Jungle Moments

Friday was a first for me in two departments. The first is that I caught and landed a 6KG Toman electronically weighed and the second is that I took a "food drop". When Ti asked what he could bring by, I suggested real plunger coffee, parmesan cheese and olives - given more time I would have thought up a more obscure items as well. What he brought was these things and an army supply of boil in the bag meals. Curry and rice sort of thing. I'm not sure why. I think my friends down in KL must think I don't have any food up here. It was a nice thought however, and I'll save them for nights when I'm completely wasted and fancy a midnight snack.

The 6KG Snakehead was cool too. Nice to catch a big fish, but I will add that it was taken off babies. Now you're probably thinking, "What the fuck? Has Paul been smoking Seal's Fur again?' But no, it's true. Snakehead both male and female look after, and fend for, their babies, taking them on a tour de la lake and teaching them how to be bastards. I'm not saying it's easy, because it's not, in fact it's only easier; easier than something that is either almost completely impossible or else requires you to be very, very lucky. Now I see Catch and Release to in fact be, the "education of fish", because as we all know, fish do learn! You can find numerous places where fish have learned almost everything, and it is us, C&R fly fishermen, who are the ones teaching them. Teaching them not to be caught so easily! Maybe saving their lives! And what better way to teach Snakehead than when they are young? Catch one of their parents - teaching them - and teach the young in the process. Furthermore, they return to their babies after the experience. No doubt Friday's fish said to his or her young, "One day if you're lucky enough you'll grow up and be caught by Mr Sexyloops. He's a fucking awesome fly fisherman. I hope to be caught by him when I'm twice as heavy. And again when I'm bigger than his boat."

I can't remember if Ronan said it first, or if I said it to Ronan, but fly fishing is basically about "moments". And for me, at any rate, life is basically a series of fly fishing moments with fillers in-between. And this Temenggor fishery is certainly a fishery of moments, for there is nothing I've found consistent here. Maybe Jungle Perch are consistent, that's possible - I don't spend much time on them. Perhaps Snakehead will become consistent - certainly when I start exploring less and concentrate on known locations more, and when I've developed an unerring, lighting speed cast, coupled with a harder fish-fighting technique, then that's possible too. Gourami on the other hand, after this season so far, well all I can say about them is that you can consistently lose them! But what a lot of people fail to understand about flyfishing, is that flyfishing is undertaken under an intense and continual feeling of anticipation; "it's all about to happen" - nothing narrows the focus like taking shots, especially shots that appear in and out of the blue - especially when, if successful, are followed by either total elation or else total devastation.

Steve Parton put it very neatly when he said "fly fishing is about organised impatience". Sadly, Steve passed away a few years ago - at an age far too young. Steve has some great fishing writing on Sexyloops, which you can find here. His book, "Bboat fishing for trout" is one of flyfishing's great "how-to" books and his term "organised impatience", for me, sums up successful fly fishing better than any other approach I know.

Now I have two other things that I need to mention this week. The first is the Board. "The Board" is the Sexyloops Discussion Board, which is an amazing place and currently a little bit quiet - Ti says. And the reason is very simple; people come and go, lives change, interests change. And we haven't been promoting the Board for a while, and it's very important that we do, just to keep a new influx of people coming in to replace those that have been struck by lightning, sold into sex slavery or else have gone certifiably insane. Now it's not Facebook, The Board is older than Facebook and a different entity altogether. I realise that Facebook does some things rather well, but what it doesn't do IMO is create a platform where information can be shared, thoroughly discussed and ultimately accessed again through archives.

So please do join The Board! You'll need to send me an email - this is because there are strange people out there who would like to sell us sports shoes and Viagra. I do reply to everyone who writes to me, so if you've written and haven't received a reply, then you need to check your junk box for emails from theboard@sexyloops.com, paul@sexyloops.com and mrsexyloops@gmail.com or just email me again, which would probably just be easier.

The second thing to mention, is YES, to celebrate the capture of Friday's magnificent Toman capture it is once again, Sexyloops Rumble in the Jungle Week! Buy any Hot Torpedo rod and receive a free fly line of your choice and a sexy Stealth Hat absolutely free! Hurry while stocks last! I currently have only one 8-weight left in stock and if I break another rod over the gunwales like I did last week then this one will be out of circulation too, so get it while it's hot!

Next week I'll try to track down some Hot Torpedo reviews and offer instructors who carry them a free Instructor listing. This is something I've been meaning to do for many months now, but I have this fishing/working priority life balance thing that is heavily biased towards fishing. After all, the whole point in working is to go fishing and I have enough boil in the bag curries to last at least a month.

Cheers, Paul