I had the good fortune to be able to visit Australia for the first time in 2015.
Now, I realize that spending a couple of weeks divided between three cities on opposite end of a continent doesn’t constitute a thorough exploration. It bugs me when people judge the whole of the USA by visiting only New York City, or only Wyoming. But, I feel like I saw and experienced enough to warrant the regular daydreams I have about going back. I can now say that I have legitimate friends there, and that alone is a reason to return. If it only it wasn’t so dang far away from Montana.
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Summer holiday is almost over - well, in fact, technically it is as it's now weekend and I'm not on holiday anymore. Three weeks of travelling with the family through Europe to the UK and back, a week of a little relaxing and a some practical work around the house (like trimming hedges - I struggle to find a task I dislike more), tying flies and fixing a few things and it's now back to work on Monday.
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The summer fishing season is in full swing up here in the "arctics". My fly box is full and the trips planned and prepared ....... not - never enough preparation really, but what the heck.
I hope you had fun the last fall, winter and spring. I hope you had a chance to fill your flyboxes.
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Last weekend the BFCC were invited by one of the club members to support a country fair in Devon, which is apparently the biggest single-day country fair in the UK. James and I ran a free to enter distance casting competition for anyone and everyone to have a go… except James as he was banned from entering as I didn’t think anyone would enter if his score was noted on the board!
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Fishing for carp is everything but not (yet) common in our world of fly fishing. Besides that it offers spectacular dry fly fishing, sight fishing with nymphs and even streamer fishing. Incredible (slow motioned) takes and strong fights are common when fly fishing for carp!
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It’s late on Monday and my FP is late, as seems to be my way these days. This one is most contained in the video you see here. It’s the 3-Point Grip, which I use for the majority (that means much, but not all) of my single-handed fly casting. In various forms, it dates back a ways, but it still gets confused with the Finger-on-Top Grip (a.k.a. Forefinger Grip) or even the V-Grip. It is neither. I like the 3-Point because it makes the rod feel like an extension of my arm and hand and not just something that I’m holding. Not for everybody, but many find that it offers tactile advantages once it gets settled in a bit. Enjoy (or not).
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Those of you who know me will know that I am not very well organised - with me that's more of philosophy than a religion. Organisation is the antithesis of spontaneity, originality and adventure - everything we strike or strive for in life. It's much better to be unstructured, for then life will gift you the bounty of chance, unique encounters that lead you on to a greater appreciation of yourself, a wonderment about universal chaos and of course you get to fish some really cool places.
And so it is, that next week, I will not be hanging around, wishing my time away, while waiting for a "flight to Moscow and then on to Murmansk" - oh no - I have something far more exciting lined up. Instead, Ashly and I are going to drive from England, via Sweden (and some other countries) to the Kola Peninsular... and then, after a week of AMAZING fly fishing (and casting training), we will drive from Murmansk to Estonia (via Finland) to the Flycasting World Championships, and finally, with medals in our pockets, around our necks and danging in the wind, onwards to Hungary for the rest of the season and the inspiring Sexyloops "Mermaid in every bottle" Wine Harvest.
But the first thing I have to do is buy a car. And I have to do this today.
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Water all around, strong wind, no current, damn cold, rain and only a small fly maybe 15 meters in front of me… To be honest I was completely lost when I went seatrout fishing the first time, it’s the opposite of what we have in Switzerland. But when I heard my husband was planning a fishing trip to Denmark I was really interested to join them. Luckily he and five of his fishing friends agreed to take me with them up north. It was my fist “real” fishing trip and in the beginning it was not easy, casting all day long and being the only women around 5 guys. But I stayed nearly quiet about my muscle pain, tried hard to catch one of these silver shiny fish and luckily the guys could cook really well! One small seatrout in 6 days was all I got, of course I went home quite frustrated but I was hooked!
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The last three weeks have seen no fishing, and in fact only a little flytying, so instead, I'll talk a little about the new Hot Torpedo 10-wt that I had a chance to test cast Monday and Tuesday at Paul's in Essex.
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Why do I love trout-fishing? I think it is because of where these creatures live. Wild trout tend to live in very beautiful places. I actually emigrated from Germany to Norway ... following the trout in a way. It´s stunningly beautiful here where I fish. I let the pictures speak for themselves. The shots are from this morning when we came back from fishing.
