Paul Arden | Tuesday, 11 July 2023
I managed to escape down the lake for a short trip. If Elon Musk would hurry up and get his Starlink program up and running over here, then I could fish down the lake AND give lessons. But at the moment it’s either fish up the lake and give lessons, or down the lake and not give lessons. And if I do go down the lake and not give lessons, when I come back up the lake, then I’m giving lessons all the time and not fishing! :D
But I did have a moment of clarity while waiting for some small snakehead to rise. And it is this: when Zoran said that people either grow old like cathedrals or boots, and I thought I would like to be an old boot, but I didn’t realise there was a third option: to be a yeti.
Unfortunately the fishing here is in decline. Certainly compared to 10 years ago when I first arrived here, there are noticeably less fish. I met a fisheries chap who had studied the lake 20 years ago and again 10 years ago, and in that time the fish population declined by 70%. Wow!! How amazing it must have been 20 years ago.
The big problem here is netting without controls – the netsmens’ livelihoods will disappear for sure – and crazy people in Malaysia eat freshwater fish in restaurants. Consequently it’s only a matter of time. So that’s not very good news.
Of course we can argue that sports-fishing is sustainable and certainly places more value on the fish; money which can and be spent to enhance the local economy. That’s what we are doing in Sungai Tiang – please go to Sungai Tiang, for there is hope there! But for here, I find it hard to be optimistic. It could recover of course, and probably would very quickly given a chance. But there is no movement to do so and no one did anything about the problem on Tasik Kenyer either, which is an even larger lake.
Unfortunately this is the same story the world over. Lakes, rivers and oceans.
Talking of which, I’ve had my 10 years here now and have fished this lake for well over my 3000 days target. I don’t know if that makes me an expert but I have learned a fair chunk for sure. And you know me; when I get to this point, then I start to get itchy feet, want to be a beginner again and learn some new branch of our amazing sport.
Covid set us back about three years. Two years of nothing and then one year of recovering from the debt it caused. I wanted to be gone now, but my focus is in 3 1/2 years time. I’ll be 56 then, which is a pretty awesome age for a yeti. We are just coming into our prime at this age. And the plan is to raise the Jolly Roger and sail into the sunset on a catamaran. Possibly getting shipwrecked on a desert island in the process – perfect!!
So we need to sell 500 Hot Torpedos. And just as a small and very colourful snakehead rose in front of my boat, I came up with a great idea, that was so good, that I completely forgot to take the shot. And it is this: for the first 666 Hot Torpedos sold, everyone who buys one will have their name go into a sock, and the lucky winner will win a two weeks all-expenses paid fly fishing trip with me, wherever I happen to be. It could be the top end or Australia, or kicking it up in the Caribbean, or fishing some remote atoll in the Maldives. The more rods you buy, the more chances you have to win!
So: purchase a Sexyloops Hot Torpedo and get a 1 in 666 chance to go saltwater fly fishing for two weeks, in an amazing part of the world. I’ll even throw in a casting lesson… every day!!!
(Now you might ask why 666, Paul? Are you trying to tell us something? No of course not. It’s it’s just that 500 isn’t enough for the boat! So it’s 666. Makes perfect sense!).
Ok I’m in town. Just have a very hot lesson in a field. Single Spey and Snake Rolls. That was fun!
Have a great day!
Cheers, Paul