Nick and I made a video last week of the fly casting drills commonly used in the first lesson for our Intermediate Level fly casters. What is an intermediate level flycaster? Basically where many casters who practise will get to their own over time without coaching and then plateau. Which is also where most of my students come in for lessons. They may have been fishing for 15 or 50 years and have a decent fishing cast but now want to be better.

These are really just separate drills without the coaching, for students to study after the lesson. We don’t include them all necessarily. And depending on the student, others may be appropriate. These are however very commonly given during the lesson. This first lesson involves accuracy casting to targets, as well as distance casting and finally an analysis of the Double Haul.

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Life is packed. Work, kids, and a World Cup on at all the wrong hours. Somewhere in there I got out and practised, which lately feels like the win in itself. Spey casting, and the snakehead shot. Fast fish, one movement, line picked up off the water and stuck out there before the moment's gone. You only just see them and then it's done. Takes a bit of working out.

Something that inspired the way I practise this week was a thread I was reading on the board. The point made, and it stuck with me, was that practising the cast without accuracy misses the point. Easy to drift into. You stand at the park throwing loops, they look nice, they go a fair way, and you feel like you've done something. But pretty loops that land nowhere in particular aren't fishing. So I put out the hoops and made myself score it. That's something Paul has been encouraging me to do, but it's not as much fun as sending a long cast - well, maybe that's about my attitude and it needs adjusting!

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I'm currently suffering from a very mild case of tennis elbow which I stupidly brought about during the weekend at the Harrogate Country Sports Show. It's not bad enough to give me much in the way of discomfort, however I know that it could progress to being troublesome if I kept up my normal routine of casting practice. As such, I haven't picked up a rod since the show packed up on the Sunday.

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You’ve had enough saltwater stuff for a while so it’s hedgehogs this week. Not sedgehogs, although I will mention them. These are real multifunction flies that I wouldn’t be without for still water.

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Imagine that "Mid-age", white fat man sitting naked on highest bench in sauna, temperature is 176 F, which is 80 celsius about.... and he is thinking that Nymphing is like masturbation. And more he thinks more convince he is right about this fact. Any argument you make for nymphing sits excatly for masturbation.

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So I’m going to Italy in end of August to do some casting. The number of people going this year from Sweden are fewer than last time. Reasons being costs and a whole week away. We have been lucky before to have good funding from the Swedish federation. But due to the declining number of nations represented at the World Championships we have lost funding.

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