol' days".
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Frank Sawyer is know to almost all fly fishers - famed as a visionary riverkeeper on the southern English Avon, an exceptional angler and perhaps above all, as the inventor of what is undoubtedly the most famous of famous nymphs, the Pheasant Tail. He invented other flies too, all more of less based on the same tech nique of using coper wire as tying “thread”. On a trip to Sweden, he invented the Swedish Nymph, imitating a largish species of mayflies called Siphlonorus. His Grey Goose is also quite famous and based on the same tying technique.
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Middle of April, there should be some signs of coming spring. Last Thursday I went to see some rivers, just to easy my feelings. By the river there is lot of snow (of course) but also spots where fishing could be reasonable are still cover with ice. So my great plan to start flyfishing season on Easter or coming weekend won’t work.
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The last few weeks have been tough… much more so for many others than me. My biggest “problem” has been being grounded from fishing. That is all I have to complain about, so it is not a legitimate reason to complain. In fact, I realize that I am very lucky, indeed.
Where I work I am essentially a one-man show. There are no others that do what I do, and what I do is deemed essential. So, unlike many others, I not only still have a job, but I am being treated with respect. I am far enough from the front lines that I have little concern from becoming infected, at least not due to my job. Of course, there is always the chance of random contact through the general public. So, like anyone with common sense, I am limiting my interactions with the outside world.
I report directly to only one person and he is way up the chain, “at 40,000 feet” as he likes to claim. He really does not grasp what I do, but as long as I do it right he leaves me alone in my lab, as do most others. The one person who actually has a clue is the supervisor of the location where my lab is located. And, as luck would have it, he is also a fly angler and we have fished together on many occasions. So, he not only knows about my job, but he also knows what I do and where I go when off the clock.
And it is with that knowledge he has managed to keep me from wandering off to fish. To limit the possibility of inter-employee contagion, all who can work from home are now required to do so. Meetings are now all done via the internet. Unfortunately, part of my job is very hands-on and I must physically travel to other private laboratories during normal working hours. So, I cannot work remotely for at least part of the workweek. To keep me off premises, I am allowed a few extra days at home each week now, and with pay. How can anyone complain about that?
Here is the rub: I am on call. The supervisor has promised that he will not call me in unless it is absolutely necessary. However, as he knows who I am and what I do, he has implored me to be available if I am needed. In his own words, I cannot be “off in a canoe, hours away and out of cell phone coverage.” To that request he added a very heart-felt “Please!”
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If you are a fisherman it’s hard to beat the idea of living afloat. Being there on the water, ready at a moments notice to chase some fish, or just have a cast, or a swim even. Particularly in the tropics, where swimming is an essential part of daily life! Here in the Malaysian jungle it’s a special place: monkeys and gibbons, hornbills, eagles, elephants - tigers even, although I’ve never seen any, but I have heard the roar a few times now.
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Many years ago, my late friend and noted Texas Rodmaker Gerlad MacCasland introduced me to a "fishing club" that at the time was called The Greater Texas Bass Club. It was a unique business model whereby the club owner contracted with private landowners who had lakes on their property to allow the members of the club to fish these private lakes for a daily fee. The club worked on a reservation system where the fisherman could reserve a lake for a day and would have the entire body of water all to themselves. Additionally, the club provided small boats at all the lakes for the members to use at no extra charge. Gerald joined The GTBC because as he got up in age, he was no longer able to handle a large bass boat by himself, and the GTBC provided an opportunity for him to do what he loved without the expense, hassle and maintainence of owning a large boat, and also without the wasted time of searching out fish on a large body of water that more often than not was overcrowded and over fished by other anglers.
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Strike indicators or sight indicators (or just indicators) are frowned upon by some, embraced by others. The “purists” claim that Skues and Sawyer would be turning in their graves, saw they the modern developments of nymph fishing. I’m not so sure - they were both innovators and went against many accepted ideals in their own time. I’m somewhere in between myself. There’s no doubt that I’d rather fish with out one than with one, but that doesn’t change the fact that they have a place in my kit and certainly in modern fly fishing. There are many different types of indicators and even more brands and I’ve tried some of them, and I’ll go over them below and point out some advantages and disadvantages.
