Paul Arden | Tuesday, 15 February 2022
Over here the big news this week is that Malaysia intends to open its borders to travellers without quarantine from March 1st. It’s been so long since the borders have been open, that I’m not actually getting too excited about this yet, in case the situation changes, as it did last time. But I certainly hope so; apart from a couple of local anglers, I haven’t hosted any jungle lake fishing trips for almost two years now. Basically I’ve missed out on 200 days of work – which in my world is very significant!! And I know it’s the same for many of my guiding friends here and other parts of the world.
I will continue teaching fly casting via Zoom and accepting new students, but I definitely won’t be promoting this into some 20hrs/week operation. 5-6 lessons a week I think is about my comfortable limit. I know that probably doesn’t sound like very much, but my hosted trips are 5-7 days long and I like to get offline myself too :)))
For the first half of March, I’m on location presenting the final 2.5 episodes of the 6 episode flyfishing TV show we started filming 18 months ago. That should be aired in August over here (I don’t know about where you are). The second half of March is the time when we usually begin opening for guests (the Snakehead babies fishing can be best at this time of year).
However right now my most pressing problem is bees. I’m in the middle of fighting off a boat bee-invasion. This time of year sees bees. They love the boat and particularly my socks and bike shoes. If I don’t attack them ruthlessly with a frying pan, they amass in numbers and take over the Battleship. I’m quite fond of bees, having watched a movie about them, and know that they are important for the environment; but even so I don’t like sharing my boat with 200 of them. So I belt them with the frying pan as they fly in. They are incredibly difficult to hit; fast slalom fliers and tough buggers too; knock them out over into the water with the frying pan... they pause, buzz around for a bit and take off. It it wasn’t so fraught with risk it would be fun. In fact, perhaps it’s because of the risk element, that makes it fun? Fighting off a bee invasion with a frying pan while wearing underpants definitely has an element of associated risk.
Often I get outnumbered – ie swarmed – and then I move the boat. If I move a few hundred metres all the bees notice that their inbuilt GPS system is telling them strange things, and they clear off out the boat. Four hours later they find me again and we start all over. I can’t move the boat now however because I have a Zoom lesson in a couple of hours and this is my “Zoom Anchorage” spot. The joys of living in the jungle! The “Battleship” name is very appropriate at this time of year. Funny it only ever rains bees in February and March… “Bee Battle Season”. Next week if you like I'll explain the different frying pan strokes in detail. Maybe I'll include some slow motion video and get a frying pan sponsor. The backhand stopless 170 frying pan stroke has stunned its fair share of bees.
So hopefully we will have guests again mid or late March onwards. This week I’ve been writing a report on the Sungai Tiang project for the park's management. Obviously just training a bunch of lads to take people fly fishing isn’t going to get the project up and running; it now needs marketing. Which is certainly something we can do for them here at Sexyloops. I know many of you are planning to visit Sungai Tiang and there are a few things that need to be accomplished first.
I have a vast number of Hot Torpedo blanks being rolled at the moment. Predominantly our new HT9’ #5 – which now has many pre-orders. As I’ve written previously, we are planning a price increase this year – everything is more expensive this year, you may have noticed! And it’s no exception for us. However if you order and pay for yours now, I will hold the 2021 prices ie 945USD.
The fact that we price in USD and match in at around US prices in the States, means that if you are buying in the UK, Europe, Australia, anywhere outside the US, then we are considerably cheaper than the equivalent imported US manufactured rod. And besides we make better flyrods :)))
I’m really excited about this year. Sungai Tiang project opening, new HT5 launch, borders reopening, Zoom flycasting courses and the TV show. 5 more years in Malaysia and then it’s time for me to move on again. I plan to be at the World Championships in Norway this year and have started training.
Have a great day.
Cheers,Paul
Today’s POD: this is a Stopless 170 exercise drill I use for teaching. It’s to make sure that the stop really is fully stopless. Also can be used with a frying pan.