As I've been getting back into mountain climbing, I've been spending a fair bit of time trying to catch up on gear and how things have changed in the 15+ years since I drifted away from the hobby. I was looking at winter schools for a refresher on snow safety and It struck me how much faith we put in instructors and reveiwers, and I'm not really a beginner.
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The HT5 blanks are due to arrive on Friday having navigated a transport strike in Spain! I certainly hope they do so we can start shipping by the end of next week. I’m very excited to see these getting out there to you guys who pre-ordered at the beginning of the year. We should be able to get all these orders out over the next fortnight. It’s a fantastic rod as I know you’ll expect and I look forward to hearing your impressions and of course experiences you have with them. :)))
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There is an interesting discussion that comes up on the Board from time to time, and what makes it interesting is that there is no right answer! Basically if I was to sum it up, you can teach someone to cast by cloning them or you teach them through a kind of open-ended voyage of discovery. While I say “or” I think it can be “and”. In fact I think it should be “and”!!
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"As far as I know, I was the first guide to insist on catch-and-release with bass. I realized early on how rare these big fish are. I always let my anglers have the experience of owning the fish -- that's why I helped develop the chemicals to keep bass alive in a live-well. But, if someone is against catch-and-release, then there's a little bit of them that I'm against."
---Doug Hannon "The Bass Professor"
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Tracy and I have had two trips to the river Dee recently and, although the weather was similar for both days, the fishing couldn’t have been more different. The first trip was the day after the BFCC casting event where we took Mike Heritage, fresh from setting a number of V70 distance records, to a beat that he hadn’t fished before. The weather was bright and sunny and thankfully the wind that had been so great for distance casting in the previous day had subsided, although there was still a chilly breeze. The river was unusually low for this time of year – it was down at the level you’d expect mid-summer. Being so low it was also about as clear as it gets, but still with its characteristic ‘weak tea’ tinge.
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There are some flies that are just iconic - as much as I dislike using that term, since everything remotely know by more than six people seems to be iconic these days. Some flies that not only are truly universal across multiple species and environments, but also know by just about all flyfishers.
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Last Saturday we were watching reindeer race as I told. It was a nice day even it was windy and some snowing. They couldn’t race on Sunday because weather got so warm that track wasn’t safe anymore. I had short casting practise lesson on Monday.
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What's a good carp fly? It seems like recently there's hardly a day goes by that I don't get asked or see this question posted somewhere on the internet and it always strikes me as odd. Similar questions come up for other non-trout species, but it's rare that I see anyone asking what's a good trout fly- at least not without some qualifier like the specific body of water, area or maybe a hatch.
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Wow! Last Saturday was an incredibly enjoyable day, and the weather was amazing. Bright and sunny with a consistent wind that was perfect for the heavier stuff, but perhaps not great for the #5 and the accuracy event. It’s always good to be self-critical, and there were certainly things I could have done better, or in a different order to really squeeze out the most under pressure. It was great competing with some fantastic casters, and I do think everyone enjoyed themselves (fantastic record casts too, such as James’s epic 150’ #7 throw!).
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The Malaysia borders will reopen next month to International tourists, finally! I now have fishing guests booked for April, May and June already, with another booking for July today. This has spurred me on to finish fitting out the Battleship in preparation. It’s only taken me two years to do this but I have of course been fishing myself, which is my usual excuse for everything.
Last week, with Ashly’s fantastic assistance, I finished the stern “quarters”. This now has an intricate and highly complex structure, including 11 doors and two doors within doors. To maintain the element of surprise, I have used three different tones of varnish.
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Throughout my tenure as a Front Page writer for Sexyloops, I have frequently referred to a close friend of mine that goes by the nickname of Bubba. I was always slightly reluctant to reveal Bubba’s real identity, not for any particular reason other than the fact that "Bubba" is a good ol’ South Texas moniker that sounded cool, and a bit of mystery usually makes for a much more interesting story. Unfortunately, my good friend Dr. John Beryl Tebbetts, known by all of us who loved him as “Bubba” passed away earlier this month.
