Paul Arden | Monday, 7 July 2025
“You’re looking for something.
But what could that be?
You look for a Gourami,
Then don’t look at me…”
Yes a song from Stiff Little Fingers to brighten up your day. But also a FP from The Ronan shifting down the lake. It’s been quite a weekend. A 4hr bike ride on Saturday that wiped me out, a 15 minute Snakehead Swim and a 21km evening run on Sunday. It was 34C and high humidity for the run. But with ice cleverly strapped to my forehead I survived. I think I’ll lift some weights tonight and have a recovery ride. But before that I’m going to go chasing Mr Gourami… the f**ker.
Yes. I’ve come to the conclusion that all Gourami are in fact complete bastards. You read it here first. But it’s a good day for chasing them. It’s overcast and I should be fishing and getting given severe mental trauma.
Over in Sabah, East Malaysia, then have Red Gourami in the rivers. Why they are red I don’t know. But those of you who saw the “On the Fly” series, featuring me, fly fishing in Malaysia on Discovery Channel Asia (which will mean about three of you), we are planning a one-hour, very exciting, three-part episode in East Malaysia in September and I will be catching numerous Red Kaloi. Over there they eat big flies, which they rarely do here. In fact here they rarely eat at all, at least as far as I can tell. In fact I suspect that they mostly live in another dimension and only visit this one to fuck with me.
Just prior to On The Fly part 2, Stuntman Ronan is planning an adventure with me. It will be good to catch up again with Ronan. I think the last time we met was at his wedding. Since then he’s had 15 children.
Next week I hope and plan to visit Sungai Tiang. The river is gin clear and guests should be visiting. So I’ll go in, catch loads of Mahseer, post them online and encourage you, dear reader, to visit and fish Sungai Tiang with the wonderful Orang Asli guides. There are no Gourami up there, which I think is a good thing.
The plan is to take the Battleship up to the river mouth, so that I can still run Sexyloops and give fantastic Zoom flycasting lessons via Starlink.
Alrighty. Tomorrow I plan a video. It won’t be a Gourami, almost certainly, but I do have footage of a couple of Snakehead I caught back in the Dry Season that was wet, on the same evening nonetheless. Yes, two Snakehead in one evening! Bloody outstanding fishing if you ask me. But I don’t wish to give you the impression that this happens all the time, because up until then it had never happened!
Back tomorrow.
Cheers, Paul