Mika Lappalainen | Friday, 19 December 2025
Our mini holiday with Satu in Sweden was great. I had three weeks between playing snooker and using cue. During first frame on Friday I notice again similarity with fly casting. While making "fake" shot and aiming I could see easily how cue was moving sideways. And that lead missing easy shots, if I put more power, always missed a shot. When keeping so-called pocket speed, there was no problem. When doing backspin with white ball, often miss cueing and missed shot.
All of this as I tried too hard and too much. It is absolutely same when you start new things with casting. It doesn't matter if it is distance or accuracy, harder you try, more you fail.
My lessons with Paul are not so recurring as I hope. It is totally my fault. Spring time, from
March to May it is easier to find time and especially decent weather as winter makes things different and I haven't been able to find indoor place to train.
I do some casting practise now and then and it keeps basic stuff in order. Now when I need to make next steps it will require more practise and more repeats. And that won't happen if you do it now and then only.
It was same with snooker. We played two evenings and quite late nights. So multiple games and when you got flow going... It was some nice shots and breaks. If there was any over-doing or trying too much, often it ended up to failure.
I still have some issues with my launch while casting. It comes from overdoing, holding rod too tight, it is not relaxed as it should be. Exactly same when doing some snooker shots. Wrist turns, too much power, miss aiming and timing. You decide if previous sentence was about snooker or casting, it goes for both.
Our holiday, superb weekend with friends. Some cooking together, laugh, drinks, great food and games. Our tourist season really hits starting from Monday as German charter series starts. It will last until mid March.
I do have to find more time for casting and snooker. It is all about repeat, repeat and repeat. Practise makes master and then you can take next step. Both of these obsessions are never-ending story, never totally ready, always something new to learn and getting better.
I have found lot of new aspects about fly casting. I didn't know who I met years ago in Russia border and who I helped out from problems there. We have met with Satu some absolutely great people and fished amazing waters, thanks to Paul. I truly hope that you have got better after illness during past week.
Happy birthday mate. Have great day and catch huge birthday fish. Catch it early so beer doesn't get warm.
Have a nice weekend!
Mika the Legend