Daily Cast Archive

Today we have an use a lot more high tech gear, which I love, use and like. Many of the features of modern tackle really are genuine improvements. Some of them tend to result in a limited lifespan compared to decades old tackle still in use.

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This week was little bit more quite with fishing. One day teaching casting and fishing techniques, one tvshoot and one about full day guiding. It is amazing how fast water levels can go down. Temps are okay now even level has go down. Colder nights and coolers days has been taking care of that. That is great news. Forecast is that we will have heavy rain on coming days so levels should go higher again. Let’s go on my itchy balls.

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I managed to get a couple of those largemouth bass down the park on dry flies yesterday after I finished my last practice session and I flew down to Okinawa this morning, eager to get on the water. I was pretty pleased as the plane landed, conditions were good and the airport front lagoon looked amazing.

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The world of Covid is making fishing difficult, however where I live in the state of Queensland Australia we are still allowed to travel within the State… so I booked a trip to Weipa in Far North Queensland with Ben (Notso) Bright… a never-give -p fisherman with exceptional intuition and eyes to spot fish This is a tale of two rods.

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I had my second Sinovac shot last weekend and so apparently am back to being invincible. Just a bit tired at the moment. Hopefully Malaysia can vaccinate itself out of the current mess! And finally, after losing fish and otherwise making some very poor shots, I’ve managed to land Snakehead again and so I am back in the running again. It was strange being in a fishing slump and I’m delighted to have put fish in the boat again… now open the floodgates! There are both free-risers as well as adults/babies active. I’ve missed the free-risers!!

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Earlier this evening I was looking through the interviews section on the Sexyloops site, and noticed that the interview with Dick Kantner was missing. I have since forwarded this piece over to Paul to be published for the sites readers consumption.

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The current weather here in Wales is great for sunbathing but not too good for fishing or casting. I went past the river in the week, on my return from a business meeting. The river was busy with people cooling off and generally enjoying themselves with all sorts of inflatables. Whether they should have been there is perhaps debateable, however I can’t really blame them given the near 30 degree C temperatures. I didn’t have the patience to wait until they left to fish though I suspect the fishing could have been quite good as darkness fell. I suspect for the remainder of the school holidays I’m going to head for the more out of the way beats just to make sure I don’t have to dodge kids riding blow-up white unicorns down the river.

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I’ve been in this sport/game/hobby/life style for long enough to have seen trends come and go - and sometimes returns. This is of course not particular to the subject of fly fishing. I have spent my professional career in archaeology, so a repeat of history is certainly not new to me.

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Temperatures were dropping fast during last weekend. This week those have been staying low. Night temps has been not more than +5 celsius and daytime hardly +15 celsius. Waters are now around 18 even less, there has been some cold showers every day so water temps are going down all the time.

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Rainy season is finally over and things are starting to happen here; I heard my first cicada of the year the other day and when I was down the lake side for some casting practice the water was high but had cleared up nicely.

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During the past 15 month our homewaters have become quite important for many of us anglers. Due to all the Covid based restrictions in travelling abroad as well as travelling inside one's country many of us only were allowed to fish their homewaters.

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It’s been a tough week for me on the lake, but really great to be throwing at fish again. We’ve had many many restrictions over the past 7 weeks with the Covid Delta Variant that is causing havoc with the country. Fortunately, while we are still under movement control and most businesses are still closed, in my particular district outdoor recreation that you do solo is allowed again. The problem is that I’m so far out of practise that I need to learn how to do it all again! I am making a video today which among other things shows the Snakehead Shot in slow motion. It’s interesting because there is a lot of “slide” to lengthen the flyleg before the front cast, and it shows that the rod can still be bent when the line is released at the beginning of the backcast. All very interesting stuff that will no doubt make for some stimulating discussions on the Board.

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The last Front Page in my look back on the Rodmaker interviews profiles Roger Seiders. Although Roger may not be a household name, his products sure are, as are his impact on the world of rod building.

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I have just wrapped up two weeks of guiding, a few days more to get hut in order and fish for myself a little bit. These were good sessions. The first group (3 brothers and a cousin) fished from Sunday evening until Thursday around lunchtime. They slept in-between of course :) – they clocked in a little above 300 trout. Smallest 350gr., biggest 1250 gr. Not that big, but for the first time fishing this water and none of them were very experienced, but good and dedicated anglers — and I found this quite good.

