Paul Arden | Tuesday, 24 March 2026
Last weekend, on my long indoor endurance ride, my bike trainer suddenly stopped working. I think I’ve had it for 6 years and it’s had a hard life. I immediately ordered up a replacement but this is not the best time of year for a fast delivery, because most of Malaysia is on holiday. The roads are packed and I for one don’t go anywhere near them! So whether or not I’ll have a new one for next Saturday’s ride is yet to be seen.
And it’s really quite warm here for Malaysia. Highs this week of 36C (which apparently “feels like” 38, and in my boat is actually currently 37.8). This is not atypical for this time of year. Most of the year is 32-33, and it’s actually very noticeable when temps pass 35.
This is generally not very good for the fishing of the moment, but it will be good for fishing later. I haven’t been able to measure water temps since my sounder died (it had a hard life too) but I’m guessing it’s around 33C. Maybe 34 late afternoon but probably not quite yet.
Warm water is good. Under 30C is “cold” and so not very good. The coldest I’ve measured in the Wet Season was around 28C. Not particularly pleasant for bathing. In fact anything below 30C means fast dips for me. The reason we want warm water for fishing, is because warm water holds less dissolved oxygen, which in turn makes it more likely to see Giant Snakehead breathing air from the surface.
(28C is 82F, 30C is 86F, 32C is 90F, 34C is 93F, 36C is 97F and 37.8C is 100F. I’m FPing in my underpants).
But it seems to take a little while for this activity to really take hold. So right now it’s not really happening with the Snakehead. Babies are big and not numerous. Not much free-rising activity — yet. More typically this month I look for Gourami.
I’ve also been learning Malay, coaching flycasting, selling rods and working on the new website. So it’s not like I’m not busy!
I’ve taken two interesting steps in my life recently. The first is that I don’t check my phone for the first hour upon waking up. If I’m not coaching I’ll go for a swim. And the second is that I don’t check my phone within an hour of going to the hammock at night. With all the world’s chaos, news streaming, podcasts, and a constant flow of incoming to-do tasks… it’s just a bit too hectic. I stopped reading Facebook and watching YouTube quite some time ago — apart from for posting Sexyloops content of course.
I want to spend the evenings looking at the stars from the roof of the boat, or having a campfire. Enjoying life here, and not in the on-line world. I read Sexyloops Front Pages, I read the Board, emails, WhatsApp and a little bit of news and listen to very few select podcasts. The Internet is a communications tool but I don’t need or want to be constantly connected.
When the Internet first appeared it wasn’t on our phones and in our pockets. It was a separate world, where you would take time out from the day to spend some time. We would live our lives and have this amazing virtual world of friends, that we would connect to in a limited way. Nowadays I see the Internet as far more dangerous than good. Largely because it manipulates and polarises the thinking of large numbers of people. Some people don’t even have hobbies anymore.
Anyway on that happy note, I’m going fishing! Have a great day!
Cheers, Paul