Daily Cast Archive

Aside from getting the last of my wet wading chasing smallies, I've been tying a load of tarpon flies for a friend recently, he fishes for tarpon quite a lot around the Yucatan. I'm jealous, I'd love to get back down there, but it certainly won't be a possibility for at least three years I reckon.

Details >

Bernd had another trip to the dentist today and can’t FP because he’s been knocked out. So this will be quite a quick one from me. I’m just back on the Battleship. Once/week I make the drive to town to stock up on provisions of beer, petrol, ice, food and beer. And of course the weekly wash! Just had an excellent Zoom Cast lesson. I have a few regular clients but this chap is now on his second block of 12 lessons. Lesson number 14. Imagine if you will, someone who was, I think fair to say, average/ish to begin with, having 14x1HR lessons over 7 months, with 3-4 weekly practise sessions in-between. Yay!!!! He’s becoming a seriously first class caster and it’s great to go from foundation level teaching to advanced level skills. These are your dream clients as instructors.

Details >

This was the year I was supposed to do 5 Ironman triathlons. A celebration of being “50 years young” challenge. Of course Covid has stopped all of that. However it hasn’t stopped me training. On Sunday I was supposed to be doing an Ironman 70.3 with my sister, Outlaw X, in the UK. She went, I had to defer my entry for yet another year because it’s impossible for me to fly back into Malaysia at the moment. But that should change next year. However I did my part here. Well I tried to anyway!! I swam 1.9km in the lake, which turned out to be 2.4km with Ashly measuring in the kayak!! (We are still talking :p). Then I did 90km on the indoor bike, in the Battleship. Now it was hot. Let’s just say that. I’m buying a thermometer today to measure it. But it had to be close to 40C. Which was not easy. In fact 90km on an indoor bike, in an oven, is anything but “easy.” My feet caught fire at one point.

Details >

Once the Alumacraft was sold, I fished strictly out of Capt. Freddy Lynch's skiff for the next several years. By 2012, I had pretty much taken a full time break from angling to pursue other activities. I knew however....or at least I hoped, that at some point Jackson would probably become involved in the sport I loved so much, so the thought of my next boat was always in the back of my mind.

Details >

Many of the Danish sea trout rivers don’t close until November (some of the larger ones in Western Jutland close in October), and September was always my top-month for sea trout fishing in the rivers. Constant weather changes, rain, sun, clouds, wind and low pressure are all factors that I rely upon, And the more of these that can change in one day, the better the fishing seems to be. Bad weather has always been good for sea trout fishing.

Details >

Last weekend I was rafting guiding. On Sunday we had our own rafting trip on lower part of Kitka. It was great day and I was able to observe river more than normally and spotted some nice graylings. Weather has been quite good for fishing but I haven’t been able to go fishing. There is so much other things to do before winter.

Details >

Went out for the first seabass trip of the autumn on Monday, earlier than I ever usually do it as I prefer to wait till the weather starts cooling off, maybe late October. It was nice to be out in flip-flops and a Tshirt rather than bundled up like a polar explorer.

Details >

Bernd went to the dentist today to try to get a date. Apparently she is pretty hot. However he’s not so keen now and didn’t get the filling he wanted. In fact “agonising pain” were his words and not mine. So it gives me a chance to talk a little about fly tying…

Details >

Man, where does all the time fly? So, tomorrow actually, Sexyloops turns 23. In two more years, by which time I assume international travel will be permitted again (!) we plan an exciting gathering to celebrate 25 years, which we will have here in the jungles of Malaysia - there are several resorts so you won’t all have to sleep on the roof of the Battleship. A hell of a lot of water passes under the bridge in 23 years. A very large part of Sexyloops has been our readership and communities. I say “communities” with a plural because we’ve had about four, as one might expect over such an extended time. Front Page writers have been many over the years. Some have lasted a few months, many a year, and then we have the long term writers, who last much longer! Viking Lars has been writing for Sexyloops week in week out for almost as long as I have! And that’s really how it all works. Sharing information and exchanging ideas only works if there are people sharing and others reading! So really a HUGE THANK YOU to all you readers and all of our wonderful FP contributors over the past two decades who have made Sexyloops what it is today. :)))

Details >

After selling the PolarKraft, I went boat-less for several years, doing most of my fishing out of a kayak. When the boat bug struck again, I ended up with Jon Boat # 4, which came in the form of an Alumacraft 1648.

Details >

We have just returned from the latest BFCC Meeting at our home location (well nearly – it was just on the Welsh-English border) and we had a glorious day weather wise, but sadly the wind was light, although we can tell that on another day the venue will provide a good wind for potential record attempts. Saying that, we did have a few records broken today, first Kei beat the accuracy record that Zhongxiang set at the last meeting, but he only held the record for 4 and a half minutes before Zhongxiang beat him and won the record back.

Details >

A couple of weeks ago I saw a handful of flies in a Facebook-group on historical flies. Many of you who read my FPs will know why I’m a part of such a group. It really is one of the best Facebook-groups I know. Full of knowledgeable, nice people, excellent fly tiers from all over the World, even though most (I think) of the posts are in the Scandinavian languages.

Details >

This is really short update. Autumn is really here with all the colours.

Details >

I've been thinking a lot about Bernd's post of the other week. There's a lot to unpack when it comes to how a fly behaves in the water and, based on a lot of conversations I have with people, I think it can be intimidating to some. But it can be simplified to a degree.

Details >

10 anglers = 20 different opinions. Having said so, this usually was what I was facing in all angling club annual meetings. For the past 5 years I was putting a lot of effort in getting acceptance for new rules about killing Zander for eating in our homewaters. New rules means more limitations!

