Daily Cast Archive


campfire cooking

t.z. - Friday, June 30, 2017

No fly tying today - it´s summer. Now it´s the time to actually use the flies. I am in the process of packing for a very long trip which will take me about 8 weeks around Norway and Sweden. I think. There is no plan really -- I will follow the weather and see what is going to happen. It´s an exploration. Sorting through all the stuff I recognised that I am particularly fond of my small cooking set. Basically a coffee pan and a frying pan. No need for more really when campfire cooking. The love for that started over a decade ago when I was so lucky to be on a fishing trip with Stefan Siikavaara. He taught me a lot and I am learning since. I like to eat fresh fish. Not much can beat it. I don´t buy fish or eat in restaurants. Just in summer when on a trip I take trout and grayling as diet.

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'Tiddlers galore'

Tracy&James - Thursday, June 29, 2017

Last week’s trip to the River Dee in North Wales was interesting. Tracy and I both caught a lot of fish, probably a 50/50 split of browns and grayling, but not one of them was over 6 inches in length. We fished/walked at least a couple of miles upstream from where we started and continued fishing on the return trip, stopping at every fishy looking riffle or pool. I think we caught from pretty much every stopping point but couldn’t get anything other than the tiddlers interested.

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Fly Fishing Glomma

Bernd Ziesche - Wednesday, June 28, 2017

At the moment we are hosting a fantastic fly fishing trip straight into Grayling heaven. We all know that catching a fish marks only a small percentage of fly fishing - even though the word fish is included in fly FISHing. Anyway here at the Glomma a lot of dreams come true in regrad of CATCHING a proper number of serious fish!

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Now the fun begins!

Gary Meyer - Tuesday, June 27, 2017

One of the difficulties a fly angler faces in South Florida is deciding which species to target. We really do have a smorgasbord of premium game fish that can be taken on fly, especially in the salt. Of course there are seasonal variations but summer presents the most delicious menu although it can be downright tough to choose which main course to enjoy. It really can be a tough decision since big tarpon remain in the area throughout the summer. But, also to be considered, the warm flats will invite permit and large schools of redfish for fantastic sight fishing, one more challenging but the other a potential fish fest. Bonefish are available too, early and late. Snook will gather in large schools in the inlets and river mouths to spawn. There is even an unusual fish called a Tripletail that also becomes more available. They offer a unique open water sight-fishing opportunity as they often lie on the surface, on their sides, almost like a confused floating flounder. Besides being strong fighters, prehistoric looking and quite willing to take a fly, they are also one of the most delectable fish locally available! Decisions, decisions…

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It's Gourami Time

Paul Arden - Monday, June 26, 2017

I caught my first Giant Gourami on fly some three years ago. Back then I experienced very random encounters and found the whole adventure to be very hit and miss. I also had a huge problem landing the fish, out of the first 10 hooked I landed one, the other 9 either snagging and smashing me or just smashing me. The change came about because I had bought some braid PE fibre for fishing for Snakehead, which ultimately I didn't use. However for Gourami it was the game-changer I was looking for. I don't know anyone else using PE for fly tippet incidentally, but you can get some excellent presentations with braid, and if you need strength and serious abrasion-resistant materiel (when exchanged for mono or copoly, diameter for diameter) then this is the stuff to use.

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Too hot for pike...

Daniela Misteli - Sunday, June 25, 2017

Puh now it's getting really hot here... we have over 32°. Being on the lake is like in a oven :) but we still tried to get some pikes, sadly only to bites and no fish. So we changed to some swimming and a quite nice sunburn all over. But in the river the trout start to react to big foam flies, so the hopper is back in business, what a fun.

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1000 days

t.z. - Friday, June 23, 2017

I met Konstanse for the first time in person on September 21. 2014 at 14:33. We have been together since. Last Saturday this was for 1000 days. We celebrated this in our own way. We went fishing. We took the float tubes out to the lake Konstanse had her belly boat flyfishing debut in June 2015. Like the first time, the mayflies were hatching. .... and sheep visited our little camp.

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Optimism of youth...