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I was on the lawn again Monday, working on getting my cast back to a better standard. I’m getting by just fine, but I was once a lot better and I want to get better again. The last sessions have been focusing on precision. My precision casting has always been quite good and I’m happy with where I am now. I’m certainly not at competition level, nor am I aiming for that right now, just “fishing-good”. I do need to work on the long distance precision, though. And I want to practice “shoot-and-hit-target” too, but that’s for later.

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Last weekend there was some thunder and heavy rain, waters were cooling down for two days. Now heat is again on and I do miss cooler weather and rain. Water temp is again +22 celsius and since it is mid July water levels are starting to go down. No reason to fish grayling or trout. Thursday I had to make new plan how to do guiding and teach basics about fly fishing.

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In amongst the more familiar patterns I've been tying, I posted a few non-standard flats flies online this week. Much as I expected, the reactions were mixed.

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It was an interesting page last week from Bernd on teaching via video vs in-person and I agree with Bernd on his points. Comparing those two side by side, in-person is undoubtedly best. Firstly you can see everything that’s going on, but also you can just make a series of quick adjustments in a very short time. However teaching via video conferencing is a different thing again. While you have the restrictions on what you can easily see, you can ask your student to move around and cast from different positions. For me I think this is a much better comparison because then we are comparing a one-hour lesson in-person vs a one-hour lesson performed remotely.

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It is my guess that few, if any of the folks who frequent the Sexyloops site are familiar with the name Gene Bullard. Although Gene's famed company, Bullard International went out of business in the late 1980s. his influence on the craft of rod building can still be felt today.

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Last weekend was dominated by competition fly casting for Tracy and myself, firstly with the BFCC event in Somerset and then, on our return to North Wales, Bernt’s virtual tournament. The weather for the BFCC event was extremely variable, a complete nightmare for someone wanting to make long casts in all the events. The fact I cast the #5 trout distance almost as far as I cast the ST27 says a lot, actually Tracy managed to win the ST27 event – the second time she’s had 1st position in a distance competition at the BFCC (she’s won the accuracy a few times though – and she should have won this again but for messing up the last round).

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I believe Lars is on a Viking raid today so it’s a quick one from me. We have some very interesting discussions over on the Board at the moment, particularly around the biomechanics of throwing.

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Second week of July, heat is still on. Air temperature has been around +30 celsius on daytime, about +22 celsius on night. Since there has been not really rain, everything is extra dry. It was good weather to make hay, which makes me happy. We will have good quality hay and it is dry, so it wont froze during the winter.

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Just a short one from me this week, I didn't do any fishing or much of interest. Rainy season has finally got going here and it's a good one. We had 140mm overnight on Friday and about 150 on Saturday after a week of constant rain. No way The rivers were going to be fishable even though the weather was lovely on Monday. It would have been perfect spotting weather if the river hadn't been running like chocolate milk. So I decided to spend an extra couple of hours practising.

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I think yet few instructors have done both. I did both many times and like to share a few thoughts.

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The Malaysian State where I am based moved out of hard lockdown yesterday, although there are still many restrictions in place. I had my first vaccine shot on Saturday, so I do feel that things are moving forward. This means a return to fishing and hopefully we can finish the final episodes of the TV series later this month. I don’t expect many guests this year, probably no International guests at all is my guess! However I am pretty busy at the moment giving fly casting lessons on Zoom. I will continue this until International holiday travel is allowed into Malaysia again. So at least for a few more months and probably until the end of the year. It’s been fun, for a while a bit of a lifeline and I’ve seen some fantastic progress in my students. Well done!!

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Most folks know Dale as more of a rod builder than a blank designer. Although Dale did have his hand in blank design and product development, Dale deserves the most credit for popularizing the craft of rod building as we know it.

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Just a very quick FP from me today; James and I have just had a long drive down to Somerset for tomorrow’s BFCC casting day.

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When one of the big companies release a new rod series, one of the common marketing points is “the lightest rod we ever made…”. Usually this will be marketed as the result of new resins, new graphites (and lately graphene) and maybe more. To be fair, the weight-issue does seem to be have been down played somewhat lately.

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Last weekend it was midsummer. Past week has been reindeer marking, guiding daytime and making hay. When hay and reindeer marking depends about weather, and it has been good for that so everything has at the same time. Some long days and nights.

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As I get ready for my trip at the end of July I've been thinking about paddleboards and walking. I decided not to get a SUP until after the trip (if I get one at all) as I will be alone on the water and probably need some time practising and getting things set up for a smooth fishing experience. I'll be walking the flats, which I like, but walking isn't as straightforward as you might think.

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