Paul Arden | Friday, 25 June 2021
One of the jobs of being a good husband is to help edit my wife’s Masters papers for English. Her English is pretty damned good, particularly considering she speaks Cantonese, Mandarin and Malay first. But occasionally the flow of words isn’t that of a native speaker. So that’s where I come in. Yesterday I became an expert in Malaysian Business Law. A few months ago it was Marketing, and next month it’s Accountancy – Ok they are not all going to be interesting.
Mika was up all last night marking reindeers. “Night” at this time of year takes on a whole new meaning in the Arctic Circle. So it’s a quick one from me covering for him.
I was asked (by an instructor!) about the difference between the HT6 and the HT7 this week. Being in lockdown I got to write a rather long and informative reply….
“The 7 is a cannon. I mean that in a good way. It was my favourite casting rod on the roof of the boat. Such a turn of line speed. Then I smashed the tip on a pipe I have up there as breather to the septic tank. I have since moved the pipe to the back of the boat to open up the whole roof for night-time casting. I have a new tip coming with the prototype HT5. I’m really looking forward to getting that one back. I found myself choosing this over the 6 for casting training. Obviously it’s a 7WT and an HT but I think the dial has just been turned up a little bit on speed/performance (it’s mostly for throwing streamers right?!).
“When we developed it I went through the MCI test many times. And I fished it for Snakehead. Managed to get it through a lot of hands which is always really important. And then I put it away after launching it.
“I was working on carry left handed with the lumiline. The line is supposed to be a 100’ but it’s 97’. I can carry to the backing knot with a left handed haul, shaping loops. Right handed haul I’m about 4 feet short but working on this. And that’s when I started lining it up on the HT7…
“It’s funny when you work on something you have a certain way of looking at it… How can it be better? Is it doing this properly? Is it too stiff for this cast? Etc etc.
“Then I had a break, the rod is finished, and it’s out there and great reports back. And then later I finally get to cast it for the joy of casting it and it’s just a different way of thinking I suppose. Maybe it’s not casting it to certain criteria, but instead seeing what it will really do. For me the 7 is more fun to cast than any other rod we have. I like to have the feeling of control at speed. This one just turns everything up a notch.
“I see a small design gap between 6 and 7 and I think that’s because 6 and under are nymphing/dries etc and 7 and over move towards streamers. There is a change in tippet. 6 and under you are trying to project light tippets. 7 and over you don’t have to be quite so forgiving with the tip. Also you don’t have to be so concerned with casting just the leader and maybe a few feet of line, which is how I fish most of the time with light lines and you can focus more on putting the fly on the opposite bank. So that 6/7 is actually quite a defined boundary. The 7 is more like an 8 and the 6 is more like a 5.
“However the primary focus of this rod was the MCI test. The HT6 was different. That was about NZ backcountry fishing which is what I had in mind. So it has all the things that make it an HT but subtly it’s quite different.”
Blimey!!! Don’t ask me anything in lockdown. It might take a month to read my reply!
What else… Rob Ketley sent me this video this morning https://youtu.be/g5_h7l3xG7Y which I really enjoyed. Nice to see some "clean" waters around London too. Reminds me of when I fished the Water of Leith in Edinburgh. There is something quite different about inner city fly fishing. Whether it’s people throwing rocks at you from above or finding a fish behind a shopping trolley, it’s a world within a world. My triathlon sister (aka Charlotte) is moving back to Edinburgh this year, so I’m already planning my visit. June is Black Gnat time in that part of Scotland.
Have a great weekend. Tomorrow: The Viking!!
Cheers, Paul