Tracy&James - Thursday, June 22, 2017

When Paul first asked me to write these FPs I had an idea about telling the story of how I got into fishing in the first place, however I never got round to it until now. It’s a tale of spectacular failure, involving a two year period of not even getting a bite, let alone catching a fish, but ultimately one of true success. Success in finding a vocation that I love now as much as I’ve ever done. In reality as soon as I gained some independence, i.e. was allowed out of the house on my own, I became an angler (although one who didn’t have any gear or any clue). Those were the days when kids used to walk themselves to junior school and play out in the evenings and at the weekend, so long as you were back in time for tea (dinner was served at lunchtime back then) all was good. My parents live in a seaside town in North Wales, so the coast is only a few hundred yards from their front door, and as soon as I got my first bike I used to pedal down to a place called Splash Point to watch people fishing there – I’d spend the whole tide spectating.

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Fantastic Fly Fishing Week

Bernd Ziesche - Wednesday, June 21, 2017

Right now we are fly fishing in Grayling heaven. Thanks a lot to those who have helped to shape this heaven! Hein van Aar (the river keeper of the Kvennan fly fishing zone) is the first person coming to my mind here!

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Head scratching

Gary Meyer - Tuesday, June 20, 2017

Now days I never tie on a fly before I reach the water I intend to fish. Not unlike, I expect, a trout angler watching for a hatch, I don’t choose the fly until I see what is going on. I will admit that if clues are not apparent I do have my “go to” flies, and those will come out of the box, with confidence, if I do not suspect a better pattern. Now having said that, have I ever fished a fly first simply because it was recently created at the vise and I wanted to see how it looked in the water or I thought it was the latest “answer”? Guilty! In a similar but broader sense, have I traveled to a location to fish simply based on the fact that I felt I wanted to fish that way, no matter if it was not appropriate for the season or conditions? Unfortunately, true again. In either of the cases above, were those poor decisions, those whims, something I regretted in retrospect, since they were essentially a waste of my precious spare time? Yes. Ah, but were these missteps worthless? No. I recognized, eventually, what they were and therefor I learned something about myself. So they had some value even if they did not add fish to the creel.

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INTERESTING TIMES

Paul Arden - Monday, June 19, 2017

Last week was interesting and I fished with Flavio in the far south of Temenggor Lake. We re just coming into my favourite time to fish the dam, with "free-rising" Snakehead and "Stumping" Gourami. There is Jungle Perch fishing too, but I have a lot of work to do on these fish. I had a free-rising Snakehead - "free-rising" means that the fish is not an adult nursing and defending babies, but instead an adult that is simply surfacing alone (or living in a small community). These are the hardest Snakehead to catch because they a) live in the stumps b) are not tired from the rigours of spawning and living on a reduced diet while parenting and c) there is no warning as to when and where they will surface - consequently these are the most rewarding Snakehead to fly fish for me. Also they have more beautiful and darker colouration. Stumping Gourami is Gourami feeding on the stumps that are in many places of the lake - they feed on algae growths and sometimes lift themselves out the water to take something - not sure what that something is yet - but possibly insects of some sort - directly off the stumps. Flavio lost a very nice Gourami that was feeding on termites after a rain storm.

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Father's Day 2017

Matt Klara - Sunday, June 18, 2017

Today is Father’s Day in the US and a number of other countries around the world. Is this another holiday manufactured by greeting card companies so they can sell more goods? Perhaps. But like most holidays, you may choose to celebrate as you see fit. For most dads, I’m sure a phone call or a dinner with the family is worth 100 times more than any gift or greeting card. To me it’s a nice time to reflect on relationships that mean something to me.

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Nets

Viking Lars - Saturday, June 17, 2017

I usually carry a net when fishing. I don't always use it - often I can (and that's by far the best) unhook the fish in the water, with minimal or no handling of the fish. Many people ofject to the use of a net, which is a great shame, because I firmly believe that unless you can easily unhook the fish in the water, a net is by far the most gentle way of landing a fish.

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t.z.´s friday - bellyboating

t.z. - Friday, June 16, 2017

I had a fantastic day on the lake. Somehow I want to come back to discussing the patience bit ... I think there is a certain amount involved, period ... read the logfile and enjoy the pictures. It´s not about the fish caught ... not for me anyway. The northern nights fascinate me most. Sitting by a small fire with a coffee pot on. The evening visits of bugs - E.Vulagata this time. They were hatching all day. It´s a humbling sight to see mayflies dance. Very poetic.

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Fly Fishing Bucket List

Bernd Ziesche - Wednesday, June 14, 2017

I have met a lot of young fly fishermen keeping a list in their mind where to go fly fishing and what fish to be caught at some point in the future. For many of us that list seemed to be more of a list of dreams instead of a serious schedule!

