Paul Arden | Monday, 30 December 2019
Well that’s another year fast drawing to a close... they appear to be travelling at light speed at the moment! First up it’s been a really enjoyable year reading and following all of our contributors; Gary in Florida, Bernd in North Germany, James and Tracy from Wales, Mika from just above the Arctic Circle in Finland, Viking Lars from Denmark and Andy from Texas. We’ve also seen regular and excellent FPs from Martyn who’s living in Japan. And what, with Ronan’s report from New Zealand and my contributions from the Malaysian Jungle, I don’t think we can be a much more worldly bunch! I don’t think we’ve ever had a regular contributor from South America on Sexyloops, but we’ve certainly been around the Globe pretty much everywhere else and many times! Many thanks guys; I enjoy every page!
It’s nice to see the Board ticking over. I personally don’t spend much time on Facebook or YouTube answering flycasting or fishing related questions. The reason being is that I feel that I’m only helping one or a few people at that time only - and to less of my ability! However on the Board questions and answers are archived and Google does a good job of revealing them in searches, even many years later. So the Board is where I invest my time and energy and it’s great to have such solid contributors as Merlin, Torsten, Graeme, Lasse and all the others keeping it running. If you are a regular to Sexyloops and not a Board member then please do join in! There’s nothing elite about the Board in the slightest and it relies on regular input from new contributors - you!! - to stay fresh. I’m planning a Sexyloops Meet in Bosnia this coming year - probably in September - so I hope to see many old and new faces there.
A very big thank you to all of our customers who have purchased SL HT rods from us. This really is turning into quite a nice enterprise. It’s also of a size that’s quite manageable for a manager like me who likes - well needs actually - to fish every day :D I don’t know if you’ve ever considered this aspect of rod manufacturing, but there is always going to be a percentage of rods coming back for repair - breaking on fish, snags, car doors and elephants for example. There is no profit in rod repairs and consequently this is one of the main reasons we sell direct and not through third parties - there are other reasons too of course; such as we provide a higher quality rod in the first place - but speedy response to rod mishaps makes it important to keep everything in manageable proportions.
Speaking of which, we have two new rods coming out this month; the long-awaited 7’6 3/4WT and the much requested 9’ 7WT in Instructor and stealth versions. In fact you can order the 7’6 rod now - just drop me an email! We’ve already sold a few in advance and are just waiting on the new decals to arrive from America to finalise building.
Here in the jungle I’ve had a very enjoyable year teaching fly fishing for Snakehead and Gourami with both clients and friends from Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Hong Kong, USA and all over Europe. I’m currently building a large aluminium “warship” with a cabin, toilet and onboard shower. Thank you to everyone who joined me here last year. This year I’m certain is going to be even better and I look forward to seeing my regular visitors again in the New Year and of course new customers joining me here for this uniquely challenging and extremely rewarding fishing.
This year I’ll be making some changes to Sexyloops. Probably the largest “change” of all, will be the addition of a Sexyloops Fly Fishing Encyclopaedia as a method of making past Sexyloops content more accessible and fully integrated. But that’s not all and I have some other great campfire-planned additions too - so stay tuned!!
Have a cracking New Year and all the best for a fish-filled fantastic 2020!!!
Cheers, Paul