Paul Arden | Tuesday, 28 January 2025
Here it’s Chinese New Year this week. Well everywhere actually. Normally I try to stay low and deep in the jungle, but this year I have some family commitments which will see me braving the Malaysian roads. Oh joy!!
On Saturday evening I nipped out and had a couple of Snakehead, including one just shy of 5 KG. Now I’d like to say it always happens this way, but I can’t think of any time in the past where I have “nipped out and caught a couple of Snakehead”. Shorty afterwards I had a third shot/opportunity but cast 6 inches too far and placed the fly into the babies (six inches too short would have been fine). Still, two Snakehead landed in three casts is a great evening! Three and I might have been struck by lightning.
I’ll put a video together shortly. I had planned to do this yesterday and then again today. But neither happened! I think I need a full time employee who can do this and/or the million and one other tasks that need doing at Sexyloops. Yes I really am very busy at the moment!!
I am thoroughly enjoying coaching fly casting. Over the past four or five years the Zoom coaching has really taken off and it’s highly rewarding, educational for me and great fun. It’s wonderful to watch students progress and become truly outstanding flycasters. I wish I could teach more students this way but with one-to-one coaching there are only so many students I can handle! And quite frankly I don’t think anything else compares to one-to-one coaching. Even one-to-two is less than half as good in my opinion; there is just more “noise”. So nowadays when I have two students, I really try to teach them separately as much as possible.
I have considered ways to expand the operation from my side, but every option seems like a lot more work! And right now the primary focus has to be Sexyloops HTs. I don’t coach and guide to get fat; instead it’s a means of paying the bills. I’ve always thought that when you earn enough to cover all your living costs then why work any more hours? That’s time that can instead be spent fishing! (There are of course weaknesses in this argument, as COVID revealed, but there are strengths too!)
We should have our new shiny Sexyloops website running very soon now. And then we can really put the foot to the gas with rod sales. This is something I really want to develop. I have a potential additional rod builder, in Australia, which I think will work extremely well. And the 666 Competition is in full swing. A customer asked me if rod blanks apply as a competition entry? The answer is yes: two rod blanks gives one competition entry!
I plan to be out of here and sailing in 2 years time, potentially 3 years. So it really is time to strap up, lean forward and light the touch paper.
Just a reminder: For every rod purchased (or two blanks) you get a one in 666 chance to win a two-week all-expenses paid holiday to fish with me on the Sexyloops yacht.
I’ve been asked where I want to sail? Everywhere! Particularly the tropics, top end of Australia, South America, everywhere and anywhere I can. Maybe even visit the poles. I plan to do this for a long time and can’t wait to get started! Sexyloops: coming from an Ocean near you!
Busy summer this year. I have to learn Bahasa Malayu. I’m sure we will come back to Malaysia someday and having Permanent Residence is always a good idea. Who knows what life will bring and learning a language properly sounds interesting.. it’s something I try to do on my Zwift bike workouts.
One thing I have always believed to be true; when you have worked out your fishery to the most part and have spent a great deal of time fishing it, then it’s time to move on and learn a new fishery. That’s the best thing about our sport; we can go from expert (wherever that means) to beginner just by changing fish species/location. How lucky we are!
Have a great week and Gong Xi Fa Cai.
Cheers, Paul