Daily Cast Archive

Trying to achieve one's longest possible flycast is something that Sexyloopers are quite well known for, I think! The only question is, who sets the limit!?

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Islamorada is a city/island about halfway down the island chain of the Florida Keys and an epicenter of flyfishing for big tarpon. Translated into English the name means, “purple island”, since it appeared to glow that color when the early Spanish explorers sailed within view. It took on that hue because most of the trees were draped in a beautiful Morning Glory vine that produces stunningly blue saucer-shaped flowers that unfold in the dawn twilight but wilt under the midday sun. I had always thought that it would be neat to have those flowers in my yard, but due to rampant over-development in the Keys, the plant is now quite rare and is protected. Luckily, just a bit north of the Keys, in the Everglades, there is a relative to the Key’s Morning Glory that has a bit of a twist. Instead of the flower opening at dawn, this one opens at dusk and remains open until sunrise to entice not butterflies but moths. And, instead of blue, it is stunningly bright white and goes by the name of Moonvine. As most of the Everglades are protected, the plant is quite common, and there is a good number of them growing in my back yard. Or at least there was.

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Some interesting discussions on the Board. I’ll post some links below. I was fly fishing for Sailfish last week for an upcoming TV show that I’m presenting. I can’t say any more than that at the moment because of Network contracts - however it’s going to be very exciting and something I’ve wanted to do since the age of 17! It has simply taken FAR longer than originally anticipated! :D

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I’m beginning to come to the conclusion that the last 10 percent or so of distance during competition casting is all in my head. By that I mean that something must activate in the dark recesses of my brain to tell my body ‘you’re in a competition now – tense up a little bit so he has to start fighting for the distance that he was hitting easily just a couple of minutes ago in practice’. After many years competing it’s telling that I’ve never hit a personal best, or indeed get anywhere near one, in a competition. In fact it gets worse (for me) in that I think most of my personal bests are when I’m casting alone. Now I do practice on my own quite a lot, and I probably go out in weather that Tracy would not consider casting in, so perhaps that last bit is not that surprising, however I do notice that when Tracy joins me my distances almost always drop.

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In May I wrote short front page about how I got the idea of glueing a magnet to my glue- and varnish bottle to help prevent them from accidentally tipping over tying and finishing a fly. I know it seems impossible to believe that someone has improved on this idea, brilliant as it is, but that is none the less the case.

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Today Satu has written FP. She will open little bit story behind sock, drum and rod. Her rod is HT6 no 119, Lady Shaman. I want to thank Paul and Lee about filling all the request about rod and sock. Thanks mates.

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Part of the reason I am drawn to the craft of fishing is for the simple fact that it offers the ”do-it-yourselfer” the opportunity to be involved in so many hands-on aspects of the act itself. Most fly anglers at some point will try their hand at tying flies, and for those with the inclination and the patience, may even try their hand at building their own rods. And for the angler who prefers conventional tackle, the arts of lure painting and soft bait pouring have also seen an explosion in popularity in the last 10 years as well.

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After teaching fly fishing for coastal Sea trout in the weekend I am now fishing for Atlantic salmon with Flo and David in Denmark.

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While I did, finally, get out and go fishing last weekend, I failed to catch a fish. That’s okay though, I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I experimented with a bunch of things I had been pondering. There were many such things as I had spent way too much time wishing instead of fishing. With no fish to brag about, and since it is too early to draw any conclusions about my experiments, I thought I would share some ideas about cleaning flylines. A career as an analytical chemist has given me some insights. When your job is to detect and quantify trace levels of contaminants, you have to be able to clean lab glassware to levels below the things you are looking for, and that requires some knowledge about cleaning products.

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A good question was asked on the Board last week about what is the purpose of overhang and what does it achieve? And it’s a good question because the answer involves some understanding of line profiles and shooting line.

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Recently I've been tying a box of flies to take to Caithness and the Hebrides once we're able to travel again and I can get to Scotland. The Hebrides, Uist's machair lochs in particular have some of the best wild brown trout fishing out there, mostly traditional wetfly, with dapping also being worth a go if you fancy something a bit different and exciting.

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I've written a few front pages about Frank Sawyer's Killer Bug lately, which is, of course, because I like the fly and it's history. And because I use it happily, and it's an extremely effective and versatile fly (remember that Sawyer even caught salmon on, on the lower parts of the Avon).

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So our holiday/fishing trip has come to end. Like many good things in life in some point it is finished. Trip was dichotomous. Last week I told how start was good and I had some action with salmon. Camping was also great like always. Last two days were something totally different.

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More than once I have alluded to the fact that one of the most interesting and satisfying parts of working in the fishing industry is getting to know the interesting people involved in our craft. Two years ago I ran up on someone who might just be one of the most talented artists that I've ever had the pleasure of knowing. His name is Jared DuCote, and alongside his father Bob DuCote, they own DuCote Custom Lures here in San Antonio, TX.

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Last week I realized someone asking for help about solving a casting fault on facebook. As you can imagine the answers not all were helpful! Since there are several causes possible here, be warned: This is going to be a long frontpage!

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I took a photo of a little carp I caught the other day. This is pretty unusual, I don't take many pictures of fish anymore, unless there's something novel about them for me. Could be they're bigger than normal, an unusual species,particularly pretty or something else. This time it was because the barbless hook didn't just fall out so as I was unhooking the fish I took a moment to appreciate its nice full fins and clean proportions. So I took a quick snap and slid the fish back into the river, then strolled home for lunch.

