Paul Arden | Tuesday, 31 May 2022
This month is a double training month for me. I have a 70.3 Ironman in July in Desaru and the Flycasting WCs in Norway in August (and another half Ironman in September). Fitness-wise I need to go hard this month. My bike self-destructed in the boat a couple of months ago and only got fixed last week. I also have a new one now for the road. Flyfishing is not the only expensive hobby (mind you I don’t consider flyfishing to be a “hobby” and I’m sure most triathletes don’t consider that a hobby either!) I’ve really been enjoying the training and doing two disciplines now each day. My swimming has improved very much and I’ve been getting some excellent advice from Kurt, an ex-pro triathlete and fly fishing friend in the States. Hopefully I can get my bike FTP back up again to where it was again this month. The running has also been steadily improving. That’s a couple of hours/day in training!
And then there is flycasting training! That’s also a couple of hours/day. I need to get the distance feel back again. I mostly start by throwing long carry off the boat roof before moving to ground level and working on the launch. Ashly and I will also practise Accuracy with accuracy rings off the back of the boat. I find this particularly beneficial to my fishing. And I also have a T27 Hot Torpedo to play with! All good fun.
And if that’s all I had to do it would already be a busy month. However we have two TV episodes to shoot, one starting this Friday in Taman Negara for Kelah – Red Mahseer – and the other in Sungai Tiang for Tengas - Copper Mahseer – when the weather allows – hopefully one week later. I also expect at least one fishing guest this month, and possibly two!! In July we are equally full on. I have three guests booked into the first half of the month. We need to be busy! Two years of lockdowns has left a hole in the pocket.
I’ve narrowed my Zoom students down to six and that’s what I’m limiting it to for now. When one drops out I’ll make that space available. I’d love to do more but I just don’t have the time to do more properly.
This morning I had a “Snakehead Shot” Zoom session to George and Declan in Tasmania who are visiting me for two weeks in July. Both have already ingrained the slip lift, so I showed a few other components and organised their practise. This training is very important if you want to have a good chance of catching fish here on your first trip! And if you train you will be in the game every day. It’s all about putting in the shots! The fish must see the fly! When they are here there should be plenty of Free-risers as well as summer sets of Babies. I'm pretty sure this trip is going to be lots of fun!! :D
Have an awesome fishing week!
Cheers, Paul