I am on my way further north. I am torn between joining Paul at the Varzina river and driving up to Finnmark. I think the latter will be the case. I have some time on my hand and a car which works. I think I should use that chance.
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On Monday Tracy and I went carp fishing to our local lake, we have a summer season ticket so can turn up as and when we please, so it’s great for a couple of hours after work (especially in the current weather). We fish dog-biscuit imitation flies so it’s certainly not fly-fishing in its purest form, but it’s fun. Carp like to play with their food before taking it, swirling at it, pushing it, hovering millimetres from it etc. As such, timing when to strike varies with one fish to the next and the hook-up to take ratio can be pretty poor. [Part of the fun is just how many takes, or signs of interest, you can get in just a few hours of fishing, so even with the poor hook-up ratio it is possible to catch lots of carp]. I also vary the type of strike I use depending on the distance I’m fishing at and how I’ve perceived the fish to have taken the fly. On Monday evening unfortunately I smashed my leader on a fish that I strip-struck. Obviously every fly-fisher hates doing this, so I thought I’d write about some contributory factors from a materials science perspective.
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Many fly fishermen have asked me, which fish species is my favorite one? The answer is quite simple: The one I am fly fishing for!
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Late, as usual, but more mo-cap with hauling. This time with a shoot. My haul peak speed is way up compared to last time, and the peak is reached earlier yet (about 0.1 second prior to RSP which is at frame 894 @200fps). Still a modest cast (no full-line business going on here). Food for thought on haul/shoot timings. Not sure how much the line “flags” affected this timing, but guessing they did to some degree.
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I've just finished a casting weekend with James and Tracy, Lee Martell and of course Ashly - the Malaysian Flycasting team. It was a great weekend for many reasons, not least the Competiton 2 prototype is exactly what I thought it would be, and more. I'm really enjoying distance casting at the moment, which is a good sign with the World's just around the corner!
And today, Viking Lars and family arrive for a few days of Viking Chaos. Really looking forward to catching up with Lars again.
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From time to time my daily schedule takes me along the river. I don’t necessarily get to pick what time of day I’m driving past, or what the weather will be like when I’m there, so fishing conditions aren’t always optimal. But I do always try to stop at a few turnouts along the way to see if there are any fish rising.
So it was just the other day. Mid afternoon, high and bright sun, little to no wind. An absolute glorious day in Montana. The morning hatch was long gone, the water’s surface glassy and still, and the fish clearly back down looking for drifting nymphs. First turnout – nothing. Second turnout – nothing. Third turnout – nothing. After about 5 minutes surveying the river at each spot, I was about to be on my merry way, but a subtle bulge and rings spreading on the surface well downstream caught my eye and stopped me in my tracks.
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Lars is expected to invade sometime around Monday evening and I'm looking forward very much to seeing him again. He's bringing his family and a camper trailer and sleeping in the garden. This may sound a little bit unusual but it's not. For example Lee Martell, the Sexyloops rod builder, also regularly sleeps in the garden, but Lee doesn't bring a camper trailer, instead he sleeps in the trees. Lee is over this weekend actually, as are James and Tracy.
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Süsswasser Fliegenfischen auf Forellen & Äschen im Norwegen
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Norwegen und Schweden werden immer beliebter als Reiseziel für Fliegenfischer aus dem südlicher gelegen Europa. Die Anreise ist in kurzer Zeit machbar und einmal in Schweden angekommen reist es ich deutliche entspannter als auf den überfüllten Strassen der Heimatländer wie z. B. Deutschland, Frankreich, Italien und Spanien.
Das Angeln, insbesondere das Fliegenfischen ist ähnlich entspannt. Fast überall gibt es befischbare Gewässer. Wer zudem gut zu Fuss ist une eine kleine Wanderung nicht scheut hat die Chance auf fast «unberührte» Natur zu stossen. Wer zudem das Fischen mit der «Trockenen» liebt kommt hier voll auf seine Kosten. 95% meiner Fischerei in Norwegen und Schweden ist auf Trockenfliegen und Schwimmschnur basiert.
