Paul Arden | Monday, 1 January 2018
I would like to wish all of you, our readers, a wonderful, prosperous, fish-filled and of course very sexy 2018!!! And an enormous thank you to all of our Hot Torpedo customers for making 2017 our best year yet! MANY THANKS!!! This year we have lots coming for you, The Sexyloops Academy, The Complete Fly Casting Video Manual, more Hot Torpedo rods in the line-up and I'm starting a Jungle Fly Fishing School out in Malaysia. Later in the year I'll be winning a couple of Gold Medals in the World Fly Casting Championships over in England, Sexyloops is 20 Years Young on September 22nd, I'm competing in a half Ironman in Portugal 30th September. And at various points in the year I shall be getting married at least twice to the same girl.
I'm writing this page in advance because I will heading out fishing tomorrow since I'm pretty sure that Bernd will be doing the same and this year I plan not to miss out on one single day!!! I know with travel this is going to be a challenge but for a long time I've had the intention of fly fishing for fish at airports (never been done to my knowledge). Which is strange because I've never seen "no fishing" signs on any of the Airport ponds, however I will invent the Micro Torpedo for Hidden Stealth Options.
Having now spent two weeks in Tasmania, I'm more convinced than ever that Man is not engineered to live in such climates and that our natural state is to live in the jungle. After all you can be naked in a jungle and your dick won't fall off. Here in the Tassie Highlands I doubt it would stay glued on for five minutes.
In order to relearn this, Ashly, Flavio and I walked into a hill lake relatively close to Miena. Ashly was a bit slow so we helped carry most of her stuff for her. And then, having hiked in, I nearly died. The intense cold having destroyed my immune system and I picked up a severe case of - to my mind - hypothermia, frostbite and pneumonia all rolled into one. I don't know if you've seen the film "Everest"? But this is exactly what it was like.
We managed to get a lift out (hitching, not helicopter), thankfully - because I would probably still be on that bloody mountain otherwise - so that I could spend three days in bed, with no booze, no Seal's Fur and no fly fishing. I haven't fully recovered from the ordeal, even with these sacrifices, and have a cough that sounds like an angry dog.
And now I'm going to be honest with you; trout fishing is shit.
You may not know this but they are stupid, they live in cold water and they can't fight. Of course I spent 37 years of my life fishing for them - around 8000 days on the water - and this only leads me to believe that I've well and truly done it. Certainly there won't be many people who have done it more! Don't get me wrong, if there is variety in your trout fishing - i.e. rivers, stillwaters, tailwaters, small streams, stalking fish, night fishing, utilising all methods, all around the globe - then spending half (or possibly only one third as in my case) of your lifetime fly fishing for them is not a complete waste of time. For one thing they will help prepare you for other more-challenging fish.
Anyway, I have another 7 weeks of fishing for trout coming up and if I kick this Fishing Death Cold that has me in a stranglehold then I might almost certainly change my mind about the trout thing and try to be more positive about these cold little fishes. (A little bit).
Have a fantastic year! 
Cheers!
Paul
PS If you're not on facebook.com/sexyloops or active on the Board then it may have escaped your notice that the Sexyloops Video Manual is quickly taking shape: http://www.sexyloops.com/flycast/ Over the next few weeks we shall be bombarding you with the "useful" presentation casts. If you want to practise these casts to your best ability then you will also need: a full set of Hot Torpedos.