I managed to work myself into a short stint of depression last week. Fortunately I managed to catch it before falling into the abyss. When I was at University in Aberdeen I had two major depression incidents. The first time I didn’t know what it was. The second time I understood, but it was actually worse! I look back on this time as being really very fortunate. If it wasn’t for this, then I wouldn’t have spent a life of fly fishing and travelling. Well *maybe* not — you never know! I could very well have ended up an engineer or architect, living with four walls and a roof, maybe with grown-up children and divorced by now!

Details >

Labour Weekend, as threatened. Hawke's Bay. I was there for my daughter's football tournament but I managed to sneak a couple of quick fish sessions with success. Last week I wrote about a blank afternoon on this river a year ago and the smelt flies I planned to bring back for it. The river looked different and it had more of a dry fly or dry dropper vibe, so the smelts only experienced about 10 minutes of action and then got consigned to the bottom of the bag.

Details >

We've had a very busy October and have now finished the casting year for the BFCC. The last event was in France where James, Mark, Chris and I attended the Argentat Fly Fishing show with the Fly Casting Lab team. James and I entered both the indoor and outdoor casting competitions and this year I actually did OK considering I was casting against an all male competition.

Details >

This week's fly is another multipurpose flats pattern that started out as a bonefish fly. The deadly Bonefish Scampi.

Details >

I don’t remember if it was a study or just an article that suggested that biceps curls was a very important exercise. Not for any physical reason but a psychological reason. The reasoning was something a long the lines of, if you add something rewarding or fun in an exercise program the client was more likely to actually follow the program. But it had to be in the end of the schedule and the “boring” things had to be done first. 

Details >

Big place, Argentina. Buenos Aires is also huge. Super livable and a charming place to hang. Clean, lots of cobblestones, coffee shops everywhere. The cops smoke cigarettes on the street on duty and the force seems to be almost half wonen. At least it looks that way. We dined at a couple of foody places that were great and a ‘sort of’ Vietnamese place with loud eclectic 90s music and where the chef really killed it. Yum. But I get better empanadas in LA and I don’t know how to order a steak. So overall the eating’s been spotty. 

Details >