Eine 8 bis 9ft rute in Klasse 4 bis 6 ist wohl die gängigste Wahl. Zielfisch in Norwegen sind vorwiegend Forelle (ørret) und Saibling (røye). Wobei es auch wirklich genügend Möglichkeit gibt auf grosse Äschen (harr) und auch Renken (sik) zu fischen. Eine Renke auf Trockenfliege klingt sicherlich exotisch für einen Angler aus der Alpenregion, ist «hier oben bei uns» aber gar nicht ungewöhnlich.
Neben Flüssen und Bächen sollte man die Seen, insbesondere die kleineren – nicht vernachlässigen. Es gibt fast an allen guten Gewässern Boote zu leihen. Auch hier ist die Fischerei mit der Trockenfliege ein gute Wahl.
Hier meine Fliegenboxen. Wie man sieht ist Rehhaar und natürliche und gedeckte Farben stark vertreten. Als Dubbing verwende ich entweder Seehund (lässt sich wunderbar färben) oder Hase
english .....
Flyfishing for Trout & Grayling in Norway – Norway as well as Sweden are increasingly popular destinations for Flyfishers coming from the more southern parts of Europe. Travelling is not to complicated and far, and once arrived in Sweden driving is much more relaxed than on the crowded roads of for example Germany, France, Italy or Spain.
Fishing, specially fishing with the fly is likewise relaxed. One finds good Walters pretty much everywhere. The ones not shy of walking a bit into the mountains will find solitude and seeemingly untouched nature. The dry fly lovers are very lucky here too. 95% of my fishing in Norway and Sweden is done with a dry fly and floating lines.
A 8 to 9ft rod for a 4 to 6wt line is the most Como choice. Target fish in Norwegian freshwater are trout( ørret) and arctic char (røye). Not to forget the chance to fish for big grayling (harr) and whitefish (sik). To catch whitefish in dry-fly sound pretty exotic for an angler used to fish in mainland Europe and the Alps, but is absolutely common in «up here».
Besides small creeks and larger rivers one should not forget the lakes. Pretty much all better ones hava boat to rent. And even here the fishing with dryly is very rewarding.
Here´s my fly-boxes. As you can see, I am pretty fond of deer hair and natural, not very bright colors. As dubbing I mostly choose seals fur (can be died in a ll sorts of colors) or hare´s fur.
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I was going to write about how I got into fishing today but I’ll save that for another time. Instead I decided I’d share some thoughts on the competitive casting scene in the UK given that we had a BFCC meeting last Saturday. Single handed fly-casting for distance is not a big sport, in fact if you consider fly-fishing as a niche (I don’t know the numbers) then casting is a tiny, dark recess within a niche. I once saw an article on the UK tiddly-winks championships, the impressive entry list and spectator numbers had me thinking that they’d be looking at our sport and thinking “that’s geeky”. I suspect on the whole fly-fishers are not that competitive, and those who are tend to find an outlet in fishing matches. [Tracy and I have our own personal matches such as the ‘first bonefish of the year comp’. This used to be the ‘first saltwater fish of the year comp’ however Tracy changed the rules after I tried to claim the prize of an Indian takeaway meal after catching a three inch yellow snapper before she’d had chance to unpack her rod. I haven’t won it since, but I digress…].
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A lot of fly fishermen have asked me about the fly line and the flies I am using when fly fishing for pike perch (Zander). During the past years I have tried a lot of different lines as well as a lot of different flies. Here comes my favorite set up now!
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Me, casting and hauling on mo-cap. The line had wind-resistant, reflective “flags” on it, so I may have reached my peak haul a bit early, but this is a good example of haul timing and speed (not launching the line, just hauling at about 45 feet total distance). Mostly for the geeks, but still cool to look at, I hope...
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It's been a casting weekend for Ashly and I, travelling to the BFCC meet in Cambridge, and then casting with James and Tracy on Sunday. Finally I got the opportunity to advance the British 5wt record that I set 10 years ago, from 130ft 9" to 134ft (and I can't remember how many inches!). So that's good and it says great things about the sport that we don't necessarily peak when we're 25 (or in that case 35!). I'm sure that the full results will be on the BFCC website quite soon...