Details >

I was supposed to be fishing off-line in the jungle from the 16th for ten days but apparently the river where we are due to head is currently in flood. This is something that worries me; just imagine trying to film two episodes of a fly fishing show but arriving after an 8 hr truck ride and 5 hr boat ride only to find the water unfishable. So we are trying to avoid that. One thing I've learned in Sungai Tiang in North Belum (the river where I'm training the Orang Aslis to be fly fishing guides), is to always make hay while the sun shines. It's possible that the Wet Season is coming in early this year, but equally a bit more water from the heavens can certainly occur at this time. The only time you can virtually guarantee no rain (in the part of Malaysia I'm in at least) is Feb/March when it usually doesn't rain a drop.

Details >

Somewhere around 1995, during the time I was still using the PolarKraft is when I started fly fishing. Once again it was the Jon boat that played a pivotal role that pushed my angling pursuits in a new direction. But, it was not MY Jon boat that influenced me to start fly fishing....rather it was Flip Pallot's Jon boat.

Details >

It's been a very interesting past month or so on the lake here in Malaysia. There has been restricted lockdown access prior to this, which is both good and bad. Good because it means that the fish are less spooky, bad because it means that I have to find them and this takes time. However I have found free-risers, am slowly putting the location puzzle pieces together again and I'm finally getting on-top of them. Free-risers is an awesome fishing game. There are also a few sets of babies around - which means parenting adults too of course. It's been work in progress for me, ever since I first started fishing here, and where I am now with the strikes is to totally delay the strike, even to the extent of not striking and only setting the hook when the Snakehead sets the hook for me. Here is a Board post from today...

Details >

Do you know that old verse about how every winter is spent tying all the flies you need for next season? How the fly boxes presumably are empty at the end of the season and that once next seasons takes off, the boxes will be populated with nicely arranged rows of flies, arranged in order after when the hatches occur of the seasonal colours and sizes of the salmon flies.

Details >

Months are passing by, it is September now. Weather has been great for fishing. Sunny days with not so much wind, at least in the mornings. Sunday I went to check spot for Monday’s guiding trip. I haven’t been able to be there since there was heavy storm in July and lot of forest was going down and road was blocked. It is also river which I like to fish and guide during the autumn, not crowded and good fishing.

Details >

Fry time is just around the corner and I've been tying a load of flies for some friends back in the UK. I've put a few in my own box too, just different coulours because the bass and trout here don't have access to perch & roach. In the UK at least, when the fry feeding starts it's arguably the best chance you have to catch specimen trout in the lochs, lakes and reservoirs. And the best thing is you can do it on a dry fly!

Details >

I’ve just put an order in for a bunch of new shirts. The factory had been closed since June 1st but is open again this week. I have a new woodland 3D camo design inspired by nature - see below! - which I’m excited about and hope to be wearing next week. When I’m back from next week’s filming trip I’ll make time to really develop this shop because not only do we have a wide variety of existing shirt designs (Brown Trout, Rainbow Trout, Mahseer, Golden Trevally) in both short and long sleeves, with round neck or collar, and in two different materials!… but we can actually take your favourite fishing photos and develop them into your own personal shirts!! So far I’m the only person who thinks that this is a good idea, but it is a good idea!

Details >

Due to Covid delays, the Malaysian fly fishing show that I’m presenting here, has been very slow in filming, however later this month we shoot two episodes back to back in Taman Negara, fishing for Kelah (Mahseer) and Tapah (a sort of toothy catfish), neither of which I’ve caught before of course, so this is yet another interesting challenge!! This means that I shall be offline in the jungle for TEN DAYS!!! I can’t remember the last time I was offline for ten days! One week, sure, that is the length of many fishing trips, and I’m lucky in that I can regularly escape to do this, but ten days is very long indeed! So I shall be putting Ashly in charge of processing Hot Torpedo rod orders, coordinating with Lee. Ashly and Lars can also work together for the smooth daily running of Sexyloops. And then the day after filming (I suspect it may be the day after the day after, but we shall see!) I’m supposed to be racing a 1/2 Ironman Triathlon against my sister who will be competing in Nottingham and me… well, I’m not sure where yet. Talk about necessary forward planning!!

Details >

Part 3 in the series on Jon Boats finds me in 1994 with a new sled, that was not only with a step up in size, but also with a unique vehicle towing it.

Details >

Tracy and I have a busy week coming up, unfortunately busy with work commitments rather than fishing. We are however finishing the week by attending the Hampshire Country Sports show near Petersfield where we’ll be running a hopefully fun, free to enter fly casting competition on behalf of the BFCC.

Details >

It’s been a while since I’ve written about a bag, and I really like bags, so now I’ll write about a bag. I hinted at it the week before last, when I wrote about the C&F Marco Polo travel fly tying system. C&F has a dedicated bag, made specifically for the Marco Polo-system.

Details >

Sunday was beautiful sunny autumn day. I asked if Satu would like go fishing. She hasn’t had much time for that during this summer. She said that she will skip it, Satu wanted to have really day off and have some rest. She said that I have two options, either stay with her at home and go to bed OR go fishing by myself. Field wasn’t finished yet so that I thought that you could do that, Satu made very clear that it is either fishing or her.

Details >

Last week we had a few nice days of high pressure and no rain meaning the rivers could clear up, so on Monday I went to a river I'd not fished for a good 2 years. It used to be my favourite but a huge amount of construction work on the banks and a new bridge being built really disrupted things and I was interested to see how it was recovering.

Details >

Most fish can feel our flies without seeing them from quite a distance! Still most fly tiers are focussing on how their flies look to fellow fly fishermen instead!

Details >