Paul Arden | Saturday, 5 October 2024
Viking Lars is fishing in Sweden. I have an interesting story about camouflage, because about 6 months ago a small crustacean managed to get through my boat’s water filter system and ended up in the toilet! I have no idea how this happened but I spent the next hour trying to “save” him. My idea of saving him was to extract him and put him in the boat’s aquarium, with the idea that I could study it and tie some killer flies. However after accomplishing this challenging feat, it promptly disappeared and I assumed that the gourami had immediately eaten it. I swear that the gourami actually looked guilty.
Now six months is a very long time to disappear in a small tank with one hungry gourami. Yesterday I found out however, that for this past six months my secret invisible friend had been successfully hiding and growing. How it managed to evade Mr G, and without once being seen once by myself, with my advanced fly fishing observational skills, I really can’t explain.
Very interesting to watch how they swim incidentally. They clamp both pincers together, hold them straight out in front – in the same was that a human would dive off a diving board – and then wiggle their way very quickly forward. Similar to how a mermaid might swim perhaps.
The things you learn here in the Jungle Battleship.
There are baby snakehead around. Two nights ago I had the perfect shot and a follow from a large adult. I can only assume that I have caught this fish before because it should have eaten but didn’t. There is no other explanation.
I’m mostly trying to recover from flights, readapt to the climate, sleep as much as I can, hydrate… I’ve been busy teaching via Zoom, and swimming. Exactly 7 days from now I’ll be racing Ironman Malaysia. Although I’m thinking more about cruising than actually racing. Really looking forward to this and particularly after this, so that I can get back to training properly again. I’ve never enjoyed tapering! Anyway it’s all about feeling good and prepared for next weekend. Looking forward to lifting some weights afterwards as well. I’ve noticed that after an IM you disappear into a stick if you don’t. And without big muscles you can’t catch big fish.
Oh and the good news is that my wife has told me she wants to do the 1/2 Ironman (70.3) next year. That’s really great news. I think the half Ironman is a really excellent first challenge and it’s a fun and manageable distance.
I think, but I'm not 100% sure, that this is a freshwater prawn incidentally. All new to me!
Have a nice weekend.
Cheers, Paul