Several decades ago, Guitar Magazine dubbed and up and coming six string virtuoso named Danny Gatton, “The World’s Greates Unknown Guitarist”. I am not exactly sure why the moniker they gave him stuck with me all these years, but when I sat down to write this short retrospective about Dick Kantner, that phrase came to mind. Dick Kantner may very well have been “The World’s Greatest Unknown Blank Designer”.
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By the time this FP is live the first BFCC meeting in over a year should be underway. Tracy and I are already in Kent just down the road from Willesborough Cricket Club where the event will be held. Normally we would travel in the early morning from our house in Hampshire, however things have changed in the last year due to the pandemic.
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It’s time to work a little (well, quite a lot, infact) on my casting again. I need to get more consistent on a number of things and I’ve identified a few of them to begin with; just to focus my training sessions.
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Gravel roads are in really bad shape, some even impossible to drive with normal car. Rivers are running in the forest now so there is heavy flood. Graylings are spawning and I’m trying to get things done before season is starting. This is last sign that spring is turning summer.
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I lost an enormous carp last week. Enormous. It would easily have been my PB had I landed it, but I didn't. It's hard not to feel bad when things like that happen, but the questions that come of it can be useful or the answers can be at least.
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The great thing about teaching is that you are constantly learning. If you really want to understand what it is that you do, then try teaching it. You have to dissect your movements, often into the tiniest details, explain how to make them and in a way that your student can understand/duplicate. This in turn gives you insight into where you yourself can improve.
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I first met Tom Morgan in the same manner that I met Jimmy Green....through a simple cold call, followed by a polite inquiry about the possibility of a long-form interview. Tom, in his usual gracious manner accepted my invitation.
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It rained for three days solid this week here in Wales, as such the river is blown out for the weekend so no fishing to report on from Tracy and myself. Last week I said I wasn’t going to do any casting practice before the first BFCC event of the year due to feeling a ‘tweak’ in my elbow. It was 2019 when I had a full-blown tennis elbow which wasn’t at all pleasant, it very much affected my casting for over 6 months, so obviously I want to avoid a repeat. However, with the lack of fishing to talk about I found myself on a casting field with a #5 outfit in hand to try out a ‘cheat’ that someone told me about – so I put my body on the line for the sake of this FP.
I should start by saying I’ve never known anyone cheat in a casting competition. Sure, I’ve seen people disqualified for minor rule infringements e.g. a competitor whose factory built 9ft hardy rod was actually 9ft 2in, and a certain guy you probably know who used a borrowed line but failed to check how long the attached leader was, however I’ve never seen a deliberate attempt to gain an advantage by purposefully breaking the rules.
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Last week it was warm and good for fishing. This week was like spring, about +10 celsius and some mist, rain etc. Coming weekend will be so called rear winter (takatalvi), it means that winter is coming back. I don’t really understand this ”rear winter” –term. I will use it if it is happening in June but in May. Let’s face it. It is spring in here and there might be cold season before turning finally in summer.
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I've been tying a big batch of boobies for a friend who fishes a lot of competitions recently. I don't tie many of them any more as I don't have much use for them in my fishing so it was a nice change from the usual warm water flies and traditional wet flies. Well, the first dozen anyway.
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It's all about fly fishing!
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This week I’m sharing a video with you that I made after a Zoom fly casting lesson last week. I have a bunch of these videos on my phone because normally I make them at the end of a teaching session to cover key points (that were appropriate to that particular lesson), which helps the student focus their next week of practise but also helps me to remember where we are up to! What I have found interesting, is how many of these videos I can subsequently share between students, ie I make a video for Michael one week and I share it with Richard the next.
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I first ran across Kerry Burkheimer’s name back in the late 1990s in a copy of Fly Rod & Reel Magazine. They had published a piece titled “Fine Rods From Small Makers” if I remember correctly. There was something about Kerry’s design philosophy that intrigued me, so I called him up to order a few blanks.
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The committee of the BFCC are hopeful about putting a number of casting events on this year, three are already confirmed and options for a couple of others being discussed. Obviously these things can be scuppered pretty quickly, especially if the ‘Indian’ strain of the Covid virus takes hold and forces further lockdowns.
Things kick-off in a couple of weeks’ time in Willesborough, Kent – a staple venue for a BFCC event in Mike H’s back garden (effectively). Unfortunately Mike himself won’t be casting due to having a hand surgery but he’ll be there to offer advice to anyone wanting to improve or to hit monster distances. Mike’s name appears a number of times in the BFCC records list so there really is no one better to get distance casting advice from.
