It’s been fun, 25 years - it’s hard to believe, actually. I’m sorry, but I’ll take the next 25 as well, so you’ll have to keep up with my antics. Or keep skipping them, course. The odd thing is that I have actually been along since the very beginning. I found Sexyloops on the internet in 1998. The forum was small an fairly few people participated. I was quite excited to find it, because I had read a few of Paul’s articles in Fly Fishing & Fly Tying and I clearly remember the one entitled, Sexyloops, that Paul mentioned. A picture of a trout bum (and a leather cowboy hat) with a fanny pack casting really sexy loops was enough to catch my attention.
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Friday morning last full fishing day in Sweden for this trip. Misty and rainy one as all the time during this one. Water level has rised about 60 cm from Wednesday morning and it is about 40 cm higher than July when we fished with Satu. July it was difficult and I was struggling.
I knew from start that this will not be easy fishing, so my approach is different from start. It is fishing anyway. I go to fish fly fishing stretch. It is really familiar for me and I have good idea where to fish. I start as usual from certain spot, I have caught huge graylings from there so it is kind of have to fish -spot. I'm prisoner of past on that way.
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Although it's still a bit early and still a bit warm Hawaiian Dave talked me into a Seabass night on Monday. It was a bit weird being out on the bay when it isn't freezing, but we had a decent night with fish to the boat and a good laugh catching up with Masuda.
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Last week I was asked how Sexyloops started, which is a good question. My usual answer is “by mistake”!!!
To answer the question more fully, I need to tell you a little about me. I started fly fishing at the age of ten on Ardleigh Reservoir, in the SE of England. At the age of 15 I got a job in the fishing lodge. Even back then I was fishing often; over 100 days/year. I dropped out of University, twice, both times at the beginning of the trout season. It was then I realised that I didn’t want to become an engineer – and besides I would never be able to finish the course unless they abandon the third semester. And so I went travelling the next winter to New Zealand for six months of fishing.
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It’s quite exciting when you think of Sexyloops in terms of 25 year blocks. Hopefully I’ll be able to stick around for the next two at least!! I am actively dodging lightning strikes as we speak…
I’m on an Ironman Taper. The Malaysian Ironman is less than two weeks away. So this is time to allow the body to recover from the hell it’s been given for the past 6-12 months, and more specifically the past 4-6 weeks, which has been very intense. This doesn’t mean doing nothing of course, but by comparison it certainly feels like it!
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“A pier is a disappointed bridge; you stare at it for long enough and you can dream it to the other side of the Channel.”
― Julian Barnes
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This week I've been getting stuck into fly tying for our upcoming saltwater trip. Tracy has also been getting involved by emptying our fly boxes, inspecting and sorting their contents. Over the years we've amassed a large collection of bonefish flies, however I suspect some of the older ones are still in the box purely because they've never been used, nor are they ever likely to be in the future. A lot of these unused flies are quite brightly coloured in stark contrast to the drab brown and green flies that I tie these days.
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For many, many years I’ve been nearly obsessed with leaders. I’ve tied my own since I began fly fishing, but newly I mostly use the tapered ones. It’s nice to rid of the big knots in the thick section of the leader. I still tie a few of my own for special applications. Leaders can be really long, delicate, have a hard turnover for big flies, complicated patterns and finally, very simple. In fact, hardly a leader at all.
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I just arrived after 800 km drive to cabin. This is my last fishing trip for this season, if lucky I will have some days around home but not really counting on that. I cut Finland and basically Sweden. This is where roads begin, Ammarnäs in Sweden.
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An odd week for me,my days off fell on a public holiday this week so I decided to go and climb a mountain. I've not been up any since about April-it's just been too hot- and I certainly noticed a drop in fitness, but a few climbs will sort that out.
