I have a couple of videos/podcasts to edit. One is a long and interesting discussion with Andy the Redneck, the immaculate Sexyloops rod builder in Texas. And the other is with Nick on the flycasting drills for lesson 2 on the Sexyloops courses.

I’ve also been busy teaching this week, one of my long term students has his CI exam next weekend. So good luck! Rickard and I ran him through a preparation test yesterday.

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I was still down south in New Zealand.

Ronan said the fishing was on, even in the cold. The forecast's main problem was ice over the high passes after snow. Black ice, freezing conditions, dangerous driving. The other problem was that I was down with my family, and I wanted time with them too. I can't be all about fishing.

Off we set. The roads were okay and we took the pass carefully. Minus eight on the tops. The forecast said freezing fog, and we hoped that somewhere along the lake we'd drive out of it. We did. Brilliant blue sky, low wind, a classic cold South Island day.

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The Scottish Game Fair was a highlight for me as it was only the second time I had won an open competition against mainly male entrants. The first time was at the last Welsh Game Fair a couple of years ago, however there was no trophy and we went straight into a final with the winners of all the Game Fairs (the Scottish, the English and the Welsh) so there wasn't much time to post anything about winning. In that final I came third behind James and Steve. This year I won the Scottish cup so my name will be engraved on it alongside a long list of good casters. Not bad for a busy weekend where I only had one entry into each of the 3 events that make up the championship.

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One for the purists this week! The rattle clouser. It's an ugly fly that, much like the ugly duckling, undergoes an amazing transformation and looks amazing when it's hanging from the jaws of a fish.

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“Do you have an exciting FP, Rickard?”, that was the message I woke up to. At first my plan was to deny that I had forgotten and write something really fast in the hour and half I had before I was meeting Paul. Then I realised it is Friday so then I could relax. Not my problem today.

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Beams and Columns are in the news - The Pfizer building in midtown Manhattan  was purchased by an enormous consortium of financial and real estate players. A historically large project is in progress to convert the office building into residences. Everywhere, on every construction project in NY, air rights are key. They intend to build upward on the existing structure. There’s a shit-ton of money involved but apparently not enough to do a proper survey, analysis and design and the original columns are buckling. There should also have been an independent review of the design. I’m not sure how this stuff happens. I suspect that it’s due to an underfunded public sector. You can’t blame the city for the greed of developers nor for all the see-through office space - they don’t seem to be able to get enough people to return to offices and sky-high housing prices are driving these conversions in NY and LA. But developers are the kings in big cities and there’s not much they do right - witness the Great American State Fair and the Reflecting Pool reno. And those shitty condos in Florida. I’m amazed they don’t all fall down. And now Trump is going after the columns in front of the White House, now tarped but I bet soon to be unveiled festooned with golden cherubs and other kitchy slop. 

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