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Hi there, my name is Daniela Misteli, I live in a small town in Siwtzerland and I’ts a pleasure and honour for me to write for the Sexyloops blog. Like most of "us" my Dad infected me with the "fishing-virus" when I was a small girl. Of course we fished mostly with bait in the beginning but when I was 12 he brought me to my first fly-fishing course. That was awesome, because I wasn’t and I’m still not a patient person. Of course I also started immediately with flytying - but the result was some ugly flies and a funny looking dog because I cut his hair.
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In Denmark, catch & release turns up as a subject every once in a while, and more often during summer and autumn than in the spring. The reason is that Danish salmon fishing is governed by a set of rules, where each river is assigned a certain number of salmon under and over 70cm to kill. Once these two quoatas have been reached, they're closed and any salmon within the sizerange of a given quato must be released. On a side note, it's a little discomforting to see how few fishermen there on the banks after the "large quota" has been closed. Obviously, the majority of the fishermen are still doing it to catch and kill a big one.
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Just a short update - I´m on my way to Northern Norway. I will be fishing Skålestrømmen and the surrounding area for at least 3 weeks. I am really looking forward to this summer. I really need this. Not enough fishing this year so far. Not at all --- it is never enough . If you happen to be around the area - give me a buzz and we hook up or make sure to drop by at the fly fishers meet on July 17.
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Paul has asked Tracy and myself (James) to take over the Thursday FP whilst Scott takes a break. I’d personally like to thank Scott for a very enjoyable set of posts and I look forward to reading some more when he’s less busy with work. Tracy and I haven’t decided how we will split the writing process yet, but I suspect we’ll just go with whoever is feeling inspired at the time.
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Fly fishing the Atlantic ocean in Norway offers a fantastic learning trip for beginners and experts. Beginners get used to set the hook, fight and land the fish, remove the hook and finally how to give a proper release. Experts get the oppurtunity to fly fish for a serious sized fish. This might be cod, pollack, sea trout, even Atlantic salmon as well as many others. In addition we all find a fantastic nature and a perfect midnight sun in order to fish all around the clock!
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Ashly and I are in the UK, based in Essex for the next two and a half weeks, grounded here passport-wise while we sort out our Russian VISAs for the Trout Kola trip to the Upper Varzina river. There are still one or two slots available, and just enough time to organise VISAs, so if you are interested in joining us, on a river that I believe is quite possibly the finest trout fishing in the world, where the browns are both wild and indigenous, with spectacular colourations, averaging 5.5lbs, then please do get in touch. Not only will you experience some of the world's finest trout fishing, but you'll also have the opportunity to improve your casting and fishing skills around camp over a glass of vodka, should you want. This trip is 2-9th August.
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It's been a fantastic week in Jersey, all apart from the weather! I spent most of my time fishing with the JFFA - Jersey Freshwater Fishing Association, who are a really fantastic and enthusiastic bunch of anglers, with two trout reservoirs (only one stocked this year), carp fishing and imaginary saltwater bass fishing.
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If you pay much attention to the fly fishing industry media, you’ve probably noticed a recent push in the last couple of years towards using 2 handed (aka Spey) rods for trout fishing. Certainly, much of this is fueled by rod companies desire to sell more rods and invent new niches in angling. Six weight two-handers were rare a few years ago, and now they are common on many summer steelhead rivers. Five, four, and even 3 weight two-handers are available. It’s a bonanza for the gear nerd and the tackle manufacturers alike.
But at the base of it all, I think the reason that trout Spey is catching on and will continue to stay around is that it’s simple an enjoyable and often very effective way to trout fish. The swung fly, either big or small, fished with or without imparted action, is a deadly angling method. And when you add the enjoyment and rhythm of Spey casting to the mix, you have a relaxing, and also stimulating way to fish. It’s fun, and really that is what fishing is all about.
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I have been a frequent user of float tubes for 20 years - and I still am! A few years ago I added a kayak to my fishing, and that too is a great way of getting around and accessing places rarely visited by anglers, and lately, I've added a pontoon boat to what is now a small armada, according to my better half.
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The conscious FlyFisher - So you caught a fish? What is next? What do you want to do with it? OK, I know - I am opening a can of worms here … but I wanted to share a few points of view on various matters. Water, fish, food .. you know all those things which matter to all of us.
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