Norway is a country with a deep and fascinating fly fishing tradition and hundreds and hundreds of “indigenous” flies. Dries, wets, salmon flies and sea trout flies. Although Norway is known mostly for the majestic salmon rivers, there are rivers with runs of sea trout and earlier many more rivers had very prolific runs of sea trout, and big ones too. It was common to fish salmon during the day and then target sea trout for an hour of so in the dusk.
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I am still fly fishing in Thailand, mainly chasing Barramundi.
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Organising casting events can be fun as you generally deal with people who are also keen in encouraging others to improve their casting or perhaps learn how to fly cast and start fishing. However organising them can also be frustrating.
For the last few years the BFCC have supported the Game Fair in running fly casting competitions as an attraction to encourage people to attend the show. We started small by running just a couple of events, then as the years progressed, we ran a few more with some aimed at everyone to enter and others at the competitive casters.
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I've recently been watching a wildlife documentary called Night on Earth about the nocturnal goings on in the animal kingdom, and I've been enjoying it a lot. The quality of the low light footage is amazing, maybe soon there will be a consumer level camera that can pick up the lumo lines at night!
As entertaining as it has been, the coral reef episode was what really grabbed me. They were shining a black-light over the corals to show how they flouresce, which also showed how many reef species are also fluorescent. Mantis shrimp, crabs, gobies and lizard fish all displayed fluorescent pigment, all prey species for loads of flats targets.
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There was a question recently on the board about casting techniques when fly fishing for permit. It took me back to when I was borderline obsessed with chasing those… um… spectacular game fish!
Occasionally, I will get a student in my beginner’s class who will come right out and say they want to learn to flyfish so they can catch a permit on fly. I usually nod as if I understand. I do not inform them that I personally think they should set their sights a bit lower at first, but hey, everyone should have a goal. Why should I rain on their parade, even if catching a permit on fly was the toughest challenge I ever undertook with a fly rod in my hand?
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A good question came up on the Board about casting planes principally for saltwater fly fishing and taking shots. I suppose like many people I heard that with heavy flies one should use the Belgian or Oval Cast for such conditions. It was actually while fishing for Barra with Graeme Williams of Insight Flyfishing, in Darwin, that I discovered the problems with this approach.
For this style of fishing we were taking tight shots deep into mangroves, through “slots” of vegetation that demanded that the fly travel directly over a vertical loop - mostly. The problem with the Belgian Cast (horizontal backcast/ vertical forward cast) is that it’s very difficult to finish the backcast with the fly perfectly alighted to the forward cast.
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Earlier last year, I wrote several pieces detailing some thoughts I have about the similar nature of the sport of Golf, and the craft of Fly Fishing. It was in one of those essays that ran on Feb 10th, 2019 entitled "Slow Motion" that I introduced all of you to a man named Jim Waldron. Jim is an incredible Swing Coach, who has developed a program that in my opinion uncovers the truths of a proper golf swing. And, although this week's Front Page is not about the swing, it is about a concept I was introduced to by Jim that sheds some light on why I believe so many of us have become obsessed with fishing.
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Fly fishing for sea trout in the salt is without doubt the most popular form of fly fishing in Denmark. It’s far from the oldest - as anywhere, fly fishing was for decades exclusively associated with trout and grayling in rivers and streams. The first reports of fly fishing in the salt in Denmark is from the 1920ies, where a few people were exploring the southern parts of Sjælland with a fly rod. Even a decade later, in the 1930ies, any fishing from the beaches with any type of rod was a rarity.
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Summer feels so far far away in this point. Last week I was snowmobile guiding in Russia and when coming back on Wednesday…. it was 00.30 when I finished snow removal. Thursday evening same routine and again on Friday morning. It is just snowing all the time, I’m hoping some cold season. During last weekend our friends from France visited us and we went ice fishing on Sunday.
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It’s come up a few times in the last week, this connection, so I thought I would talk about what I do. Firstly for trout fishing I rarely use loops at the end of the fly line and instead cut them off. I find they get stuck in the rings, it’s a bulky connection and I don’t like to put a loop knot in the butt section of the leader. Even a Perfection loop, which is what I would normally use here is a bulky knot compared to what I do use which for trout fishing is a needle knot of 3-turns. A three turn needle knot is strong enough for trout fishing situations, certainly stronger than the tippet knot and the needle hole itself can usually be used multiple times.
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Right now I am fly fishing Thailand searching some new species of fish. Some of those I yet never fished for.
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I’m busy organising my world into plastic boxes in preparation for living in the Battleship starting next month. The following weekend there is a fly fishing festival in another part of Malaysia, which I will be attending.
When I wrote the Essential Level Challenge I did so, not only with the idea of creating an interesting test, but more for the purpose of organising fly casting practise. It also nicely gives me - and anyone else who wants it - a syllabus for teaching fly casting. It dawned on me at the time that it would also make for an excellent presentation. And so at the Terengganu FF Festival I shall be teaching this as my demo. There is actually a Snakehead Shot in there as and a Gourami “fly first” shot too.
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I’ve just spent the last five days teaching a complete fly fishing beginner here in the jungle. Obviously this is always going to be a tough place to learn to fly fish! In fact I doubt that there is anywhere harder. But we had plenty of time to learn fly casting, cover tackle, leaders, knots and even tie a fly!
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Figure out the rhythm of life, and live in harmony with it.
