Paul Arden | Tuesday, 9 May 2023
It’s been a busy week! I have an interesting weekly blend of online casting coaching, running Sexyloops, Ironman training and fly fishing. And the weeks just roll into each other. Saturday is my long bike ride day and I do 4.5hrs plus on the bike. Phew. Sunday is a full day of recovery. Either Tuesday or Wednesday is a long 2-2.5hr run (and beer shopping day). And the other days are a mix of everything: swimming, biking, fishing (actually fishing is every day). It’s quite good fun actually!
I just have this nagging suspicion that I should take the boat way down the lake to where there isn’t internet, because it’s often the best fishing location. It’s a long trip. Flat out in the Rocket, it’s over 90 minutes each way. On the battleship that becomes a 3hr+ trip each way. And I just don’t have the window for this at the moment.
I have thought about shooting down in the Rocket and sleeping out on that, the way I used to live, pre-Battleship. The problem with that idea is that we have a lot of thunderstorms at the moment! But maybe it’s possible with some wet weather planning. It’s not possible this week however and I have Zoom lessons planned all week. Where is Elon Musk and his Internet? That’s what I want to know! It’s nice to be down there without Internet but totally impossible to organise at the moment. It will be different when I’m guiding (I have some bookings soon) and I’ll just move all my casting students into one really busy hectic casting week!
Having said that, the fishing is not bad around here and there are Snakehead and their babies. I’m just starting to see free-risers too. And that’s my favourite way of fishing for Snakehead. I’m moored at an Internet location that’s as remote as I can still be - about 10km from the main public jetty, with absolutely no one else around. I have a morning of fishing today (hopefully we will have a picture of a Snakehead for this FP, because I found them in the evening – before getting chased away by lightning!) and then I have a Zoom lesson this afternoon and finally in the evening I see a friend who is staying at the resort.
The difference between a 3-5hr fishing day and a 13hr fishing day on this lake is huge. I think I’ll have to clear a personal fishing window soon!! Still I have to say, the casting coaching has been fantastic. Great fun and extremely productive. I’m seeing things now that I didn’t use to see. Long term coaching – by which I mean 6 months or more – is totally different teaching compared to single lessons. You’re on a journey with your student/athlete. There is no question that this is the best and I’m really enjoying it!
Ok now to more important things. I’m going fishing!
Cheers, Paul