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Joists, sister joists, blocking, joist hangers, footer blocks, structural screws, decking screws, facia boards, grooved composite boards, square composite boards, breaker boards . . .. As you might guess, we’re (98% Steve) building a low-to-the-ground floating deck (not attached to the house) in the back yard. Never having built a deck from scratch, Steve’s doing an amazing job: the 12’ x 22’ foundation is only out of square by 1/32nd of an inch. He’s been meticulous about measuring, leveling, following best practices, and over-building to ensure stability and durability.
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The current On The Fly episodes on Discovery Asia are Gourami and Ikan Kelah. The Gourami was shot up here on Mystery Lake X and the Kelah down in Taman Negara. That was certainly a fun trip! If you are in SE Asia you can see this show, otherwise it might be possible with VPN. Certainly I’m watching the Rugby World Cup through VPN and enjoying that thoroughly.
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One of the more vivid memories of my younger days fishing in saltwater is fishing off of a lighted pier at night for Speckled Trout. Back in those days, we used live shrimp, and occasionally a gold or silver Johnson Sprite spoon. When I started fly fishing in the early 1990's I realized very quickly that one of the most enjoyable ways to spend a summer evening is with a 5wt. rod and a size 4 Clouser Minnow on a lighted pier. When the tide is right, and the bait is around, the action can be really fast and furious, and to put it mildly, it's a TON of fun.
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Last weekend James and I were at the Welsh Game Fair near Bangor helping to run the fly casting competitions. We had a good number of entrants for the Daily and Overall events and had lots of prizes to present on the Sunday. We ended up changing the men's overall comp into an open event so that I could compete as there were no female entrants. I thought I would just make up the numbers and hoped to qualify with some of the male entrants. James had qualified at the Scottish GF with a young Scottish lad called Robert and Steve P had qualified at Ragley so they helped to run the qualifications for the Welsh entrants and supported running the junior comp. We had three juniors from the two other GFs who had come to Wales to compete but sadly we didn't have any junior entrants at the Welsh GF.
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A fly fisher needs to know maybe a handful of knots. As everything from the fly and back to the arbor of the reel is held together by knots, it’s worth practicing these knots and knowing them well. Once you know a knot, there’s one rule. Look at it and if it looks good, there’s a good chance that it’s tied correctly. And never ever use a knot that needs glue or other applications to hold. Whatever you put on, it’ll wear off and weaken the knot. I sometimes use a soft(ish) UV resin from Pro Sportfisher to smooth over a connection, but never to strengthen it.
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I had one more guiding last weekend and beginning of this week. Saturday and Sunday quad safari and fishing at our lake. Nice time but something was missing all the time.
Saturday when we started to fish, first fish was hooked in 10 minutes. Then nothing for one hour, one small pike. I was in the boat with one guest and just thinking to go back to shore and going to help Satu with cooking when we hooked one fish.
We cooked dinner from those two fish and guests had night over at the lake. Sunday they fished by themselves and picked some mushrooms. Difficult weather for fishing but got few perches.
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We had a typhoon this week, so the end of my time off wasn't spent fishing, but hopefully it's the last one of the year and the weather will break into autumn. I like this time of year because there are plenty of options for fishing; the carp will be making the most of the last of the warm weather, the big bait will be coming into the bay so the seabass will be switching on, the bass fishing is usually good whether it's river smallies or stillwater largemouth and a few more targets open up too. So it's been introspection and flies this week.
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Later today I will upload the 120’ video filmed with Nick last weekend. I don’t have enough time to make some small edits and then upload before my 4pm lesson (Malaysia Time, which is 9am UK time, when the Sexyloops FPs goes live!).
It’s a good one and we’ve noticed that other casters have been watching these and mentioning them in their videos – thanks guys!!
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The first two episodes are Giant Snakehead and Sailfish, respectively. The Giant Snakehead (Toman) was caught up here, on my home water in the Belum-Temenggor rainforest and the Sailfish was caught near Kuala Rompin.
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You swing your best when you have the fewest things to think about.