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It was suggested that we make some camouflage Sexyloops Facemasks for social distalising. And so we have! Camouflage for stealth on one side and ninja black on the other for night time operations. Basically they are £10 each with £1.50 being donated to the Sungai Tiang project we are actively involved with. Now if you go into the shop you can see there are two being sold together with International registered post included which is why the displayed price is 38.50USD! However the simplest way is to get in touch with me via email and we can figure out the price local to you. Of course if you want to buy two with International shipping then you can just click the button!

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After a great time in Cumbria last weekend, we returned home to Wales, then promptly drove down South for work. The weather is totally different this week as we’re mainly in shorts and t-shirts, unlike the thermals last weekend. Whilst in the South, besides doing plenty of DIY and gardening, we’re also popping to the Hampshire County Sports Day on the Bereleigh Estate, near Petersfield to support our good friend and fellow fisher, Gilly. For the last few years, we’ve supported the Show by running a free to enter casting competition, normally accuracy rather than distance.

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River season is drawing to a close in most rivers here in Denmark - they're all still open, but the first ones close in a month's time, and all are closed by November 15th. That of course means that there's still time to fish - for sea trout, salmon, grayling and trout. Although grayling and brown trout have declined in the last 10 years, they can still be found, but hatches are getting scarce with the beginning autumn, so you need other stuff in the box.

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This week is all about fishing. Well it is little bit something else also, but mostly fishing. This is our holiday week. Our all plans changed during the spring and summer, so we had to figure something else. Satu asked about if we rent camper in September. I was like yeah, why not. You know not to be too excited about this. Original destination was Sweden but covid fucked that up, then Norway and same result. So here we are, northern part of Finland, which is called käsivarsi (arm). Area is also know as mountain lapland.

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Many of you may have read the series of interviews I did with famous rod designers for RodMaker Magazine from 2001-2007, several of which have been published in the articles section here on SexyLoops for over a decade now. But what many of you may not know is that the impetus for those interviews was a conversation I had the privilege of engaging in with Gary Loomis way back in January of 2001.

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At the moment we are fly fishing for Sea trout in Denmark.

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It has been a 4-day weekend for me. Today (Monday) is a US holiday and as such I have not gone anywhere near the water. I always abstain on holiday weekends. And, also per usual after a long fishless weekend, I almost forgot that I needed to write something. I am sitting on my porch enjoying an almost imperceptible but welcome change in the weather. If you pay attention, it is apparent now that the sun is rising almost due east at my latitude. Soon, or at least in about two weeks it will be on the equator, and after that the sun’s rays will become more obtuse. It seems like all the South Florida critters, including the fish, recognize this change… and celebrate! I know I will. This summer has been a bastard.

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Busy day of working for me. I’ve put the SL HT763 fly rod in the Sexyloops shop and have just made a short video about the rod. Not that there is very much to say about fly rods except they are predominantly designed for casting flylines and in this case mostly the leader! It has taken almost 7 years to release this rod. The first prototype I received just prior to the Sexyloops Scottish Meet in Spain, which was six and a half years ago.

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This weekend James and I have been competing at the second UK Fly Casting Championship in the typically windy Millom, Cumbria. Thursday was a practice day for us, mainly S55g and ST27 as the strong wind was irresistible to not give our various outfits for these events a try. It has been great to catch up with old friends, especially as this year, unusually this is only the second casting event we’ve attended. Normally we would have competed at several events by this time of the year, though as we all know, 2020 has been a very extraordinary year.

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I love professional cycling - I wtch all the races on the World Tour that I have access to, so I'm thouroughly enjoying Tour de France at the moment. Some stages are a bit boring, typically the flat sprinter stages, where it's fine to just catch the last 20km (like I did yesterday, and missed a big turn of events at the peloton broke in three groupds from an attack in the sidewind from Peter Sagan's team - typical). Even mountain stages can be a little boring when the GC riders decide to wait for the last climb before they make their moce, but often, mountain stages like today's are excellent entertainment.

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Last weekend was perfect for fishing, chilly nights and warm sunny days. In fact the whole week has been like that, unfortunally fishing season ended on Monday last of August. Well there is some rivers still open for grayling fishing and next Tuesday we are heading to north. We gonna have holiday week in middle of autumn colours and hopefully some great fishing. Our puppies are mostly found new home so it is getting little bit quite, finally. When you have 10 puppies from hell…. well you get idea.

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Nothing is original, so embrace influence, school yourself through the work of others, remix and reimagine to discover your own path. ---Austin Kleon

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It seems like it's taken forever to manage it, but I made it offshore last week. Over the last few years it seems as if weather related cancellations have been more common that successful outings! Even this year, although we've not had any typhoons yet our first trip was cancelled - this turned out to be a blessing really as the mahi run has been later than usual.June and July were unusually cool and wet this year, which probably kept the mahi further south for longer, but they're here now in numbers.

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Last weekend actually looked pretty decent for a fishing trip. I had some reports that confirmed what I expected, and the tides looked favorable for a specific location that was once a summer favorite of mine. The primary downside was the heat. Our recent weather has had daily air temperatures in the low to mid 90s and with the excessive humidity the “feels like” temperatures were topping 100. To say things have been uncomfortable would be an understatement. So, I hesitated. I had everything packed and ready, as has been the case for weeks now, but I just could not get up the gumption to load up the canoe. To paraphrase an old saying… “My get-up-and-go must have got up and went”.

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