Since I’ve been back I’ve had one full day and two half says fishing. In this time I’ve seen 9 sets of babies. Which is not bad actually and I’m sure I’ll find more when the wind blows out. My first shot overshot the fish by about 10 feet! Which was as alarming as it was surprising. The next two sets spooked while trying to position the boat. The dynamics of positioning with the thruster motor has definitely changed now that the boat is lighter. I don’t know why and can’t think of the reason but it’s actually harder to go backwards. Which is a bummer because that’s the direction I normally travel when setting up shots for myself. I have managed one eat but I failed to set the hook. My fault for sure. So I’m rusty!! Man, one month and I feel like I have to climb back up the ladder again. I’ll tighten up my game again this week and hopefully put some fish in the boat. I believe that the fishing might be very good at the moment – when I get my act together!
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In the vise today is another one of JBT's Tarpon teasers, The Green and Yellow Grizzly Fly.
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Tracy and I have recently started practicing distance casting in preparation for this year’s competitions. We’ve had a bit of a break from it lately, starting with our saltwater trip in October. Having acclimatised somewhat to 30 degree heat, the thought of standing in a muddy field in freezing conditions didn’t really fill either of us with much enthusiasm, however it’s now warmed up a bit and we’ve dug our thermals out from the back of the cupboard.
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As a coach I think there are three student levels of ability. Now it doesn’t have to be three; it’s a ladder and I’ve just put one rung in the middle. No doubt there are many more steps in-between. I’ve just painted this particular one bright yellow. There are also steps above the top rung – hmmm. Anyway this is really just a teaching aid that I use myself.
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We are locating last reindeers from wild and trying to get them home for winter, when spring is coming they can go back to their natural home. Satu's last female has been on my mind few weeks. We marked baby for her also but haven't seen couple after marking.
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My early smallmouth plans for the week were scuppered by more storms and an extreme cold snap with winds that would cut your face off. So I started work on a box of perch flies for myself incase I make it back to Scotland this year, I know a few lochs that used to turn up 40cm+ fish and I'd like to see if they still do.
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Bernd posted a question in the teaching section on the Board about the tools we like to use for teaching. Although I responded there, I am going to here as well. Many of you have already heard of or used these tools. I’m discussing which tools have helped me the most.
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Finally my feet are warm again. And I don’t feel stiff! I really noticed how stiff I was feeling in the cold European winter. Here in the tropics I’m nimble again, albeit 9KG heavier than when I left!! Which is rather a lot actually. No doubt I’ll be able to turn this into Ironman energy quite quickly I hope. 9KG in one month!! British Beer!! Lucky I didn’t stay for two months!!
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This week we'll return to our "deep dive" into the saltwater fly pattern archives of my old buddy, Dr. John Beryl Tebbetts.
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I had a fun night last night meeting some friends I used to play club rugby with as a lad. A couple of those guys I haven’t seen for over 30 years. We had an excellent team and I’m pretty sure that one year we went unbeaten. Interestingly we are all still pretty fit, albeit doing different sports now. As far as reunions go this was a great one. I was a bit of a head case back then but I think the same can be said for any back row position in general.
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Week has been flying. I got feedback that my written english is really bad, so bad that it is a style. Well, to be honest, my written Finnish is not much better. Sometimes I skip words in Finnish, my brains are faster than my fingers. I remember that I had problems in school with written Finnish. In wintertime I also have problems when speaking Finnish.
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We had some terrible weather here last week, that meant no fishing but brought some much needed rain to top up the rivers which were ridiculously low.
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Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about thinking and how believing a single thought can ruin your day, or believing negative thoughts over time can ruin an entire life.
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This time next week I’ll be back in Malaysia. The Rocket has a new floor. I arrive on Chinese New Year, not exactly perfect timing but this event changes dates every year and only Chinese astrologists actually know when it might or might not occur, and no one tells me until I’ve made other plans! No wonder the flights were cheap.
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As most of you are probably aware, Dave Whitlock passed away on November 24th. In honor of one of the sports most influential fly tyers, writers and artists, we'll take a break from our ongoing series fly patterns from the JBT archives, to pay tribute to this fine gentlemen.
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There is no doubt that fish of all species ‘wise up’ when subjected to significant angling pressure, I have a number of observations of this from my own experience. A good example is a lake that Tracy and I would fish when we lived in Hampshire, this was stocked only once per year and was strictly catch and release only. After stocking it’s fair to say that the fishing was relatively easy (given that no individual day was guaranteed to be good or bad). However, as the days and months rolled on the fish became more and more picky, requiring longer leaders, imitative patterns and a change of fishing time to early and late in order to be successful.