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This is going to be a short FP as I’m exhausted from helping to run the first BFCC Meeting of 2022 at Dodleston in Cheshire. This time, unusually for a BFCC event, we had a really good consistent wind! The conditions were fantastic for distance and several records were broken. However, we all found the accuracy was a challenge with the strong cross-winds so the marks were not as good as normal, but considering the conditions there was some pretty good targets hit.
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Well, not today, but on April 16th, where I won’t be attending, unfortunately because of a family event (I didn’t say unfortunately). But that doesn’t bother me too much. Although it’s always nice to say hello to the club buddies I haven’t’ seen since last season, there are always lots of fishers by the river, so I’ll be fine waiting a few days, since I prefer a little more solitude anyway.
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Few days ago I got message from Paul. He would like to have zoom lesson with us. He said that there are few things which should be practised before going. I bought that suggestion right away. We are entering unknow terrritory and I have no idea about snakehead fishing. So we agreed to have lesson in April, then our life should be settle after winter season
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Things are starting to fall into place this spring. I took John to the river this week to fish for maruta (the sea-run dace species we get here- and smallmouth which was fun, even though I didn't actually fish that much myself.
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I have started prepping my competition gear, which took a surprising amount of time, considering the number of lines i am going to take. The blanks and the guides of the rods need cleaning as well to make them nice and slick (Paul just washes them off on top of the boat when it rains). A light clean and line slick will soon sort that out for me, as i use them for fishing, and are quite muddy at the moment! A fellow caster recommended using tennis racket overgrip, which i believe is a game changer. It's a far better grip than cork, which means you can use an even looser grip (well, a hold really) than possible. This has really allowed me to rotate much later and faster, especially on the back cast which is pretty important for distance!
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I’m writing this down the lake, where I’ve headed off to for a long weekend to see what’s going on. I picked up a Snakehead today. I think I had two other chases and one eat yesterday. Hopefully tomorrow I can stick a few more and then I have to head back up the lake on Tuesday to upload this page and catch up on – no doubt – very many emails!!
Last week I posted a video on YouTube on the differences between an Open Stance Distance backcast and the 170 backcast for a couple of Zoom students of mine. I was thinking about this afterwards and the significance of the OSD backcast in particular and sent the video to a few instructors as well, because I was interested in some feedback.
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When doing aerobic exercise, go at a comfortable pace until you've develop more stamina
---Lee Haney
8x Mr. Olympia Bodybuilding Champion
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The issue of ‘lift’ has raised it head over on the board again, i.e. the debate arising from a published paper that suggests that certain shapes of fly casting loop generate an up-thrust which allows them to stay aerialised for longer and results in better distances. Readers of these front pages probably know my thoughts on the idea and there’s been no new evidence uncovered that has me thinking that I should change my mind.
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I received a nice gift a couple of weeks ago. I have a friend, Dennis, who’s a machinist by trade and he’s an example of one of the things I find fascinating in fly fishing. Apart from the fact that in the club, social layers and statuses are blurred and people become friends - people who’d most likely never become friends it wasn’t for the common interest.
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So I heard that borders in Malaysia will open first of April. Flight prices might jump up in any moment. If I book now it is done and that’s it. So yesterday evening I spent few hours to check flights and best options. Planning as you could say, at the same time I had chat with Paul. This time I had few questions but in fact it was like otherwise.
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I'm having a puzzling beginning to my spring fishing. Something's just not clicking somehow. Winter has been holding on a bit longer than normal, but it's more than just the weather. I just don't know what it is.
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To turn rather a long story into a short story, I replaced the manual toilet pump with an electric toilet pump. This was because the handle broke and also there were some really bad smells! While there are plenty of fun jobs to do on a boat, anything to do with toilets and septic tanks is no fun whatsoever. Believe me.
