I worry sometimes about our waterways in the UK. The local river has a sewage works on it that has just been listed by the Welsh heritage society, which I find peculiar. This is because in the river downstream from this works, I have often seen tissues and other items that I wouldn’t expect to see in the natural flora and fora. Clearly these unnatural items have been discharged from the sewage works and have not just appeared there due to littering. Last summer, on many of our walks along our local river, James and I saw algae growth on the river bed, particularly down-stream from this sewage plant. This algae results in a reduction in insect life as it ‘sucks’ the oxygen from the water, in fact we haven’t seen a hatch of insects of any kind for a long time along the stretch of water that we routinely walk. Each year we have seen fewer fish in this river and we worry about the future – when will it be that we won’t see any fish at all?
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This is part one out of a collection of distance videos that Paul and I have been doing, I partially like the intro (nice one, Paul!). They are difficult to do because it involves different time zones, I have to get up very early to be in with a chance of seeing Paul during daylight hours, our morning is his late afternoon. The weather and location plays a big part as well, but I may have fixed that by scouting out new venues
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Crazy week. I don't know where time goes. We had awesome ice fishing weekend and some party. Great weather and good fishing. All good.
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A mixed bag this week; almost time to start carping again, it's warming up and I'm thinking about mullet too, I had some good wetfly chat with a visitor and of course we lost Ollie Edwards.
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The last two weekends we’ve fished. We tried the South Fork of the Flathead below Hungry Horse Dam. Starting just above the town of Hungry Horse and working out way up a mile or so, Steve caught a couple of mountain whitefish in a deep hole. Neither of us even saw a trout. While climbing back up to the road on a somewhat treacherous hill filled with wader-puncturing wild rose and leaf-covered pockets of ice, we commiserated that the beautiful water should have more fish. Figuring it might be better further upstream, we drove up the road closer to The Devil’s Elbow, but it was even more disappointing. We determined the fish hadn’t migrated that far upstream yet. It is illegal to fish above the Elbow, probably because the canyon gets very steep as it nears the 582-foot dam.
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Saturday, April 22nd 2023, I received the sad news that Oliver Edwards has passed away. The fly fishing community has lost one of the greats.
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I spent most of yesterday afternoon in the front yard on the casting course practicing accuracy and shooting some footage for an upcoming YouTube video. This morning I awoke to rain and sub 45f temperatures. It feels a bit silly to have a fire in the fireplace with the month of May just a week away, but here we are! So, I sat down next to the fire with a cup of coffee and spent the morning watching Paul's conversation with Nick Moore.
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Tracy and I will be having steak for our main meal today (with dauphinoise potatoes – Tracy makes great dauphinoise or dolphin-nose potatoes as I like to call them). This meal is a petty act of revenge after being denied access to a part of the river we wanted to fish by a grumpy and aggressive herd of bullocks.
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Paul and I have decided to do a distance series which will start at 70’ and (hopefully!) end at 120’ +. Why do I say hopefully? Well, I have to do them perfectly first time on camera, down the tape which is rather challenging! No one wants to see me make 10 casts and be short by 1”.
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This week has been insane. We had nice "holiday" and trip to Inari. Fishing was not easy but good enough. When we came back it felt like spring is really here and things got out of the hand.
I knew that snow has been melting and spring slowly coming but when we got back home... I was suprised how much speing has rook steps. And then it stopped totally. On Sunday all the tracks were hard as a rock. And on Monday it eas still okay, night was cold and only day got warm. I went to pick up trail marking from lake and was happy hoe forecast was looking for rest of the week.
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There's still not much happening here, everything seems to be spawning. But it'll soon be warm enough for some early morning bass popping in the float tube, so it won't be long till I'm reporting on my latest puncture.
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Firstly: Selemat Hari Raya. I’ve been invited to break fast tonight at the resort where my wife works. Of course I don’t have any smart clothes here in the boat, but apparently it will be ok if I wear my sarong. :))) So: sarong, camouflage T shirt and studded fishing boots. I’ll fit right in. I might wear my hat. Ashy says “tie your hair back!” I guess I can do that.
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I have a video of a couple of Snakehead, an elephant and the HT8. But I haven’t finished (or in fact even started) editing it at the time of writing this FP, while swinging in my hammock! What can I say? I went fishing.
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We cannot control the wind, but we can direct the sail.
---Dolly Parton
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Sunday is my day of rest. In my case it’s not for religious reasons but instead because on Saturday nights I have a 5hr indoor bike ride. I found a long ride on Zwift when I came back from the UK in January and I’ve been doing it every Saturday since. 5hrs on a bike might not sound like very much, or it might sound like a lot, depending on your perspective. 5hrs on an indoor bike, in a boat cabin, in the tropics, sure takes it out of me. I’ve been meaning to buy a thermometer to find out what temperature the inside of the boat is at the end of it. It’s definitely in the red!
And what should we do on our day of rest? We should go fishing; same as every other day!
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I thought it would be interesting to have a Zoom cast/chat with Phil Blackmar. Phil has been on the Board for a few years and is a very interesting chap. Ex pro golfer and now professional golf commentator, and fly fisherman!
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We are in lake Inari, huge lake in North Finland. Sami people call it as a sea. Old times it has been feeling like that, 80 km cross 60 km about, including lot of fjords. Last weekend there was reindeer race finals and we were watching those. After that it has been fishing after fishing, ice fishing.
