Paul Arden | Monday, 12 September 2016
I'm back in Hungary, it's been quite an adventure since my last time here, one year living on the boat in Malaysia, with fishing trips to Thailand and the Philippines, and then the road trip from England through Sweden to Russia, fishing in Finland, Sweden, then the Fly Casting World Championships in Estonia, fishing in Latvia, a hectic drive through to Switzerland for the Swiss Fly Fishing Show and some teaching and then through Italy and finally back to Hungary! The plan is to be here mostly for the next month and a half - there is a lot of work to be done here, unfortunately the wine harvest is not going to happen this year, but there is lots of work to be done on the land, but mostly this time is about Sexyloops work; rod design and so on - we have new blanks and tubes on their way to England and we have to do some marketing (whatever that is). And we have an event coming up...
It starts off with an event in Austria, in Saltzberg, "Lakeside Flycasting Festival 2016" which I plan to attend, to see Bernd and have a cast. There is a comp too so that should be fun. Afterwards a few of us are going to visit Hungary for a couple of days of casting and maybe fishing the Drava (depending on its water level) and then we head over to Bosnia for five days of fishing. I think this will be a great time, lots of fishing and casting. If you want to join us then please let me know. If you just plan to go to Austria then I look forward to meeting you there. If you want to come to Hungary then I need to organise the accommodation, food and wine tasting. If you fancy joining us for the entire duration then fantastic!
Something that I've hinted at and have been meaning to write for a while, is the great scene in flycasting that is the world championships. It is one of the few areas in flycasting that doesn't have any ego - it's difficult to keep your ego intact when you compete, because you have to be prepared to lose! But what makes it great for me is the sharing of information, the cross-team friendships, the continual drive for improvement and the way it tunes up your casting ability like no other. In short if you want to be the best flycaster you'll ever be, then compete. It's great fun too!
Mad day, lots of work to do, back later with lots of photos for Pic of the Day.
Cheers, Paul