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A trout-fishing sampler

Gary Meyer - Tuesday, June 13, 2017

I thought I would take the easy way out and just post the first part of my journal about my recent trout fishing excursion into the mountains of North Carolina. Then my “editor” read it and said, “I thought you said you had a good time? It sure doesn’t sound like it after reading that!” Yeah, well there were some high points and some low ones, too. Maybe I can put it another way? A story, like a fly, is all about how you present it? Simply stated: I thought I was going on a fishing trip. It turns out I was going on a vacation trip that included some fishing. Those are two very different things to me.

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Things that go Bump in the Night

Paul Arden - Monday, June 12, 2017

As I wrote last week, I had to spend this week running a friend's bar here in the Malaysian Rainforest. The "Plan" was of course to fish mornings, play pool in the evenings (I mean run the bar) and to divide my sleep pattern into two. Of course this didn't happen and instead, having failed spectacularly to get up for three days in succession, I switched my intention to Night Fishing. However before I talk about this, let me quickly remind you Hot Torpedo owners that we're running a competition where the best HT story and photo/s wins a brand new custom Hot Torpedo rod and build of your choice. Every two months the best entry is picked to go towards the Grand Final. You still have a couple of weeks to get your entry in for this first "heat" - heat entries close 30th June.

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Summer is back...

Daniela Misteli - Sunday, June 11, 2017

Yeah finally, summer is back and there is enough light to get some hours fishing before and after working! A few hours on the lake and in the river was on the plan the last 2 weeks, no big fish but just an enjoyable time on/at the water.

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New fly in my box

Viking Lars - Saturday, June 10, 2017

Some years ago, Swedish salmon-legend Mikael Frödin came up with a new fly he calls "Samurai" (hear why in the YouTube video). It's a bit of a strange fly, and I must admit to thinking that this was just his excuse not to fish the most legendary of modern salmon flies, the Sunray Shadow.

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sexyloops fly tying focus - ethos

t.z. - Friday, June 9, 2017

Decisions are difficult, aren´t they? Well, specifically difficult should one not have an underlying ethos. Big word - ethos. But for me it is about ethos. It´s a concept on which one should base ones decisions. A bit of philosophical thing really. However, thinking about the underlying principles of your actions way before makes it much easier to decide on strategy. OK, big words in the context a fly fishing trip - or say adventure, but flyfishing is life and that in a nutshell. So sit down and think about why you want to go fishing and what the goals are. Once this is firm all the tactics chosen (dry, streamer, sinking lines - heck even the backup spin rod) - are very easily waged against the underlying “ethos” you came up with for yourself. One principles in my ethos is to actually catch fish. I have to remind myself of that every time I approach a water. You laugh now (I hope) but — how many times have you chosen a spot because it was easy to get to, easy to cast and that there were no fly eating bushes around you. How many times have you waded in without thinking about this underlying principle - catching fish? The next thing is - which fly do you tie on - the one you made last night and therefore wanted to try it out, or did you check the hatch first? Be honest to yourself - was it 10% of the times, 50% or maybe even 90% of the times you decided in that pattern before you made your first cast? I leave that to the board to be discussed further … In the meantime - tie some easy flies like the black / griffiths gnat - it pretty much always works.

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casting and driving

Tracy&James - Thursday, June 8, 2017

Last weekend Tracy and I visited two venues for upcoming casting competitions; Hatfield House in Hertfordshire where the BFCC will be running the casting competitions (alongside Peter Watson who is running the Spey side of things) and Port Haverigg in Cumbria where Lee Cummings is organising the world fly casting championships to be held next year. At Hatfield the BFCC intend to run a #7 weight trout distance event, a ST27 event and a 55g salmon overhead event – the latter two replicating world championship rules as far as we can (some allowances will have to be made for shared tackle). For the #7 and 55g we intend to have daily winners for juniors, women and men plus ‘championship’ qualifying for the same 3 categories in readiness for the finals on Sunday. We’re anticipating that the ‘known’ distance casters (you know who you are) will restrict themselves to entering the championships only, leaving the daily prizes for the less experienced entrants. For the ST27 we’ll just be running qualifying for the final.