Lake has grayling, char, trout, whitefish and of course basic perch, pike etc. There are six different species of whitefish and all of those you can find from this lake.
Our main focus has been in grayling and whitefish, arctic char would be awesome suprise, trout (Satu caught one) nice suprise.
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I've fairly been burning through the beads and hooks as I work on the replacement nymph box. A lot of those beads and hooks have gone on just a couple of patterns; walt's worms & pheasant tails.
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As mentioned previously, my first fly casting student in this new home happens to be a CI candidate. We met on Saturday to evaluate his casting. As it turns out, we’re starting closer to the beginning than the end, but he is excited, committed, and he actually practices daily regardless of the weather. Surprisingly, I did not feel like an imposter because this is where I began, and the experience along the journey provide some confidence. Even though not at MCI level yet, my mentor was thorough and those teachings remain with me. Additionally, Nick Winkelman’s book, “The Language of Coaching,” is helpful, as it reading some of the answers to questions posted on the SL Board. Lastly, knowing that I can post questions seeking advice is reassuring.
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Recently I’ve had some wonderful customer service from Garmin here in Malaysia. My heart rate monitor stopped working and so I contacted Garmin Malaysia, and since I bought it less than 12 months ago, they asked me to post it down. Their technicians agreed with me and so they shipped me a new one. I had to pay the return courier charges, which was 9MYR (about 2 US dollars). I also have a Garmin bike computer and I had lost the small rubber end cap and so they sent me a replacement free of charge. During all communications the customer service was both efficient and friendly. I communicated first via email and then later via WhatsApp and always received very prompt and friendly replies.
That’s an example of excellent customer service. I would recommend this company, not just because they manufacture excellent products, but also, because when there is a problem, they fix it quickly and it’s a pleasant experience.
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The way a team plays as a whole determines it's success.
---Babe Ruth
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Tracy and I have attended two casting competitions in quick succession recently; the first BFCC event of the year, and the one most local to our home, and then the UK championships in Cumbria. I think it’s a fair assessment that I’m not personally casting particularly well at the moment, but having spent some time with Bart after the BFCC event I think I know where I need to improve. To find myself 10 or 15ft behind the leaders in the trout distance event is particularly disappointing, especially as I feel my carry practice is going well.
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What a fantastic long weekend! It was great catching up with fellow casters and having 3 intense days of casting. Thursday was my travel day, and I made it up to Cumbria after being stuck on the M6 for a good hour and a half, no matter. As soon as I got there, I had to practice, so out came the Sage Igniter 691-4 and the SA MED5. After the practice I went to see Tracy and James (they were down the opposite end of the lake practicing Spey casting).
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Sunday I had my first casting session for this winter. Plan was have more but mother Nature made own decision. Monday wind was starting to raise and it was two insane windy days. So it was impossible to do casting. And same time it meant snow work for me.
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We're entering into a bit of a lull here with the bass about to start spawning, the carp & barbel already getting into it already.There's still seabassing to be had, but it's not great at his tim of year. So it's a good time for sorting gear, planning trips and talking fishing.
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Firstly I’d like to say that if you are expecting an email from me and haven’t received one (and are not trying to tell me that I’ve won a lottery I haven’t entered, sell me viagra or want a paid link on Sexyloops linking to a casino) then please check your email filter! My email addresses paul@sexyloops.com and, now recently, mrsexyloops@gmail.com appear to be getting blocked from time to time. This week I’m going to work on the belumflyfishing domain I have had for a while now and will start using this email when I suspect emails are not arriving as they should be. Just too sexy I suppose! I can also be reached via WhatsApp on +60198549552
I do answer every email!! And usually within 24hrs.
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Not a very exciting week, except that Nick won the Trout Distance competition at the UK competition in Cumbria! I look forward to hearing Tracy and James’ recap.
Steve and I did try a little fishing on the Flathead River one afternoon last week when the temp was close to 50 degrees Fahrenheit. It was more casting practice because the fish haven’t started migrating up out of the lake yet, coupled with the fact that we have no idea what we’re doing on the bigger water. I was throwing an ugly Kreelex streamer, which has dumbbell eyes, on Steve’s BVK 906 and using a Rio Streamer Tip line. I was testing the rod to see if I liked its action. The rod is perfectly fine, but I didn’t check the profile of the line and was having a heck of a time trying to do a 40’+ oval cast. When I got home and looked at the profile, I saw it has a 30’ head: a brick on a string. It was a case of a dumbbell casting a dumbbell too far into the overhang. Live and [hopefully] learn.
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During my tenure as a Front Page write from Sexyloops, I have alluded to (probably more times than I can count), the profound influence that the famous television series The Walker's Cay Chronicles had on my life. And, anyone who watched Walker's Cay with any regularity is familiar with the name Capt. John Donnell, AKA "Dozer". John appeared on The WCC more than any other guest, including the infamous "Broken nose on Buchanan Bank" episode that first aired in 1995.
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We’ve been casting this weekend at the UK Championships in Cumbria – a fantastic time by all involved. Great casting and a fun social, here’s some photos. More about the whole weekend next week when we’re less pissed ;-)
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I was trying to keep this method a secret before the next World Championships but rumour has got around that I have found a way of dramatically increasing the effectiveness of the Double Haul. And so in true Sexyloops fashion, I shall share this technique with you now.
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