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So I'm back on the road again,
travelling. I genuinely haven't been travelling
for about a year. Sure, I've been 'abroad',
but nowhere new.
So why am I doing this now,
especially since the season is just starting in UK?
Basically why the hell am I not in
he UK? What about all those guys who want to learn
to cast?
Well I met a woman, so as ever,
this explains everything. And she has a 4-WD.
Now not being one to miss an opportunity, I have
decided to join her on her Aussi trip. I mean it's
not safe for a young attractive single girl to
travel through Australia on her
own. The outback can be dangerous place. There
are lots of strange guys around with dis-honorable
intentions. Believe me, I know. So I will protect
her. I feel it's my duty. I'm sure you'd do the same
if you met her on the beach!
So how the hell do I run a business
on the road? How come I answer all my emails within
24hrs, and usually within 12?
Well, interesting question.
Amazing stuff this modern technology. I have a
palmtop computer and mobile phone, and so long as
I can make a phone call I can send a email. Or
update my site. So if you have sent me an email
and not had a reply, assuming it's
not spam, then please resend it. I answer every
email.
There have been the odd server
problems. Some emails
are arriving two weeks after being send. Occasionally some are bounced. It's rare, and I'm looking into alternative ISP's, but if you think that you've been ignored then please email me again!
I'll be back in the UK on the 26th April at the latest. Here's a date for your diary; 6th and 7th May - The Chatsworth Angling Fair. I'll be there as I have a heavy involvement with the demonstrations. One half hour slot on each day
here I'll talk about
Sexyloops! As well as the knee-deep demonstration with Charles Jardine, where we get wet, and this year the friendly coarse vs fly competition where us fly-men get seriously outfished by coarse-guys. Hope to see you there.
After the Chatsworth I have a few casting commitments. But then I'm seriously considering travelling to Thailand, learning how to dive, and inventing underwater-flyfishing. In fact it seems such an obvious thing to do, I can't believe no-one's done
this yet. Watch this space.
Now I know that the majority of
my visitors (of which there are currently up to 400 per day) are not UK based. But most of the guys who buy from me are. So here is some start-of-season stillwater fishing advice, taken as ever from my book. You can
of course buy a copy of this book through this website. Just visit the book section, it costs £5 and is an absolute bargain. And if you spend more than £50 on any tackle purchase from this site, I'll even send you a copy free! And free is always a good
price. Just think, free post, free book, free advice, free 10% extra to subscribers, Agghh! It's absolutely insane, how can this guy afford
to live??!!
So, start of season advice...
April
The month of April is in many
angling circles believed to be one of the easiest
months. I have never found this to be the case.
Although the fish tend to be somewhat naive in
their feeding habits this is of little help since
they happen
to feed very little at this time of year.
This is due to the cold water temperatures and it
is not really until the end of the month (at least)
before things really start to heat up
(literally and metaphorically). When the fish do
happen to feed, it is
generally at a depth where we can't actually see
them, which doesn't help much either.
I think April has it's easy reputation due to the
fact that when the fish are in the mood they
are not particularly choosy about which fly you
have on, and also the fact
that persistance
during this month actually seems to pay off.
Easy or otherwise, the first thing we have to do is to find the fish. In order to do this it helps to understand a little of
the properties of lakes and the water in them.
Water is densest (heaviest) at 4ºC. Ice, as we
know, is formed at 0ºC. So, what
this all means is that in the winter when the water
temperature drops below 4ºC it starts to float on
the heavier water beneath so that when it freezes
solid at 0ºC, the heavier water underneath stays at
a nice 4ºC. This is why lakes rarely freeze all
the
way through and fish can swim happily underneath
the ice. Incidently this is one reason why some
people argue for the existence of god(s). But I
don't buy it.
Anyway, I am
getting diverted from the real issue, which in this
case, is that in the early part
of the season the water temperature near the
bottom of the lake is around 4ºC and the wind which
is usually somewhat warmer than the water, is
blowing onto the water, giving it some warmth and
blowing all that warm water downwind. And this is
where the
fish are. Usually.
The fish are warmer here (remember they are
cold-blooded things) and are more likely to be
active and possibly feeding to some extent.
Especially during the late morning through to early
evening. So all we have to do is go to the bank
which the wind is
blowing towards and fish into the wind. It helps
if the wind has been blowing in the same direction
for a good few days.
So there you go. Of course I do go into specific
tactics in my book, but you'll just have to buy a
copy if you want this advice!
I have some new stuff this month (finally).
There's heaps in the pipeline. Working on
sexyloops.com, Sexyloops Newsletter 3 (quick, quick,
subscribe today!), comprehensive flytying materials
section (yeah, yeah, he said this last month),
got some new stuff
for NZ section, a very interesting Noosa Bass
section, some secret stuff (!), and coming soon
The Almighty Links Section!!
Anyway what is actually new is Sexy Rod.
An article appearing this month in Fly Fishing
and Fly Tying magazine (yes, you can subscribe to
FFFT through this site!), hope you enjoy it!
Lastly, are you in the market for a 4WD?
Perhaps you're looking for one in Australia?
If so I know where you can get one! Available
in Sydney at the end of May. Fully equiped for bush
travel, with a cunning built in bed unit in the
back, Mitsubishi Pajero
Wagon a snip at only AUD $15,600. Let me know!
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