Daily Cast Archive

Thank you, you are finally done and over. There is not much to celebrate this year and still it will be year of new stories and bad jokes. We all have been in same shit but different wrappings. Still breathing and kicking so it could be worst also. I have to correct my sayings little, keep reading

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Just a quick one from me this week, I almost forgot as the days are blurring into each other. It's been too cold for much in the way of fishing here, I could have gone out for carp but it's been consistently below zero over night for the past couple of weeks, better just to stay home with a mince pie, mess around with the fishing stuff, make some inroads on my book of carp flies and try to plan what the coming year will bring.

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I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! It’s become a family tradition to fish on Christmas Eve with dad, and it’s taken quite seriously. Interestingly, the weather was almost identical to last years, with fog being present in the morning, followed by nice weather a few hours after. Quite spectacular. After arriving at the lakes, it was apparent that the fish were not close to the surface early on, because there were no rises or surface disturbances. Quite often I’ve mistaken a rise in the distance which turned out to be a small diving water bird, which is probably one of nature’s trolls! You make the journey to what you think is a trout, only to see a small water bird pop up 30’ in front of you.

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The end of the year is coming in fast! The fishing is pretty hot here in Malaysia right now. Sure we are in middle of the Wet Season, but the rain is giving us a distinct break. This is one of the times of the year that Giant Snakehead spawn (they spawn and then within about 24 hours the eggs hatch. Both adults proceed to protect their young for the next 10-12 weeks). The other Prime Time for babies is late March through April. When the babies are at their smallest, then the fishing is most certainly easier — as about a dead cert as you can get around here — not that that is saying much, because it’s still highly challenging! Usually I pass all this stuff over to my guests, because it’s the best introduction to fly fishing for “The King of the Lake Jungle” that you can get. However we don’t have guests and haven’t had all bloody year! Consequently Ashly and I will just have to set about them ourselves :))) Bring it on!!!

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A few weeks ago I detailed my ongoing, long term love affair with the Borski Bonefish Slider. It was NOT however the Borski Slider that cemented my love for saltwater fly fishing, but rather the Seaducer.

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This week, we’ve been mainly focused on family and food. We’ve been spending time with close relatives that we haven’t seen much of during the last couple of years. So instead of fishing and casting, we’ve been cooking and baking so we can entertain at home rather than going out. It’s been busy, but lovely to catch up with everyone. We’re hoping next year, we can start travelling abroad again and catch up with our fishy friends that we haven’t seen for a few years also.

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That fly - the Squirmy Wormy (I’ll refrain from referring to it as such from now on) is an immensely popular fly and it catches lots and lots of fish all over the World. As a fly tier, it offends me - along with a few others, which I’ll leave out here. Why? Because it’s ugly and because a piece of fat rubber tied to a hook is not a fly. I know - it’s puritan, it’s elitist, it’s all sorts of wrong, I know it, but I can't help it.

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I asked to Anni, my daughter helped me out on this one. I had really long day and Christmas eve will be even longer because I had to visit so many home during the day and night. I have wrote about fish which will haunt me earlier and now Anni wrote short story about whole trip and that fish is mentioned again. I hope you enjoy and Merry Christmas. That trip is full of great memories and I'm glad that she seems to have those also. Here we go.....

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It's that time of year again, a time of cheer and goodwill to all men and, unfortunately, for the redd caught browns to start showing up on intagram. It took a bit longer than last year for me to notice. Probably because most of the higher profile culprits have blocked me for calling it out over the last few years.

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Presentation and accuracy are very important in trout fishing, at all distances. But we are going to talk primarily about still waters. With rivers, there are complex currents to deal with when you are in an unfavourable casting position, and so presentation casts and mends must be performed to ensure a drag free drift. In still waters, we have the wind, which may not be ideal if it’s coming from one side. In this instance, you would perform a reach cast to ensure a drag free drift of a dry fly for example.

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Why am I writing about an autumn fly right now, when both frost and snow have settled over Denmark? Hey - we might end up having a white Christmas, which is always nice. And we need the temperature changes. The drop in water temperature is what sends the sea trout up stream to follow. The spring's rise in temperature is what send them back to the ocean to return for another rounds. And it's also what send the grayling to the spawning redds and the pike. Let's get back to the fly.

