If you were to read the magazines, watch videos, and view reports on the net, you could get the impression that New Zealand fly fishing was confined to the South Island - or the 'Mainland' as South Islanders call it.

The good news is that much of the Lake Taupo area, on the Central North Island Plataeu is open over Winter, and it is the time Rainbow and brown trout head up the rivers and streams (all 47 of them that flow into Lake Taupo) to spawn. (Most of the rivers have closures on the upper reaches to facilitate undisturbed spawning from the end of June.) This draws big numbers of fly fishers, most of whom it must be said are there to catch fish to eat, and many who are fixated by chasing numbers.

For those who still are trying to get that flyline into the next zipcode, and are finding the competition lines at 120 feet too short, there's a new way of getting them longer (and no it's still not viagra we are talking about, or some sort of car pump thingy ;o))))) Dutch instructor Sepp Fuchs, has come up with a cool way of joining two flylines (it can involve fire and as such is just the right thing for manshit guys like the infamuos worldtravelling troutbum with bad socks), and the applications for flyfishers are abundant, I'll show a few of them, but let's start with the connection of two pieces of flyline.

We've all tried it, on the water, fishing and then we get the line caught in either a rock, barbed wire fence, fishing buddy's nippers or just tramp on it. Normally that would mean the end to a otherwise good flyline, but there's a way to give that flyline some new life.

The force of pulling a line or playing a fish bends a fly rod. Too much force, and it can break. Your casting arm is subject to the same forces that are seen by your rod, and physical injuries or soreness can occur.

Snowbee has teamed up with Britain's ace fly reel and tying vise maker Lawrence Waldron to produce what looks to me like a winner. I spent the first forty years or so of my fly tying career working with an ancient Thompson 'B', which never let me down and still works perfectly - it just became a little embarrassing with all the fancy vises on the market. I started to joke about it but reckoned people just though I was too cheap to buy a decent vise. Then I got interested in an upgrade. I tried out a few, was mostly disappointed by what you get for a couple hundred quid, and finally settled on a nice Renzetti 3000 - a great vise but with jaws primarily designed for small trout flies.

Thinking all I needed to make my life perfect was a new vise that would handle big saltwater hooks and trout sized flies, I've been keeping my eye peeled for a good one. I knew about Lawrence Waldon and his famous LAW vise, the ne plus ultra of fly tying tools, and have handled one a few times, but the price was a bit rich for me (although I was beginning to weaken). Well, along comes Snowbee with this little beauty.

Dear Sexyloopers!
It was quite a long time ago... on a dull day - fish were not very active - Paul, Reinhard from Germany and myself were flicking some casts into the mighty Waiau in Southland NZ. We tried several rods with different lines... what else is new, you might ask?! Well, I could convince Paul to have a cast with my splitcane - or was it rather his courtesy not to refuse my suggestion? Anyway, we had a good time, the girls were making coffee and besides the anticipation of dinner (pasta) we were penetrating into the depths of casting physics. In the evening after a few glasses of tasty Australian Cabernet Sauvignon, Paul said: Christian why don't you write a story about cane rods on Sexyloops? By the next day he might have regretted his venture - but now it's too late Paul!
Sexyloops goes Tweed!

This was difficult – really. Contrary to the fly-tying reputation Paul has established for himself, the Sexyloops fly tying section boasts some truly talented and innovative tyers.

Entries of particular note but in no particular order were:
Loopless
Mike Connor - Who tied his fly without a vice, but with the assistance of half a bottle of Whisky - He was disqualified for being too clever.
Cracked Tooth A beautiful fly from Mike, that came very close to winning - (we had to go to the line Judges for the call)
baldmountain
AndrewL

The winning entry was the 'FLY-2k' - deftly engineered by Southpaw. The accompanying description goes something like this:

"The Fly-2k has it all;
GPS
XM/MP3 PLAYER
DEPTH GUAGE
LED for night fishing
With this Fly-2k you will catch modem fish and get more bytes! (batteries not included)
DO NOT TIE THIS AT HOME (thats why i need the travel vice from VOSSELER!)

Recipe:
Broken am/fm radio wing
road kill hackel and body
Watch for the soon to be out; WIRELESS MOUSE
MAYFLY/MAYNOT
THE GIGGA BLUE GILL"

You can check out the Fly-2K here

Great stuff Southpaw - thanks! - Don't forget you have to send one to Ralf Vosseler.
Please fire us your address and we'll get that Vosseler Vise out to you.

Many thanks to Ralf Vosseler and his team for supporting us!

This month's Sexy Earth GSpot!

This river flows through the junction of N B and 2 Z's, down over the greatest of falls to the Indian ocean. A giant might guide you if you're after tigerfish, and it'd be best to have him for the hippos and crocs. Lat: -XX Long: +XX.

Send your guesses to eric@sexyloops.com
5 of the correct entries will be sent out official Sexyloops swag in the form of a possibly offensive sticker (not scratch and sniff)!

Last Month's Answer: Yellowstone Park in the US (+44.7°,-110.5°)
Congrats to the winners Bevan J. in NZ, Shanti A. in the US, Robert A. from... Yellowstone, Mark H. from I dunno where yet, and Gerdus L. from somewhere in Africa... I think. Thanks for all the entries!

In the Next Issue of Snapcast, the Sexyloops Ezine, Paul "the Ubercaster" Arden begins a new series: Fluff of the Month.
First up, The Royal Fuckup.
Paul will take you step by step through his very complicated tying proceedure of this deadly fly - you will be needing superglue - and lots of it. Remember not all of Paul's flies are fuckups, some of them go further.
Sexyloops - it's all about to happen...