Paul Arden | Wednesday, 21 March 2018
I'm covering for Bernd today who is fishing in a Mystery Location for imaginary tropical SW fish at the moment, together with Holger. It reminds me of a story of a Croatian friend who went fishing in the USA but didn't tell his wife that he was going (because she wouldn't have let him!). Perplexed at finding him missing she rang another friend of mine, Milan, to ask where Rudi aka "the Professor" was. "Erm, I think he's gone to Montana!"!!! Apparently that wasn't all, because after two weeks in Montana he disappeared again to go fishing in Canada. It's this sort of dedication to fly fishing that we all admire!
Anyway, coming this week will be a few new things. Firstly we have new improved lumi-lines that will be in the shop shortly. These will retail for 89USD which is around 63GBP. I will in fact be changing our prices from USD to GBP shortly because I'm paying several conversion fees for no reason. The line is manufactured for us by RIO. It is an Intermediate DT6. Why Intermediate? because it glows better in the dark. Why DT? So there is more line glowing - the WF running line doesn't glow as well. Yes it can be fished as an Intermediate line during the day, but the real reason for buying this line is to charge it up with a spot lamp and practise your casting in the dark. Even though this line will be very bright, far brighter than the last version, you will still need a dark moonless night with no light "pollution". Here in the jungle will be perfect!
You can buy here:
http://www.sexyloops.com/index.php/webshop/item/539/thunderbolt-lumi-line-double-taper-6

Over the years I have used these lines for night time practise. I have personally learned a very great deal from their use and have had excellent results using them for teaching, because all the student gets to see is his loops. It's a wonderful teaching aid and very great fun to use. You can teach using "mirrored casting", both casting with the same length of line. At Sexyloops events they have been used many times to good effect and we even have invented a fighting game that looks a bit like Star Wars. However for this you will need to wear some eye protection.
Which brings me neatly onto the second new thing! Sexyloops is now a retailer for Tonic Eyewear. Tonic produce absolutey top notch sunglasses that are polaroid, some photochromatic, that come in various colours. I've been experimenting the past few weeks with blue, red, green and "neon" - which is a light copper colour for low light. I've becomed extremely disillusioned with polycarb lenses because one only has to look at them and they scratch. Sunscreen, insect repellant and just fishing seems to kill them very quickly. The Tonic sunglasses that we stock are glass, offer incredibly clear vision and are are most certainly the best that I have used. Tonic have a fantastic reputation in Australia - Tonic is an Australian company. I will try to sell them as Australian prices and include the shipping in the cost (I'm pricing them up now). I have the stock here with me in Malaysia so they will take possibly 7 days to get to you, depending on where you live!

They will be in the shop this week. Retail will be around 150GBP. If you are a professional instructor we do have a pro programme that extends to all gear in the shop. Do get in touch if you think you qualify!
Finally, last weekend while fishing with Piffen we were fortunate enough to shoot 44 minutes of close-up elephant footage. I think that this will make for an excellent start for the SLTV series. I was extremely close to the elephant (which is not without risk!), but it was well worth it and my best wild elephant encounter so far!
Have a super mid-week!
Cheers, Paul