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Yes, you have to endure another front page about an old fly. This time the Lady Caroline, a classic Spey fly, featuring the two most characteristic elements of the classic Spey fly. Low set strip wings of brown mallard and a long, grey flowing body hackle.
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It is 13th of May, Thursday when writing this. On Monday I was still snowmobiling and we had winter. Today it is summer or spring at least. Wednesday we had +20 celsius and today +25 celsius. (Friday should be back to normal +10 celsius) Still snow but hot like in hell. This is also my annual day off. Every other day during the year you can book me or I’m doing something, not today. Today is my birthday and as usual we go fishing (if there is any circumstance for fishing), this is my way to spent day off.
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Last week I wrote about wets for the mayfly. Their appearance is imminent and may even be starting in some places, so I thought I'd suggest a few dry patterns to compliment them this week.
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Pike season has started since the first of May in Germany. Yet few proper catches happened!
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It’s a long process! I work closely with a friend I know in Spain I’ve known Alejandro for over 20 years. We first met back in the very early days of Sexyloops. He was one of the first instructors in Spain — as examined by Mel Krieger no less. I first met Alejandro and his wife, together with Chris Rownes, when they were living in a huge mountain village with only about 6 people and a few chickens for company. That’s Spain for you. I actually think that I might move there at some point in life and have a village of my own. They are all mad in Spain and I will fit right in.
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In several previous Front Pages, I have told the story about the genesis for the series of interviews I did for RodMaker, twenty years ago this year. Over the next several months I'd like to detail not only how many of these interviews evolved into friendships with these folks, but also how they of interviews affected my life long term.
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It’s all about to happen. I had issues last week with the battleship’s electricity supply. I still haven’t solved this yet but I am working on the problem! It’s a bit of a mystery. I (now) have three solar panels on the roof and two control boxes for four truck batteries in the battleship and two more for the thrusters in each of the aluminium fishing boats. However I have managed to blow something up and am in a process of elimination to determine what it is exactly. I’ve been moored in a sheltered bay for a week and there are termites after the afternoon/evening rains…
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I very rarely plan an attack from home. I’ll decide where to begin (a stretch of river, a particular coast line, certain parts of a lake etc.), but I always remain flexible. If hours pass with out any catching any fish, I’m always open to relocating. There are often reason to stay as well. A tide or an ebb coming, a weather change on the horizon, a strike-period you know from experience, a hatch you know is picking up, maybe several spotted fish, unwilling to take the fly, something I personally accept at a challenge and I’l stay at it until it’s beyond stupid. All of the above, from deciding where to go before you head off to whatever tactic that plays out after that is based on experience, maybe advice if you’re new in the game.
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I just took part in webinar. It was about our trout. There is big project going around our local trout. This time there are partners from Russia also. That is important because our trout is spawning in Finland and growing up in Russia. So I give short update what’s going around that and fishery. It is only 3 weeks before season is starting.
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We're well into May now, spring is fully here and the mayfly will be here soon too. Whether on rivers or still waters, it's one of the main events of the season and it's the time of year I really miss being on the lochs back home.
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Bernd has broken his laptop cable – anyway it’s about time you had a FP from me! I have been writing one entitled 25,000 days, which I’ve worked out is the number of days I want to fish in this lifetime and not 20,000 as I wrote some years ago! But that’s for another time.
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How much explanation do these photos require? The flies pictured are my winter thoughts while waiting for warmer days to come, when my carp fishing can start up. They represent the beauty of being able to tie one's own flies - to design and create. Something I have done since childhood. Lucky me.
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Since I started writing for Sexyloops some 2 1/2 years ago, several folks have asked how I got started in this discipline. Since it's been exactly twenty years since my first piece was published, I thought it might be fun to take a look back at how it started, as well as some experiences I had with some of the great rod designers I got to know through my association with RodMaker Magazine.
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On the board there is an ongoing discussion about ‘sloppy rods’. Sloppy describes the phenomenon whereby a rod suddenly lacks the ‘power’ to cope with the amount of line being aerialised, i.e. it’s ok to a point and then it softens leaving the caster struggling to control the line. A number of rods have been identified as exhibiting this behaviour and by some exceptional casters, however I’m going to say I simply don’t believe it’s true or remotely possible.
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… but not factory new, far from it, actually. I suppose you could call it vintage. It’s sometime after 1967 and before 1984, just based on some quick research on the particular company name and logo. I’m far from an expert on Hardy tackle and company history.
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