So I bought an electric conversion from Australia and installed it. But it didn’t work and the motor was constantly sticking. Around the back of the motor there is a place where a nimble person could insert a shortened screwdriver and, with a lot of poking around in small spaces, rotate the motor by hand and this would start it up. This is not a very pleasant job of course, and I could not begin to imagine how unpleasant and impractical this would be when guests return (borders reopen April 1st by the way!!!).
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I have no idea what the Gourami Weather Gods are thinking this year. Ordinarily here in the Belum-Temenggor Jungle, it doesn’t rain a drop between the middle of January through to mid April. Usually it’s hot (like HOT – and can be close to 40C some days). The vegetation that grew like nuts during the Wet Season (October-January), starts to fall back and turn brown. There are annual forest fires too, particularly along the road between the lake and Gerik (the closest town which is a 40km drive). But not this year…
In fact the lake level has risen a couple of metres in the last three weeks! That’s a fair splash of rain. I haven’t been able to measure the water temperature recently because my transducer destroyed itself, but I’m quite sure it’s not the 32-34C that it should be. And this is currently having an effect on the fishing. The last few sets of babies I found had adults of course, but these didn’t surface to breathe. So I might have to change my approach this week and try some big streamers on sinking lines. Not nearly as much fun and not as effective either. My other option is to go looking for surface-feeding Gourami. This is the time of year they eat ants in the mid-morning and every 17 years they eat cicadas.
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A strong core will improve your technique, strength and stamina, and compliment everything you do.
---Susan Trainor
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Tracy and I have finally got a saltwater trip organised for later in the year assuming we haven’t all been vaporised before then. Just the fact we’ve got something to look forward to in a few months, after what will be over three years since we last caught a bonefish, has prompted a little excitement and I couldn’t help myself but have a quick peep into my fly boxes.
I think I went a little over the top in my preparations for the last couple of trips as there’s certainly no shortage of flies. That said, I’m a little disappointed to see the rubber legs on some of my shrimpy patterns have perished, becoming stiff and brittle. The affected flies are in the boxes that have been out on the flats with us, but not in our re-stocking box (once you have a re-stocking box the size of the one we have you know you’ve got too many flies). As such, I suspect the deterioration is due to some residual salt water ‘atmosphere’ within the sealed boxes.
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Are there any? Well, the short answer is no, of course. But when I’ve practice too much with dedicated practice gear and not a fishing setup (and haven’t been fishing enough either), I’ve noticed a few “issues”. It all depends on what and how you practice too.
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I watched some photos to get inspiration for this week FP, to maybe write something special object or thing around fishing. I didn’t get any spesific idea, instead I realize that even 3 or 4 years old photos were like it just happened yesterday. I have got some bookings on summer and in this point things look okay. There could be more, but when looking what happening around I have to be happy how it looks like.
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Tokyo seems to be getting warmer at last, we've had a far colder and longer winter than I can remember in years here, which has been keeping a lot of things slow so it's nice to have some of the fishing starting to show signs of getting going. Although, as I discovered on Monday we're not out of the woods yet.
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I have been working on my carry for the next BFCC event, and it was a great practice session. Just trying to throw as far as you can is a waste of time, as distance comes down to tracking, carry and line speed. I’d really like to carry 90’ of the MED but I’m not there yet, my current comfortable carry is 86’ (from hauling hand to the tip of the fly line) and this is ok. Learning to carry past this point and dialling it back will make it feel comfortable and manageable. You can then focus on other things like the launch etc.
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Man we are selling a lot of rods at the moment. That’s excellent – thank you! We should start building the new HT5s very shortly. My plan this summer is to really get Juan in Spain building for the EU market as well. Brexit really set us back in the EU and I feel like we are starting up again over there but we will get it back. Our biggest markets at the moment are the USA and Australia. I shall try to visit both countries in the next 18 months.
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