An exciting FP?

Then some morning gymnastics, breakfast and off to the field to meet up with Paul. Having a look at my casting and structuring the training the coming weeks. Casting was good. But I got a bit distracted when Paul started talking about my foot wear during one distance round. I kept casting but joined the conversation about my a bit too small Adidas beach sandals. They don’t give you as much extra distance as a pair of crocs, but not far from it either. Six more weeks and I’m off to Italy to meet some great casters. Really exciting, just wish that even more great casters had the opportunity to join. And before Italy we have the Swedish nationals. In a location that is a bit unfortunate for me because I have to fly to get there in time and home in time. I will start a new job the Monday after the nationals. So work one week and then vacation again, so not the best time to ask for the Monday off.

My kit for the 5wt disciplines will be the HT5 and the HT5 comp 2. They just keep getting better and better. The comp 2 is quite fun to cast now so I should be in decent shape.

I have signed up for the salmon distance also, not sure how I will solve that one as I don’t have a kit there.

As I mentioned in the previous FP my mother has a new puppy so I have been spending a lot of time there to spend time with the new puppy. An adorable dog. It is a terrier brasileiro and you can tell. A mischievous and determined little dog. That likes attention. She has joined me on the lawn in my casting practice. The brightly coloured line is quite interesting for a little dog. Once she did grab it and did take off pulling out all of the line, with me chasing her.  But she is also a smart little dog so she has learned that the line is off limits, and remembers that most of the time also. The line has so far survived the super sharp puppy teeth. So far… She has also joined me for some serious distance practice also, then she was locked in her cage. With some protests.

My dog gets along well with the new puppy, my mother’s dog is a bit more reluctant to the new intruder. The puppy gets to now its place from time to time now. But that’s the way it is. It seems a bit harsh for an on looker, but that’s how they work. Learning the new puppy what’s okay and what’s off limits.

Next week we are off to spend some days with Minnas parents which means it is time for some dredging for seatrout and mackerel. Which means that the fly box has to be stocked with new ideas. New flies are usually a bit better for some reason, even if I’m getting better at fishing the old “unusable” ones. I already had some new exciting woolly buggers, very effective got me three seatrouts when I tested the colour scheme. And a new bait fish pattern. I wanted something easy to tie but with a bit more of a profile than a sandeel pattern like a surf candy. What I ended up with was a tail of craftfur and the head built of rabbit zonker and belly from craftfur. Then some eye stickers and UV glue. Looks quite good and is fast to tie. Sadly I have no pictures to show now. But they look great in the fly box and I’m sure they will look awesome in the water. I’ll try to remember some pictures next week. Hopefully of both the flies and some nice seatrouts.

The morning gymnastics I mentioned previous is at the moment focused on thoracic mobility and spine control. The favourite exercise, and the least favourite exercise, is thoracic rotation in a squat now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0ftGdILi78 starting by doing the rotational movement standing and then in a squat. Feels like a really good movement and takes care of the back and inside of the things at the same time. An other very simple exercise I found this week that I like a lot is a simple exercise that helps get rid of some tension in the forearm. Place the hand palm down on a table, or better a tennis ball, lift the fingers as high and “hard” as you can. Hold for a couple of seconds and relax. Repeat a lot of times. You can do all fingers at the same time or one finger at a time. The idea here is to work the antagonists for gripping actively to make them happier. I have some equipment waiting at the post office for strengthening the finger extensors. I’ll report back about that at a later time. But it is something I think can be beneficial for the fly caster.

Cheers, Rickard