Daily Cast Archive

A bit of a mixed week for me. Some good fishing, some mediocre fishing and some bad news about my local lake.

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Tracy and I are currently at home in Wales trying to recover after a great weekend at the Game Fair in Ragley. We never sleep particularly well in a tent so ended up pretty exhausted after 4 nights of camping. Some of this is self inflicted; staying up chatting, casting and drinking to the early hours, whilst other interruptions; geese honking, generator noises, people and cars moving about and the fact it was getting light at 4:30 am are unavoidable. Hopefully after a few lie ins we'll catch up with the sleep we've missed before we head to Derbyshire for a fishing and casting weekend.

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I’m not entirely sure how I managed it, there wasn’t a load bang, but travelling down the lake last night, just before 1am, I managed to roll the boat. Possibly it’s the extra weight with the 4-stroke 25hp I’ve fitted that had something to do with it, but I have no idea what I hit. Whatever it was, I found myself in the middle of the lake, swimming in the dark, with the boat inverted!

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My wife’s family and I have gone on a family vacation to Florida every year for the last 15 years. It just so happens that I am on one of these vacations right now in Marco Island, FL. These trips have always had a strong fishing flavor to them, and I can say that we have had some great times exploring Florida’s coastal waters, making memories, and having a yearly family gathering that none of us will forget. A vast majority of the vacations took place in the same house along Florida’s forgotten coast, the “Bayou Belle.” I suppose houses of that magnitude on the beaches of Florida get a name. Although it was a big house, it was about as fancy as we are. Just the right amount space and just the right amount of rough around the edges for us to fit in there pretty well. In 2018 hurricane Michael put the Bayou Belle in a place of memory forever. The least that I can do in memoriam is to tell a fly story about the Belle.

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It’s Saturday, time to submit my FP and I haven't been fishing or practicing much this week. What to do. Jackie has been visiting from NY. She was kind enough to spend a few early hours with me at the beach Thursday, looking for corbina. I’m not sure why but there was almost nothing going on. Tide was right, Surf was right. Water was a little dirty. We saw one good sized fish racing, shoulders out, ahead of a retreating wave, but that was it.

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I’m back from the cabin in the woods and directly from there I went to volunteer at a Dog agility competition. Which reminded me of somethings I’ve noticed that dog training and fly casting have in common. We are coming down with a bit of a heatwave at the moment so I thought there would be no time for fishing or practice during a few days away. Well I was a bit wrong I could have squeezed a bit of both in so I missed having a rod around. I usually bring a rod when I go away even if the chances are slim that there will be any use of it, you never know. So that was something I don’t plan to do to myself again.

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Forecast has promised for few days rain and thunder. We have had now no rain for two weeks and temperatures has been day 28 celsius and night time 20-22 celsius. So it is really summer here now.

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The typhoon's wake certainly didn't let up in any way and made the rest of my week on the Island quite a struggle. There were however, a few windows of opportunity which meant it wasn't a complete wash out.

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Broadly speaking I see a Drill as a method of isolating a component of the casting stroke, enabling us to work on a particular variable movement pattern, an Exercise as working on the complete cast/presentation with purposeful varied outcomes and a Game as an Exercise with some sort of scoring system. They are all important.

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Gonna try something different today I’m going to try text to talk actually I’m going to try talk to text. This is because, I’m in a bit of a mad rush. And I am driving. Tomorrow I hope –or at least plan – to head down to KL in order to purchase 115 hp outboard for the battleship. This is because the 85 power two-stroke fucked itself.

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As I mentioned on a Front Page in the past, I am going to be competing with the USA Fly Casting Team for as long as they are willing to have me. I am loving the nerdy journey down into the bowels of lines, leaders, and equipment. In fact, the process of working through what I like and don’t like about certain casts, rods, lines, and leaders has really lit a new kind of fire in me. Also, I may be developing a stomach ulcer. I am only kidding with that remark, but to try to find exactly which setup helps to eliminate as many variables as possible, in whichever competitive fly casting game you are playing, is quite the endeavor.

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I continued my  never ending quest for enlightenment and went back to the beach on Wednesday. The tide was right and my long bathroom emergency was behind me (not a hemorrhoid joke - there was really a leak). I acted on  the plan I articulated last week “target anything that could possibly be a fish and will then learn better how to see all of them and only then how to feed them.” It turned out to be a pretty good plan, only abandoned in spots. I found that I see fewer fish as soon as I start to cast covering water. Looking and walking reveal more. Once my  line is in the water, I stop seeing and find myself fishing the fly and am oblivious to my surroundings. I was blessed by periodic good light (unusual for SoCal mornings on the beach) and started seeing corbina. Signs included, fish bombing out of the shallows in 2-6 inches of water as waves recede, feeding swirls, turning swirls, backs in a variety of postures, nervous water and color, and divots in the sand marking a sand crab eat. I got better as the morning progressed. BTW all of these signs are nicely documented in Al Quattroichi’s short book, the Corbina Diaries. He’s got some great photos as well as sound tactical advice. If you’re out here and want to try this I suggest you read it.

