Paul Arden | Tuesday, 15 April 2025
There is quite a waiting list on rod orders at the moment and things are a bit slow. Apologies for this. We are trying to speed things up but we never seem to be able to get ahead of ourselves. For two years now I haven’t been putting builds into the HT Owners Club. Quite frankly there is very little marketing going on. Why? Because I think the waiting list is already too long and marketing is going to make the list longer.
I thought we had solved it with Juan in Spain but I think we need one or preferably two additional builders now, one in Australia and another in the US, if this can be arranged. And let me tell you, with three builders that means being three times more organised, having stock in three locations and that is already looking quite complicated!!
That and we still don’t have the new Sexyloops website up and that’s been going on for over a year now. The hold up there is how to transfer/import the existing Sexyloops FP database over to the new database. Apparently no one knows how to do this, despite there being an online tutorial. But there is not really much point in having a new website until we are turning out Sexyloops rods faster.
I’m going to employ Lena in Ukraine again, starting next week, or sooner, to help with organising, initially on a part time basis (she worked for us about ten years ago – how time flies!). I have another project in the wings that I think could be really interesting too. But first and foremost I need to solve these production time issues.
It’s difficult to find high quality rod builders. I have high hopes for George in Tasmania though. That will at least alleviate some of the pressure from the Southern Hemisphere.
And I think if we can build Stateside we will increase our sales considerably. Some costs go down, others go up. But there is a bit of flexibility here.
It sounds like an enormous headache but actually I find it to be a great deal of fun. What else would I be doing sitting on a boat in the middle of a jungle :))) Planning and running these things is actually very interesting and enjoyable. But with everything else on my plate – guiding and coaching, Sungai Tiang, Ironman and of course fishing – I definitely need help now. In fact that’s long overdue.
And let’s talk fishing! I am moored East this week. In an absolutely beautiful bay. I really enjoyed the full moon a few nights ago. This bay I know well at this time of year for its feeding Gourami at the surface in the morning flat calms. The fish eat ants that for some reason land on the surface at night.
It’s also a good bay for Snakehead babies, and freerisers at the right time of year, but that’s not why I’m here. I’m here for the Gourami.
Tonight I’ll tie a couple of ant patterns and hopefully next week I’ll have time to put up a YouTube video. A large Gourami would be nice!
Have a great week!
Cheers, Paul