Tracy&James | Sunday, 19 May 2024
James and I are currently on a fitness drive, building on the weight loss that we both achieved during our recent tropics trip. One of the 'jobs' James does immediately before heading to the airport is to weigh the cases to make sure they comply with the airlines limits. He does this by first weighing himself and then he holds a case and steps on the scales again whilst I read the digital display. Because of this we know exactly how much he weighed before we set off and, out of interest, he did a weigh-in a couple of days after we got back. As a result, we know he lost exactly 10kg over the course of the holiday. I guess wading for 8 hours a day whilst carrying back packs and rods, through shallow water, deeper water (with the occasional swim), sand, rocks and sometimes deep mud, with only ginger nut biscuits (plus a few sweets) and water for sustenance, will result in quite a dramatic weight loss. James has calculated that if we went bonefishing for eight months he would actually disappear, but I'm not sure that's quite right!
I've re-started weight training and have recently got back to being able to do 40 (proper) press-ups in one go. I do this by doing as many as I can, up to the point where my arms collapse and then taking a short one or two minute break and then doing as many as I can for a second time. Now I'm back to 40 in the first set I'll just start trying to build the number that I get to in the second set. Now I know strength isn't critical to good fly casting, or even distance casting – however I do feel I have an extra bit of zip when I'm feeling strong. It's also well documented that weight training helps slow down some of the effects of ageing on the muscles and joints, and we're all ageing. Obviously at some point in our lives we will no longer be able to fish like we did this time (we'll still be able to fish on a guided basis, being whisked to the flats on a skiff etc.) but hopefully we can stave this off for as long as possible as we both prefer DiY flats fishing.
I'm also working on becoming a more rounded fly caster. To this end James had me practising the double Spey cast (with a single handed rod) at a recent trip to the river Dee. With the fishing being a bit slow and standing in water flowing from left to right, I eventually got the hang of re-positioning the line and then sweeping it up into a 'D' loop. James has said that next time we'll be doing snake rolls before swapping to the opposite bank for 'snap Ts' and 'circle Cs'. I'm also joining James on the grassed area immediately in front of our house when he's practising more intricate casts, various curves and mends etc., rather than waiting to go to our 'distance' field. This area has a wooden fence running along it that has a single horizontal bar that is no more than 50cm high. James can fire his fly line under that and land the fly half way (sometimes more) back across the road – I want to be able to do that as it seems like a great cast for getting under overhanging trees on a river, or just keeping the line very low to avoid spooking a bonefish.
We're also practising our accuracy at targets in preparation for the first BFCC event, though currently this might not be till the Kent meeting in late June as I may have to reschedule the Dodleston event to later in the year. Accuracy is also one of the three events in the Game Fair championship and I know if I do well in that competition, my score should keep me high up in the championship once the distance events have been added in. I'm assuming that we might end up running 'open' competitions so that I can compete, as at last year's Game Fair I didn't have another female to compete with in the championship. Winning the overall Welsh GF comp and then going on to be third in the grand final made me realise that I am very competitive against the men so maybe if I improve my accuracy, I can do better at this year's championship.
Whatever you are doing this weekend, enjoy and tight lines,
Cheers
Tracy