---Lao Tzu
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It's February and it's time for me to get back into the groove. A back injury kept me from fishing and casting most of last year, and I really need to get my casting back together again and it's a process I look forward to (and something I've done before). My goal is certainly not getting into competition shape, but getting a propoer cast back togehter, both with the single hander and the double hander. I started slowly last fall, but my back wasn't too happy about the torsion when looking at my back cast (yes, I often look at my back cast). But finally it's mobile enough to get going.
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Some of you might remember that I decided to limit myself to fishing only traditional bucktail streamers for smallmouth bass last season. Well that season is definitely over and I'm getting ready for the 2020 smallmouth fishing to kick off soon, without the limitations of last year.
It should be obvious that this wasn't about finding out if the old streamers still work. Of course they do! Although I hear myself and others say it often enough that I have to wonder who we're trying to convince. I actually caught more smallmouth bass last season than I ever have, probably because I spent more time on them than I ever have before rather than some X factor inherent in the bucktails.
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Health has been in the headlines a lot lately with the latest coronavirus getting significant coverage. I always find the alarmist media response to such occurrences interesting, more about selling newspapers and making people watch digital marketing than actually passing on any real facts. For example, rarely will they tell you the normal death rate from pneumonia to which the latest coronavirus adds a small number of percentage points – they’d rather stir up panic by concentrating on the 5% of cases caused by a ‘foreign’ virus than the 95% from the home-grown ones (up to 30,000 people die in the UK from pneumonia every year – depending on source). It’s no wonder the public response is so weird at times. Tracy recently returned from the hairdressers and told me about a conversation between other customers that she couldn’t help but overhear; one was explaining to the other that they should avoid Chinese food and restaurants just in case they’re served up the coronavirus on a plate, FFS! I also find the wearing of face masks intriguing, there is no clinical evidence that these significantly reduce the incidence of infection, if there is any benefit from them at all (and it’s not certain there is), it’s because it stops the wearer touching their own mouth and nose as much.
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I am still digesting the feast that was the Fly Show in Atlanta. Yes, I know in a way they are lame and not a real substitute for fishing trips or casting comps, but it was such a pleasure to just hang out with a bunch of similarly afflicted individuals.
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This is a question that’s come up at least four times in the past fortnight and so I thought that I should write an FP that I can send a link to for when I’m asked next, because it’s actually a very good question! Of course there are some examinations where 6 is the maximum permissible - certainly that was the case with the EFFA Maters when I took that all those years ago. I can’t remember what AAPGAI is (I took that with a 5WT line - edit: Lee tells me maximum is a 7 line).
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The Search Part III---Survival
Only recently have we come up with the technology to turn lazing into a way of life. We've taken our sinewy, durable, hunter-gatherer bodies, and plunked them into an artificial world of leisure.
---Christopher McDougall
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Looking forward to the 2020-season, I was goiing over my outdoor gear. I decided to go through all of it - sleeping gear, cooking gear, tents, hammock and other paraphernelia associated with a few nights (or more) in the outdoors.
The reason was that last year I noticed that the fly for our trusty old Mountain HardWear 3-person tent was coming apart in the seams. More precisely, the seam tape was dissolving, which is a shame because the tent is otherwise in good condition. I emailed the good people at MH and got some advice (this is *not* a warranty issue - the tent is over 15 years old). I need to remove the deteriorated seam tape and go over the areas with seam seal (haven’t gotten to that part yet).
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Middle of winter, days are getting longer. I have been thinking about a lot next August. Returning to Varzina trout camp with great company. We were there 2018 first time. Water level was really low on that year so, I expect that river will be totally different on coming trip. Still I have a map on my head about rocks and spots.
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With the start of the casting season fast approaching I’ve been having a few conversations lately with competitors and potential competitors. Whilst some of these interactions are about the calendar, which Tracy and the other committee members are working on (some dates are set, some aren’t yet), the majority are tackle discussions. The subject that raises by far the most questions is lines, and specifically line weights.
I know that this subject has been covered here and on the board dozens of times but it still causes issues, especially in competition casting where there’s a distinct advantage to throwing a heavier line. Things would be easy if line manufacturers stuck to the AFFTA specification, but we all know that many do not.
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Teaching Distance Fly Casting, catching a Basque Grand Slam (Pike, Perch and Zander in one day), midnight fishing for mullet in Bilbao, lecturing about Fly casting, great food and a hell of a fine company with good friends! The last days couldn't have been any better!
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I am just back from the Atalanta fly fishing show and in need of a good night’s sleep, so this might not take long.
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As I think most of you will be aware the way to become a good or even excellent fly caster is to practise. Yes of course lessons can be very useful too, and not just for beginners but for all casting levels. I’ve made a small career out of teaching advanced level flycasting. Talking of which, this is certainly something you should consider ie joining me here in Malaysia for a week on the Battleship, where as well as teaching you how to catch both Giant Snakehead and Giant Gourami, I will take your casting skills up a few levels. Many who join me here do so as much for this reason as they do the fishing.
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Last week I made a vain attempt to make a case for my position that there is indeed a reason that we fish. It is, in fact, my belief that there is not just one, but multiple reasons that drive us to engage in the craft of angling. I'd like to explore as many of these as possible over the next several weeks because I think it's a worthwhile pursuit for a multitude of reasons, the primary of which is that it's just really damned interesting.
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It’s funny the older and possibly wiser I get the less importance I attribute to flies. The late Peter Mackenzie-Philps summed up flyfishing entomology with the words, “if it’s small and brown fish something that’s small and brown!” Movement, size, silhouette, shape and sometimes colour - yes these can all be important sometimes. But mostly just “small and brown” is fine.
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