| Monday: | Paul Arden |
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| Tuesday: | Graeme Christie |
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| Wednesday: | Tracy&James |
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| Thursday: | Martyn White |
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| Friday: | Mika Lappalainen |
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| Saturday: | Rickard Gustafsson |
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| Sunday: | David Siskind |
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Bee Tickling
Monday, 11 May 2026
I’ve mentioned it before; at this time of year in the jungle, bees find my socks irresistible. Although because I don’t wear socks nowadays – for the obvious reason – it is my bike shoes that are the next best thing. Bees adore them. They sneak in at first light, while I’m trying to sleep in the hammock, and try to fly off with my shoes.
Snakehead fly fishing with Paul
Tuesday, 12 May 2026
was the time of the year when I'd been very busy. Christmas time. My children are getting older and holidays as a family are changing. They had their own ideas and wanted to go with their own friends. I'd been doing a lot of casting practice with Paul, and he'd suggested that the snakehead fishing was excellent if I had an opportunity, the quicker I could get up there the better. Both Paul and I knew that my casting, while a lot better, still had some flaws, particularly around accuracy. I knew the fish were hard. But nothing like catching up with someone you respect and appreciate in a spectacular location like the Malaysian jungle.
Calling for Comp Casters
Wednesday, 13 May 2026
The start of the BFCC season is quite late this year, however the first event in Dodleston, Cheshire is on the horizon (on Sunday the 31st of May). I've started up my practice for the competition events, but I seem to be a little behind the curve regarding my trout distance at the moment. This is a bit frustrating as usually after an extended saltwater trip I'm casting pretty well, perhaps as you'd expect from casting almost every day for five weeks. I remember the first time I ever cast over 120ft in the #5 event at the BFCC – it was two days after Tracy and I got back from a trip to Christmas Island. Casting in the tropical winds really hones the double haul, and this is typically reflected on the casting court when it comes to distance events.
Luscious Lips
Thursday, 14 May 2026
This week’s fly, the Pop-lip, is a bit of a follow up on the siliclone from a few weeks ago. The main reason being I cleared out my bass box and realised I needed to replace a few.
Cursed day
Friday, 15 May 2026
We have moved to Bovec, Julian Alps, and we are fishing Soca river. We arrived on Monday under heavy rain. Tuesday morning was still grey and rain so we had nap after breakfast. When woke up it weather was starting to get better, no rain and little brighter weather, not sun, yet brighter.
We did shopping and fueled car and during that hour weather truly changed. Sun came behind clouds, or should I say clouds just disappeared. And we got hurry to go fishing.
Tuesday would "rehearsal" day as is totally new river and have to find spots etc. There was lot fishermen in area we planned to fish as rivers on lower part was unclear, you can't say muddy as there won't turn really muddy, water just isn't emerald green clear like crystal clear anymore. And level in down part had rose too much for fishing.
The sound of stepping on a plastic cup
Saturday, 16 May 2026
Today, Thursday, we had a small competition. We planned it right after the one we had in April. We ended up with the same participants as the last time, we had two more registered but their car broke down on the way to the competition. That was sad as it would have been nice to catch up with Seppo and Stefan. And a couple of more casters in the competition wouldn’t have hurt.
The weather hasn’t been on our side on the competition days. Today we had some wind in the start of the competition and later in the competition we had quite a strong wind. Always in a bad direction as the wind turned after every time we built or adjusted the course. And in the end of the competition we also got heavy rain.
Wool Gathering
Sunday, 10 May 2026
never made it back out to the beach this week. Hamstrung by appointments (I’ll spare you the organ recital) and a blown head gasket on the carro rojo, I was limited to dry practices. It’s probably just as well as I’ve had to prepare and pack for a five week trip east. My next stop is Sarasota where I’m gonna spend a few days fishing with my buddy Brian then to New York, Wyoming, New York, Florida then home.
I’ve been to the park every other day and things have been going well there. On Tuesday, I stumbled upon an unadvertised political stop of Tom Steyer’s gubernatorial campaign as he was being introduced by Jane Fonda. I couldn’t get over her fabulous thatch of grey hair. Amazing. I voted for Steyer the next day.