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To begin with, I’ve spotted the river monster I mentioned last time. It wasn’t the monster trout that I had hoped for. For a while I thought it could have been a splash cake sed by the river, but spending a lot of time by that stretch of the river never seeing it happen the dream of a big fish lived on. Until I spotted something swimming in the river. A beaver. And as I got closer the beaver got annoyed and again show its disapproval of me being there. It smack down hard in the water, twice, with its tail. Causing a huge splash of water and a loud smack. As a big fish jumping. Well at least now I don’t have to leave thinking that I missed my shot at a monster. 

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Things heated up fast here in north. A week ago water temperatures were 12-14 celsius and now they are 20-21 celsius. Waters warmed up much faster than I thought, probably because nights were also warm. We have had fully sun shine and air temperature 24-29 celsius in shadow.   I was sitting hottest days in tractor or making repairs on machines. Now first round is done and time to take a breathe. I was hoping for going Sweden for short trip during weekend and early next week. Then I realize that I have guiding on Tuesday. I was badly upset about my plans going trash. I got news yesterday from Sweden that rivers are closed from fishing because high water temperature so I will survive from this.

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I arrived on the island yesterday and have had a mixed bag over the last day and a half. It's been informative but difficult and unfortunately the weather looks like it's going to be shite from Friday onwards. So, much like what I got in March, but hotter.

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Bit of a quick one from me covering for James and Tracy today. In a bit of a mad rush heading up from kL, back down the lake to the Battleship, via picking up supplies. I have an early morning Zoom coaching session; hence the mad rush.

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Well it’s not very often I catch three fish in three casts. At least not here in Malaysia. I did once catch 8 fish in three casts at Ardleigh Reservoir but that’s a very different story! It’s not uncommon here of course to make the first shot count. That’s actually how it should be. But three times in a row, over the course of two evenings, I don’t think I’ve ever done before. In fact I’m quite sure I haven’t because I would almost certainly remember it.

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I had a bumpy start on my “casting” journey. I had been guiding and fly fishing for quite some time before I discovered that I wanted to become a casting instructor. My wife and I moved around quite a bit throughout our college years, and that made it difficult to get many consistent clients or grow a fly fishing business. I thought that if I went through the process of becoming an instructor and got certified, then there would be a badge of significance next to my name to prove that I know what I’m talking about when it comes to casting a fly rod or at that that I think I know what I’m talking about. Some people might even be convinced that even though I just moved to this area I can help them learn to catch fish here. It certainly helped that I enjoy learning just for the sake of it, and it is even better yet, that I could nerd out about something that would help me catch fish. It turns out that there are a bunch of people out there in the world that just go out and cast without the intention of catching fish. Weird…

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One thing led to another. Our downstairs neighbor’s bathroom ceiling fell into their commode on Saturday night. The possibility of mold led to panic. For reasons I won’t go into here, moving out for a mold mitigation and plumbing repair would be logistically onerous. I was on call for jury duty starting Monday and rescheduling options on the website portal were closed out the previous Friday evening. My landlord wanted me to be available to host an environmental contractor, so despite ideal tides and swell I had to postpone any plans to fish the playa. All this sorted itself out by Thursday afternoon so I hit the beach Friday and Saturday. I had shots. I saw corbina surfing the secondary waves into the beach but caught nothing. I ran into my new buddy John Deitch both days and chatted some more. Turns out we both know Paul Arden. What are the odds? I’m not sure how but they connected over John’s now-defunct YouTube project HookTV, 16 or 17 years ago. Small world. 

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When going on a fishing trip it is a good idea to practice the specific casting you’ll be doing on the trip. Preparing your fitness for the kind of challenges you’ll meet in your trip is also a good idea. If you are honest with yourself you’ll probably know if you are somewhat in a reasonable state. One thing is sure, you could probably always benefit to be a little bit stronger than you are at the moment. It’s like Mark Rippetoe says, stronger people are in general more useful and harder to kill. And that includes yourself.

