Paul Arden | Monday, 15 August 2016
Next stop Estonia for the World Championships in Fly Casting with Fly Fishing Tackle - I think we need come up with a shorter catchier name! Anyway we've all been really looking forward to this since the last one. This year I'm representing Jersey, Channel Islands along with fellow competitor Ross Bannerman. Team GB split last year although surprisingly not into home nations but instead UK and British Islands! We shall see how this pans out for 2018.
Ashly and I had a fantastic trip to Russia and then fished in both Finland and Sweden. Russian immigration gave some drama (it always does for me) when the car papers I produced (purchaser document) was not sufficient to cross the border. Fortunately Mika Lappalainen came to the rescue. I didn't know Mika then but I most certainly do now. A Finnish fishing guide who very kindly drove us to Murmansk and then picked us up the following week. He's a really good fishing guide as well as top bloke of course and I feel this the start of a wonderful friendship.
The fishing was harder this trip than my last one, but I had some hosting duties and so couldn't go as hard. But even although the fishing was great. Tim had a 9lb brown, I had a 4kg brown and a 7lb brown on a size 14 sedge that went ballistic. It seems that everyone on the trip was fishing a Hot Torpedo :) I'm hoping to get back again next year on a different week. It is a magical place and IMO one of the world's finest trout waters.
Finland is good too! And we fished with Mika for grayling afterwards. Some very beautiful waters and I will definitely return. After Finland we dashed off to fish with the Swedish Fly Casting Team including a couple of days with Stefan living in his aircraft hanger of a tent. It's been fantastic, but now we are zipping our way down to Helsinki to catch an evening ferry. Tonight we'll have arrived at our next destination... Estonia!
Just a reminder we have a very special pre-launch offer in the tackle shop on the new HT10 which is available for 650 GBP saving you 100 GBP. This rod we be ready for shipping early September. I know everyone claims to make the best rods and that obviously can't be true, so all I'll say about it is that it's our best rod!
Next week Ashly and I drive from Estonia to Hungary on the attached route. If you fancy a cast/fish or beer then please get in touch. It would be great to meet.
Have a wonderful week!
Cheers, Paul