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“It's on the strength of observation and reflection that one finds a way. So we must dig and delve unceasingly.” -----Claude Monet

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Tracy and I probably had our last fishing trip of the year to the Dee yesterday (today as I write), as the next couple of weeks will be spent hosting family who are coming up to Wales for Christmas (unless another lockdown, which we seem to be heading for, forces a change of plan). I’d like to report that we went out with a bang but unfortunately we couldn’t even raise a whimper – we both blanked with no takes or even fish seen. We did stay dry though which was a result being as the river was pushing hard. I had one very close call when I took one step too far trying to free my snagged nymphs – I stepped into a bit of a hole and I wasn’t coming out without some help (or taking a dip). Luckily Tracy was nearby and she waded over and handed me her stick that gave me the extra stability required to extricate myself. Unfortunately I then had to pull my leader for a break which I hate doing. I think we’ve got too used to the low summer levels and relatively easy wading, today was a reminder of the power of the River Dee at its ‘normal’ height.

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Thursday evening I contacted Paul and asked if my FP could be on Saturday this week. On Friday afternoon I was invited to talk with power company, Kemijoki Oy. They have 8 dam in Kemi river, all without system that fish could pass. That river used to be best salmon river in Europe, over 60 years ago. If dam company wants to hear fisherman and guide, well you don’t say no, at least right away.

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On Sunday I’m 51, or is it 34 again? The end of the year is always a reflective time and my feelings this year are not too different from last year! I haven’t worked at all this year — at least no days guiding/teaching fly fishing on the lake. My clients are virtually all International visitors and they haven’t been allowed in or out of Malaysia for 21 months. This year was the year I was supposed to race in 5 Ironman races around the world to celebrate turning 50. None of the races have happened here and I couldn’t get abroad to race in any of the events that happened elsewhere. But I have been training hard, and while not in peak race condition, I am a hell of a lot fitter than this time last year. Compared to two years ago, I’ve dropped 15KG on the bike and upped my power output considerably. That’s all good for keeping healthy and actively fly fishing of course. I look at some of my friends who are my age (not fly fishermen of course) and I think WTF?! People often think money is the most important thing in life, when in fact it’s your health (and fishing!).

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Eyes, do they make a difference? Some say no, some say yes and some are agnostic. Then there are the people who believe in them but wonder what the point is because their eyes always fall off.

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Before we start, we should have a look at the system. It goes; biggest fly, leader, fly line, and finally the rod. The number on the rod has nothing to do with the size of fish being caught, you can land 20lb trout on a #4 outfit, so long as you have an excellent drag and a low rod angle. The biggest fly size should govern the rest of the tackle, but how do you know what size line is right for fishing? Well, here are some approximates for true to weight lines; #4: size 12 - 22 fly #5: size 10 - 20 fly #6: size 8 - 18 fly #7: size 6 - 12 fly #8: big streamers

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If you are anything like me then you’ll have had a boots problem ever since you began fishing. Your typical fishing boot fits like a tugboat, is uncomfortable in doing any sort of mileage and most fall apart after only half a season of proper fishing. I’ve actually come to the conclusion that most fly fishing gear is made for anglers who only fish 20 or 30 days a year, ten metres from the car, and not for the driven anglers who try to spend every day fishing, trying to cover as much water as humanly possible. Certainly, when I used to spend half of the year hiking all over the New Zealand mountain rivers, typical boots would last me only around 3 months and many not even half that.

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“The biggest sin in the world would be if I lost my love for the ocean.” — Laird Hamilton

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As a young boy I would often walk down the promenade to a place called Splash Point. I should note that this was a long time ago, before helicopter parenting became the norm, and it was not unusual for children to leave the house in the morning and so long as they were back before it was too dark, all was good. I found myself drawn to Splash Point as people would fish there from the secure platform of the walk way. As its name perhaps indicates, Splash Point is an area where at high tide there is deep water right up against the sea wall, often spewing spray and foam over the top if the water was rough. In latter years I came to realise that it wasn’t just the deep water that attracted anglers to this spot, it was also the onsite bar that allowed customers to walk out to the promenade with their drinks.