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I had little bit different FP originally in my mind. Yet I need to do little bit more investigation before writing that one. Well that sounds fancy. After last Friday monsoon rain summer is finally catching us. Friday we had 70 mm rain and really chilly, + 5 celsius.   Sunday I had short morning guiding for some French guests. It came with short notice, yet it was nice few hours. Weather was starting to warm up and there was lot of hatching, but only few rising fish. They caught few fish so it was okay.

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I didn't fish this week. I was going to head to a river I've not fished for a few years thanks to some construction. But then I realised that I'm island bound on Tuesday so gave the time to casting practice and tackle arrangements.

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Running fly casting competitions at the Scottish Game Fair in Scone Palace, near Perth, is always great fun, but often with challenging weather conditions. We're frequently surprised how casters still want to compete when it's blowing hard and/or when it's raining heavily. There were occasions of caster's caps flying off into the water to be rescued by our team, however, thankfully, no-one fell in, though one well-known angler did slip promptly down one of the steep banks, luckily he was wearing waders so was unharmed (or appeared OK as he immediately started casting on the pontoon with the Jerome, Laurent and Francois of the Fly Casting Lab who had travelled from France to support the Game Fair).

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One of my favorite times of the year is when the brown trout run up and down the rivers out of the Great Lakes. I do not hide that fact too much. The main reason I get up at 3am, drive two hours, and make sure that I am the first guy standing on the run I want to fish multiple times a week during the fall is simple: there are world record browns around! Even though they are not always fired up about eating, when they are fired up, they will kill their meal, and when they are hooked, they fight like you stole their girl. I like to do all of my scouting alone. I cover a lot of water. I don’t fish every run that might be holding fish. I get up early and I stay out late. I don’t eat much. I don’t stay super hydrated like I should. I am chasing, and that’s the mentality you really need to have if you are going to pull off catching one of the biggest browns in the world during the day on a streamer. Most people are not willing to keep up with my pace during the run. So, I just go alone unless I’m guiding.

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“You’re looking for something. But what could that be? You look for a Gourami, Then don’t look at me…” Yes a song from Stiff Little Fingers to brighten up your day. But also a FP from The Ronan shifting down the lake. It’s been quite a weekend. A 4hr bike ride on Saturday that wiped me out, a 15 minute Snakehead Swim and a 21km evening run on Sunday. It was 34C and high humidity for the run. But with ice cleverly strapped to my forehead I survived. I think I’ll lift some weights tonight and have a recovery ride. But before that I’m going to go chasing Mr Gourami… the f**ker.

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Paul just posted his Launch Drill addressing a problem that I have struggled with for a while. That is the transition from a strong 170 backcast to the forward stroke. An assumption implicit in this exercise is that a forward cast is best initiated from a completely unrolled backcast. Paul teaches ringing the bell and a diminution of felt tension as good signals to start forward. It works for me.

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I’m not a fan of Paul’s launch drill. I find it hard, awkward and too honest. A mistake and you get punished directly. That’s why I have ignored it, and now I have to pay the price I haven’t done before. I need to spend time on the damn drill. But that could be good. All my casting is crap at the moment. So something to get me back on track. The only thing that I’m somewhat happy with is my roll cast and Speys. But they are good. Which is nice since I will soon be on a fishing trip where I guess I will use those casts more than my distance cast. Just don’t tell Minna. She thinks we are going on a vacation. Didn’t she notice that the cabin we are going to stay in is located next to a river?

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You might remember my FP mud racer, when Stefan and I went fishing. It gave me some extra heart beats and ended up a great day. I haven't been fishing much as spot which I would like to explore from Kuusinki river has some issues.   Issues are short term and profit will be long term. 3 weeks ago they opened old river Piilijoki and shutdown dam. Piilijoki has been dry about 70 years and has been cleaned etc.

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After last week's eventful morning of tubing, I'm happy to say that we had several stable days leading to lovely calm conditions on Monday. Chuck and I were both free so took advantage and took the tubes to a new location.

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Tracy and I are in Scotland this week ahead of this weekends Scottish game fair at Scone Palace in Perthshire. Tracy is working in the area whilst I'm just lazing around, going for walks and playing chess. I'd normally use the time Tracy is at work for Spey casting practice, however I've decided to give my hand a complete rest as things are not going well at all – pretty much all my fingers are numb.

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Today, all being well, I’ll upload a video of The Launch Drill. I filmed it yesterday but there was wind noise and the sticks affecting the forward cast shoot were not helpful. I’ll try again in the morning. If that fails I’ll simply upload what I have. It works for teaching, I think; it just could be better!! I’m looking for a Bluetooth or wireless microphone for these videos. It’s probably worthwhile buying something half decent. The Shokz headset I have is fine for Zoom coaching but the sound drops out when attached to the GoPro.

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