Paul Arden | Monday, 12 December 2016
It's Monsoon Season the Northern Malaysia, only the weather doesn't know it yet. Instead of 24hr downpours, all week long, we are getting one-hour downpours every three days, which is pretty normal for most other times of the year. The lake level is coming up - albeit very slowly - and it's still some 6m (20ft) lower than normal for this time of year. This is the time that many anglers come here for the Jungle Perch fishing, and you really need a houseboat to fish the lake at this time, because it's no fun fishing all day in a wet boat and then sleeping in the same. Especially one that looks and breathes like a condom! However the Jungle Perch is currently not happening at all as of yet; these fish rely on high water levels and flooded rivers to spawn.
About two weeks ago a problem came up in the shop and it became impossible for us to obtain the sexy Titanium Torzite rings that we fit to our HT10s and we were told "out of stock for three months!" I have three unfulfilled orders for the HT10 and so I contacted some 20 distributors around the world - I'm hoping to hear good news on this today that I have found these rings. This problem has managed to keep away from the lower part of the lake that I wanted to fish, because Internet can only be found at Banding Island and sometimes not even here!
And so we are now into the month of the year when I run a bar. This Birthday - Christmas - New Year -Monsoon Season is best dealt with by running the Tor Tambra Rainforest Bar. It's an outdoor privately-owned resort bar, with a lake view and a pool table. It's possible to have a lot of fun here! One of the main reasons I started doing this two years ago was to improve my pool game. I've always enjoyed the pub game but had no consistency. Well I'm a different sort of player now, I can tell you that! In fact I've become an absolute bastard; I play against some much better ball potters than me, but more often than not, I manage to completely destroy their game by hiding the cue ball, snookering them, while at the same time, moving my balls into more favourable positions. I've seen major improvements in my game.
I'm nothing like good enough to teach but occasionally I get asked for advice. I find it fascinating to discover how many parallels there are to fly casting teaching - body position, stance, weight and sometimes weight shift, contact with the ball, how many shots start slowly and finish fast, tracking, where to look, how to look, feel. And then the game itself, continually improving your shots (the importance of practise), but also playing within your limitations while structurally keeping your opponent out and improving your position. Quite fascinating - and even more fun because it involves beer! I've played in pool halls too, where I'm crap by the way - for some reason pool halls in Malaysia have MASSIVE pockets and that's much less fun. The bar table is where it's at for me!
It's interesting how everything in life comes back to fly fishing and fly casting. This week I plan to shoot some more Drone footage of flycasting the HT series. That's assuming that the Monsoon Season doesn't start living up to its name. I've started running again too; it's time to get fit again!
Cheers, Paul