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Somehow I dropped down in rabbit’s hole last week with a group.
It is not really any new thing for me. People have lot of questions around reindeer when they visit us. This time there were some biologists who made different questions. We have only one rule at farm, it is that any question is okay, it is your responsibility to be able to handle answer, it will be honest one, always.
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I’ve always found it interesting how people think differently from one another. I don’t mean that they have different beliefs, but that the structure behind their thoughts appears to be quite different. Now there are obviously many reasons for this and giving them a good clump around the head isn’t always going to work.
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The Viking's recent post about shrimp imitations really struck a chord with me. Although I'm very confident that attractor patterns will work most of the time, I do think that imitation or suggestion at least is reasonably important in saltwater.
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No. This is not about second breakfast or elevensies. I was asking a friend about how to get the feel of “high and hot” on a longer pick up cast without a haul. His suggestion was to get an #8 shooting-head fly line, cut off the first 40’ and add heavy monofilament to the cut end to act as running line. Then try picking up with increasing amounts of overhang into the mono. He said that once you’ve got the feeling, you’ll never forget. Sounds like good advice, if nothing else to start playing around with lines. Problem is, I don’t want to cut up my #8 Big Nasty. So where do I find an old #8 shooting-head line? Fly shops have sale baskets full of old #3 and #4 lines or the odd #10. I’ll ask at my home shop if anyone has an old, beat-up one they wouldn’t mind parting with for $5-10 US. There are a few salties who take at least one trip to escape the long cold, grey winter. (I can only dream.) My friend then mentioned that some places sell “seconds.”
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It has been great to catch up with my friends here; Peter, Zsuzsi, Bonmany, Ivica and Snjeska, all my neighbours at Latohegy. Even if the casting was a little no on the chilly side. I don’t think it is possible to have warm feet in the winter.
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This week we'll take a look at another one of Dr. Tebbett's Tarpon Patterns, The Chartreuse Grizzly
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Happy New Year, and what a year 2023 is going to be for fly casting! I normally start reviewing the calendar for the BFCC during January and look at other casting events to deconflict. I’ve already identified several activities, the first of the year being an event run by our friends at the Fly Casting Lab Facebook page in late March which is closely followed by Lee’s UK Championships in Cumbria. Anyone who is keen to compete for the UK in the World Fly Casting Championship in Sweden in 2024 should come along and try out for one of the qualifying places as well as competing for the 6 individual world championship event titles and the overall trophy.
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If one buys the notion that imitations are in fact necessary in saltwater, shrimp imitations are very important. On a yearly basis I think shrimp are the main diet for sea trout. If one were to take a look in a sea tro9ut fly fishers box, or on websites, or - if one is old enough - books on the subject, shrimp definitely constitute the majority of the imitations. A lot of them are pink, chartreuse and other colours that makes the imitations aspect obsolete, but that a different story - they are effective flies none the less.
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New year started, same shit different wrapping. We all know that is how it will end up and yet we have to have hope. As fisherman we are always optimistic and I'm no different. There is always better day after this, especially what comes around fishing.
Little bit over year ago I got smart watch, Huawei GT3 or something like that. I had one earlier from different brand but this was kind of sponsorship thing. I thought that I would use it as previous one, to show who is calling and it will measure how many steps I take, etc. You know.
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Happy new year everyone! I hope you've made it out on the water or will very soon, I know I have.
I cut my 8wt floating line on a sharp rock last week. Pretty annoying but I always have a splicing kit in my bag just in case. This time though, it was getting near the end of my day and the line was getting old anyway so I just went home with the plan to pick up a replacement the following day.
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Last week I test drove the Scott Centric, Orvis H3D, Winston Alpha+, and Douglas Sky, using the MED #6 on all. The casts were PULDs, basic overhead extending line from 35 to 55 feet or so, 65-foot double haul, offside horizontal cast, and shooting line to 80-85’. I wasn’t on water but rather a mix of snow, ice and asphalt in the shop’s parking lot, and I’d forgotten my roll cast tool. As such, I didn’t test with roll casting much and when I did, it sucked. Not wanting to embarrass myself in front of the shop as though I’d wet myself, I refrained from that cast.
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I wish you all a wonderful year. I’m in Hungary for the next week. Having a lot of campfires!
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What better way to kick off the new year than with a PURPLE TARPON FLY!
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.jpg "A Fly On The Wall Part 10-The Grizzly With Purple Marabou")