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"ORGANISED IMPATIENCE"

Paul Arden - Tuesday, June 6, 2017

You have me again today because Gary is away trout fishing and I forgot to find a guest writer to fill in for him. If you have something interesting to write for a Sexyloops Front Page then please do get in touch with me - we'd all love to hear from you! When I was 16 years old my first real job was to work on a UK Stillwater "Put and Take" Trout fishery, as a Fishery Bailiff for Ardleigh Reservoir in Essex, UK. Ardleigh first opened its doors as a trout fishery in the 1970s and this is where I first learned to fly fish, catching my first trout on the fly as a young boy at the age of 10 or 11. It was a lake of 110 acres, meaning it was respectably large enough for fish to get "lost" only to reappear some months later; lean, fit and well-educated. It was an amazing place to grow up fly fishing - I'm sure there are better places of course, but for a young boy, particularly at that time, it was truly a great beginning, for this was also a huge growth time in Stillwater fly fishing tactics. Boobies, modern stillwater dry, bungs, even the "washing line" were all developed in the '80s and I know this very well because I was doing them all back in 1986 when I started my first job.

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The Dawn Patrol

Paul Arden - Monday, June 5, 2017

For those of you who know me rather well, it won't come as too much of a surprise to learn that I don't consider myself to be a morning person, and nobody else does either! It's not that I don't like mornings, so much as I just don't do them. I mean we all have to sleep at some point and it really doesn't matter when that is, so long as you get enough - if you don't get enough then you go mad and that could be a bummer. I've always loved night fishing, particularly for trout, which are predominately nocturnal during the summer months (as well as at all other times of year, which many people don't know yet) and this has always been great for me, because most people are sleeping when I'm sneaking around and fishing.

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Callibaetis and Chironomids - The Trap

Matt Klara - Sunday, June 4, 2017

By now you’d think I could not be fooled. You’d think that I'd know better after so many seasons fishing stillwaters. But I still fall into the trap nearly every time. And it happened again just the other day. My fishing partner and I arrived at the lake around mid-morning and found the surface glass calm, save for the boils, swirls, and gulps of more than a few rising trout. Nothing like the sight of that to motivate you to rig and launch the boat in record time! A quick survey of the scene revealed plenty of adult chironomids flying over the bushes, and chironomid shucks on the water. There were also a very heathy number of Callibaetis mayfly emergers and adults all over the surface, drifting helplessly like speckled sailboats.

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The Dane Axe

Viking Lars - Saturday, June 3, 2017

It's finally here - my Hot Torpedo 10-wt. I ordered it a while back, and then there were a couple of last minute orders and Paul asked if he could push mine back, and since pike was out of season anyway (I'm pretty sure it was all just a character strength test from Paul), it was no problem. But now it's here, and it was of course worth the wait. Perfect craftsmanship from rod building ninja Lee Martell and of course a fantastic and crisp blank from Paul. The new aluminium rod tubes are really beautiful too - and of course the camo rod sock is about as cool as they get.

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sexyloops fly tying focus - future at stake

t.z. - Friday, June 2, 2017

motivation … or the big “why”. Why do we fish flies? Why do we tie them ourselves? Why is this important? What fascinates me with fly-tying is see a bigger meaning behind the tiny imitations of insects. To successfully implement the art, one needs to understand what is going on in the water one fishes. Tying you own does impose that you also fish them yourself. For a trout fisher this means understanding basic entomology. Being able to read the difference between the different bugs is essential to a fishermans success rate. Basic bush skill if you so will. It´s something we need to perfect ourselves and give it on to the next generation. Kids love being by the water and turn rocks to find out bout the live of the “underworld”. Being by and with the water and nature does teach us so much. We immediately recognise a change in water quality because the hatch changes. I suppose there is not fly fishers and fly tiers which would argue against a pro-environment treaty. Saying no to such a co-oporation is just blind and stupid in a myriad of levels. Co-operation on an international scale is the future and this is why I love our sport. there seems no boundaries. Nationalities do not count for a flyfisher. We all sit in the same boat - literally. below the rerun of the entomology for kids article

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Buzzin'...

Tracy&James - Thursday, June 1, 2017

This weekend Tracy and I finally made it up to Farmoor reservoir in Oxfordshire, for the first time this year, we had a great day in perhaps not the best of conditions – largely sunny with a glassy flat calm. Farmoor 1 is unusual in the UK in that it is a large water authority supply reservoir that is wholly catch and release and, as such, the trout in it grow on well fuelled by a diet mainly consisting of chironomid pupa. At times the hatches of these buzzers can be so thick that you have to cover your mouth and nose to avoid sucking them in, as was the case as we headed back to the car on Sunday evening.

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