---Bobby Jones
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One of the attractions for me about competition is how it focuses my training. We need to optimise our performance for competition day. For amateurs, “age groupers” (we don’t even have a professional level in fly casting sport), this is, think, one of the main reasons we compete.
Certainly for me, the primary reason I compete in fly casting is to make me a better fly caster, which in turn makes me a better fly fisherman. It really is that simple. And many of my best friends do the same, which makes it very enjoyable – although I sometimes feel that I should be training my liver as much as my casting stroke.
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It’s mackerel season and are not only fun to catch on light weight gear, but also a challenge to find. They most often travel in schools, I think, because especially the spin fishers can catch them in numbers for a little while and they’re gone again. Even though fly fishing is less effective, it’s also possible to pluck out a handful in a short period of time. But I’m sure they also travel “solitaire”. When the big schools aren’t around, chasing the stragglers is challenging.
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I thought that guiding season has ended and them came Monday. I got request about 5-6 days of guiding, fishing, hiking, rafting, atv etc. So I built programm around fishing for 3 days. Surprise.
Late on Tuesday I got confirmation that guests are coming..... on Wednesday. Thursday we had hike about 10 km in Oulanka national park. Today they will go rafting and then we will fish.
Saturday we will quad safari ending up to our lake, fishing in the evening and night over by the fire. Sunday some more fishing and Monday we go after grayling to the river.
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There are loads of effective flats flies around, whether it's the ubiquitous clouser, Verveka's mantis or one of the myriad merkins. They all work, some better than others some more for certain species but they work.
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“I've seen and swam and climbed and lived and driven and filmed. Should it all end tomorrow, I can definitely say there would be no regrets. I am very lucky, and I know it. I really have lived 5,000 times over.”
― Benedict Cumberbatch
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Busy week this one. Well firstly, very exciting, the TV show “On The Fly” starts airing tomorrow on Discovery Asia. The first two episodes air back to back. I realise that quite a few of you won’t be able to view it at the moment. Viking Lars is experimenting with some ninja VPN thing. So hang on to your shorts in this department…
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Pre my introduction to fly fishing about 12 years ago, I was mad keen on fishing for marlin and sail fish in my 6m boat with standup tackle (8 and 15kg line class) off the East Coast of Australia. It teaches you a lot about catching and handling big fish on light tackle.
Along came flyfishing, and a preoccupation with catching any thing that swam in salt and fresh water. Eventually I had the opportunity to fish for tarpon, and billfish.
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I've finally started fly tying for our upcoming saltwater trip. I must admit I've found it hard to get the motivation to actually get up and running, but I am now and I expect I'll knock out quite a few flies before we depart. First flies out of the vice have been some green Crazy Charlies that did really well for us last year, to the extent that we ran out of that particular pattern towards the end of the trip. The colour of this particular fly was a bit of a mistake – some years back I ordered a pack of tan rabbit zonker strips, when these were delivered they were distinctly green. Whether this was just a mistake in what I was sent or an error in the dying process, I don't know, however it instantly struck me that they would make great flies for fishing over turtle grass or weed, so I tied a batch up.
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The Thunder & Lightning is about as well known as a salmon fly can become. And for a good reason. There’s no doubt is effective and it’s beautiful. In its origins it’s a classic feather wing full of details. There are plenty of modern iterations and I have my own. Hackle free “spey” versions are popular. Long hackles alone don’t make a fly a “Spey” fly. Spey flies have particular features that identify them as Spey flies - one is very often a mallard wing, but long, flowing hackles are another. The early ones were tied with large, soft saddle hackles from the cock bird in the yard.
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Yesterday I had last guiding for this season. Something might come up but not really excepting that, autumn season is quiet even it is one of the best grayling fishing seasons and excellent with dries. End of August was great, guiding 11 days in row.
Started with super lady and then had Finnish group for two days. And then Rocco came from Germany for 9 days. Yes, I know name is like from cheap porn movie, and that's why I will use it. Few stories to be told from his visit, I will return on those later during this autumn.
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