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I’m going to tell you about my biggest catch with ice fishing. We went fishing with our friend to our lake. Well its not really a lake, its rather a pond, I think my dad has probably told you something about it. It has a fireplace and it is a really nice place. We make small trips there.
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I thought I’d continue with the recent theme of ‘memorable’ fish this week because, as you can guess I haven’t been out fishing or casting this week, unless flicking a MPR about in the back garden counts. Today I’m remembering two saltwater fish; although only one was caught by me, I did still learn a lot from seeing what happened with the other one, a barracuda, which I’ll start with.
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In times of Corona most of us (if not all) stopped travelling for fly fishing completely. I hope this will give some of us a fair chance to realize some great fishing waters to always have been near by.
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Despite all the recent commotion, last weekend I was determined to go fishing. And, why not… my preferred style of fishing is the epitome of social distancing. The local rules “urged” folks to stay home, but at that time is was not yet mandatory. Despite the closure of the State and Federal parks I still had many places that I could launch a canoe. A different closure, however, back-doored me. Due to recent “Spring Break” activities, after COVID-related closure of beaches and bars on the lower east coast, the college kids (and plenty of locals) decided to party on the water, flotilla style. Videos made it to the internet and then, local officials simply closed the boat ramps and waters. Why would that bother me? I was heading to the other coast and never use a boat ramp anyway. The problem was just about every other avid angler saw the opposite coast as the only option too. The crowds were epic. I’m glad I stayed home. I’m still thinking of ways to get out. Isolating has now become mandatory, but I have the credentials to be on the street… I’m just at a loss on how to explain the canoe strapped to the top of my van.
Instead I sat home and tried to think of something to write about. The following, although not fishing related, is what showed up… I apologize.
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A question came up on the Board about glossy/matte rods and so I thought I should write about this for a while. Then I’m going to tell you about two new Hot Torpedos and finally I’m going to explain how to “dial in a rod”. But first let’s talk about lipstick...
Lipstick is something that women paint on their lips. It is supposed represent the lips of the vagina which can turn slightly red when sexually aroused. And so to make themselves more seductive to us fly fishing chaps, they paint their lips red too.
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Well, 10 weeks have now gone by since we started this journey in search of the reasons why we fish. To be honest, I am not exactly sure what it is that we've figured out! It has, for me, however, been an interesting and introspective exercise into a very significant part of my life that I've actually never given much thought to....at least not 10 weeks worth of thought.
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Knife… Knives… Man’s oldest tools are not knives, but cutting tools made of flint, which one can argue is also a knife, but I’m not going to do that. I am going to go on about knives, because I like knives and I always bring one when I go fishing. Sometimes two :-).
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Tuesday it was snowing more, again. So now we have about 1,5 meter snow in here. So spring and first signs are far away in this point. No because of this lock down and etc it might be possible to start fly fishing season more early than ever before. Why? Because it looks like that we have time to do that. We had to close farm from visitors and our own ice fishing trip has been cancelled also like wrote last week. But we had idea about using snowshoes to go flyfishing, it is still just the thought but maybe it will turn as action.
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A couple of weeks ago Tracy wrote a FP about a particularly memorable fight that she had with a shark that ultimately broke off – so close to an elusive 100+ pound fish caught whilst wading (actually she was on the beach). Being as we haven’t been doing any fishing due to the lock-down here in the UK, I thought I’d continue on the same topic with a few of my most memorable fish. There’s also a thread on the board if you’d like to join in.
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Paul Arden - ever the inventor!
I have fished with Paul in many places throughout the world. We fished the Gacka river in Croatia, the Ribnik and Pliva Rivers in Bosnia, the Brown trout part of the Varzina River in the Kola Penninsular in Russia, and of course Lake Temmengor in Malaysia. He is a 24/7 fly fisherman.
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