Tracy&James | Wednesday, 10 September 2025
I saw a hand specialist at the local hospital last week, a bit late having injured myself in April but that's the Welsh NHS for you. The upshot was that I'd have probably been operated on if I'd of had my accident at home, but as my 'recovery' was so far down the line, operating now would come with absolutely no guarantees that any improvement could be made. As such, I'm now waiting for an appointment with a physiotherapist plus I'm on the list for some nerve conduction tests to try and bottom out why I have such limited movement and why my hand goes numb after only a few minutes of holding a fly rod.
I've also had my battle with the insurance company resolved in the last week, but only after threatening to take legal action. What Tracy and I found out during this whole stressful experience was just how convoluted and opaque the travel insurance industry is. We took out a policy with 'insurewithease.com' a company Tracy found on a comparison site. Tracy bought the policy with a number of add-ons knowing that our trips are longer than normal and we're travelling with probably five thousand pounds worth of fishing equipment. It turns out that 'insurewithease' is just a trading name of Ancile Insurance, but our policy was actually with Red Sands Insurance Company. Now when it comes to claims, Reds Sands sub-contract to a company called 'International Medical Group'. I started doing some research on these companies, which previously we did not know we had any involvement with – from online reviews it appears they're great when it comes to taking your money but shockingly bad when it comes to paying claims. I will say that alarm bells started to ring with me when they couldn't sort out payment when we were at the hospital in Nassau, Bahamas leaving us to pick up the $4000 bill for my treatment. Getting this reimbursed has been one of the most frustrating experience I've had with any company – the lack of clarity with who we were dealing with and a complete lack of communication other than automated messages. Only the threat of legal action prompted any response – the payment came with a short e-mail saying 'sorry – we should have done better'. So if you're thinking of taking out insurance with Insurewithease.com, Ancile Insurance, Red Sands Insurance Company or any company linked with IMG, my advice would be to avoid them like the plague.
On a positive note Celestial Lines have released the production version of the prototype line that Tracy and I were testing a couple of weeks back. After weighing it, as I do with all my lines prior to using them in a competition, we did some comparison testing against the prototype. I'm pleased to report that the finished version is even better. It particularly suits Tracy who struggles to get the best out of a MED line with its requirement to carry 85ft plus of line. With its 60ft head the Celestial line casts great from a carry of around 75 – 80ft and this is where Tracy is comfortable. She was casting a lot of mid to high 120ft casts and then she caught one really well, which to me watching from the side was clearly going to be her first #5 weight cast over 130ft. Unfortunately when I lifted the tape to measure the cast accurately I pulled it through the fly line which moved the fluff back towards Tracy – oops! I still measured it at 132ft though, however it was definitely a bit further before I moved the tape.
Hopefully Tracy's good form will continue into this weekend when we have the BFCC meeting in Jersey. We're meeting up with the guys there for a training session straight from the airport. This should give an opportunity to do some line testing as I've got two options for the T120 and two options for the T38. The casting day itself is on Saturday – we just hope we have some gaps in the rain that is forecast to allow us to cast without getting soaked.
Hope you're having a good week,
James