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I sometimes find it hard to find an aspect of fly fishing that I don’t enjoy (there is one that springs to mind, but that’ll be for a future FP). And speaking of future Fps, I’ve strayed from the Stillwater-series, which I apologise for, and I’ll finish it. I just need to look back and see how far I got. There’s at least one fly type I haven’t covered. I stray again. The fishing, the casting, the fy tying, I took photography with into the hobby - and there’s hardly a category I haven’t dived deep into - and it’s impossible to exhaust any of them. The last 10 years or so, the history of fly fishing has been a big off-spring of the hobby, It always has been, but I’ve been researching it more seriously the last 10 years.

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Winter has really hit us. After last week heavy snow, temperature dropped easily down zero. It was -27 celsius in coldest day, it is about -17 fahrenheit. So you can understand that there is not much fishing now. Lakes are covered with ice and next week ice fishing guiding season will start. I just hope it will warm up just a little bit.

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The first leg of my winter seabass season has come to a close as the fish will be moving out to the open sea over the next week or two as they get ready to spawn, they won't be back till January sometime. It's been interesting as we've been experimenting with some very big flies.

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Stillwater fishing is the bread and butter of the sport in the UK, and when the fish shoal and move away from the bank due to angling pressure, it becomes harder to catch them. Sometimes you just need to cast that far, otherwise you risk blanking. Now, it’s never a bad idea to improve your casting, after all, who doesn’t want to cast 100’ consistently? Learning to cast that far means that you have acquired excellent technique (tracking, line speed etc) which means you can also cast into the wind very effectively. If you can cast 100’, you may be down to 40’ in a strong wind. If you can only cast 40’, then you certainly will be struggling, it’s the same for accuracy as well by the way. If you can only cast 40’, then you cannot be accurate at 40’. Anyway, I digress! If you want to cast a long way, then you need to have a look at your technique, but what exactly does this mean? Stay tuned;

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I was busy Saturday, and Paul is busy today, so we swapped shift duty. Years and years ago, wax was an integral part of fly tying and served multiple purposes. I’m certain that using was has become more common since Davie McPhail started his YouTube-channel. He seems to use it habitually. But I also know from watching others tie flies that it’s certainly not common anymore. When I teach fly tying, many are often surprised to see that I use wax.

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Try saying that 5 times in a row after a night in the local pub.

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This week I’m heading into Sungai Tiang (River Tiang) with the Aslis. We are finalising the planning of two FFing campsites on the river, as well as routing the walking track on the True Right bank. Im taking a couple of rods with me, just in case (you know how it is!)… although in all likelihood the river will be the colour of milk chocolate at this time of year, however I am very interested to see if there is a Jungle Perch spawning run — and whether they might be inclined to eat a surface popper on the way up.

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As usual my FP is coming late. I had beautiful plan for this morning to feed reindeer do some small things, normally it would take 1 hour. When taking tractor and going to pick up bale, I noticed that clamps where not opening or closing. There was electrical problem, what comes electrical issues.. well when smoke is gone I check connections. I checked fuse etc, but couldn’t find problem so I had to make plan B and give bale different way. I lost maybe 30 min for that, but trying to figure where the problem is I would probably still be there.

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Both Nick and Paul's posts this week chimed with something I've been thinking about recently, a lot of people criticise methods, it could be the bung, Euro nymphing, the booby or anything else. Often it's a sort of knee-jerk response because they don't understand it, or maybe it's envy at the success of another angler, sometimes it's because of the way a lot of people use the method in question.

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Fishing has been rather poor recently, with the trout moving a considerable distance from the bank whilst shoaling up. If you don't land the fly within a few feet, you have no chance at all, and this isn't exaggerating. I often hear that still waters are "too easy" and an elitist will come along and say "proper anglers fish rivers". This snobbish inherent attitude is more common than you think, especially when it comes to fly choice and tactics. I think it's fly fishing in general.

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