Paul Arden | Tuesday, 19 October 2021
I currently have two projects that I’m planning. One is a comprehensive teaching guide. I often read things like, “I was trying to teach such and such and nothing worked, in fact everything went downhill from there”. And it’s something we’ve all faced but there are ways to identify the hole before falling down it, and techniques to climb out the hole if you inadvertently find yourself in one.
That’s a big part of teaching, but equally important is what actually to teach specifically, and how exactly? None of the exams actually deal with this properly and it takes decades of experience to become a half-way good instructor. So I will start writing the outline for a Sexyloops teaching section (it won’t be front pages). Don’t hold your breath however; I need at least a week of doing nothing else to write it. And right now that’s not possible.
The other project I had planned to start this week, but maybe it will occur next week, is to really dial in some more advanced fly fishing techniques. Particularly what interests me at the moment is teaching boat positioning for taking Snakehead shots. There are a lot of considerations to make when doing this and I will explain in a video. It’s not just Snakehead applicable but really applies to any shot taken at a moving target with a moving fly.
I haven’t done this yet because interstate travel has reopened to vaccinated people here in Malaysia. Which means I have guests coming next month. And I really want to have the boat nicely fitted out by then which means woodwork and bamboo splitting. I really enjoy woodwork but I prefer fishing! I’m hoping International travel resumes soon too because we are coming in fast to one of the prime-times of the year.
Next week I’m in Sungai Tiang (the Orang Asli fly fishing project that I assist) on a course to learn about track building. There might be some fishing too! I’m looking forward to that and it will be nice to see the lads again.
However right now, my wife and I are going fishing for the next few days. She’s fed up sitting at home studying her MBA and wants to go fishing. I can fully understand that and it’s a good plan. It’s funny when she wants to go fishing I go fishing. When she wants to go shopping I go fishing. The list goes on… :)
Incidentally today’s picture made me think of something. When I’m guiding I can always tell how experienced the angler is by how he reacts when we get in-close to the fish, either accidentally or on purpose. The experienced angler will always slowly lower his body position to keep off the skyline. The less experienced just stands there and spooks the fish. So learn to hide!!
Have a great week.
Cheers, Paul
PS it was an enormous fish that I hooked and ultimately lost to a stump!