Paul Arden | Tuesday, 24 June 2025
Nick sent me a video last week of his thoughts/review on the HT5. This rod was the most difficult rod for me to make in many ways. Certainly it took the longest amount of time, the greatest amount of effort and the most prototypes. With the HT6 being the Sexyloops flagship Holy Grail model and the HT4 being simply in a world of its own, the 5 had to be something really very special indeed!
And of great significance in my mind, was that in the US, the 9’ #5 is the top selling model. And since I have no intention of ever going through the process again, it really was important to me to make the absolute best 5WT I could, and not to finish the design process until I felt that we had accomplished this.
Nick seems very happy with his HT5 in his review and I love the fact that it makes him “want to go fishing!!” I think that is really as great an accolade as you can get/give.
The HT5 design was eventually finalised by using it for accuracy. I spent so much time and with the various different prototypes, fishing and casting, that I got to the point where I needed something to make me go “yes this is indeed the one!”. Ultimately that came from putting out the hoops and throwing at targets, casting in the way that I would fish and take shots. Finally, ten years after casting the very first Sexyloops 5WT prototype, I decided that the design process was complete and I now had the rod I wanted. There are times, when you put so much work into something, that it becomes very difficult to know when you have finally finished.
Distance wasn’t really my concern. Sure 100’ “effortless casts”; that’s part of being a 5WT but short to mid-range finesse is far more important. Rickard sent me a “most gentle” 100’ distance video with his HT5 a couple of weeks ago (which I’d asked for, because I want to show just how effortless 100’ casts can be for distance casters) and coincidentally, Nick also sent me a similar 100’ video last week, one that I hadn’t asked for! 100’ effortless 5WT casts I think would make for an interesting video for SexyloopsTV and I’ll make one of my own too. I can closed stance “flip flop” style to throw over 100’ with ease.
The reason I’d like to do this, is because I think that many anglers believe that distance casting requires extreme effort. If one watches the World Championships there sure is a lot of grunting going on! But what is fascinating and something that most observers wouldn’t realise, is just how far the same tackle goes when cast “effortlessly”. And I think that would be very useful to see. Effortless distance is, can or should be, long fishing distance.
Approximately 25 years ago, I set the British Fly Casting Club 5WT distance record, with a cast of just over 130’. I did this two years in succession, and then ten years later, I improved upon the distance again. Since then, King Bart improved upon the BFCC record, using the HT10 (which really is the Sexyloops go-to max 5WT distance rod). Bart is a superb caster and one of the world’s finest.
Last weekend, Nick set a new British record of 139’6”. The rod? The HT5. FFS Nick, if you are not going to respect my rods then I bloody well want them back :)))
Well done mate; that’s an awesome performance! Pretty damned good job on the Accuracy too!
I believe that Nick would make an outstanding Sexyloops coach and we are working out the details on how to go about doing this together. Watch this space, as they say!
I’m having a challenge at the moment, shooting some of the Casting Drill videos that I have planned. The high water level on the lake doesn’t appear to give me many options of suitable places to cast. Perhaps a good idea, when I do finally find a suitable location, is to do a month worth of videos in one take.
I do have some Snakehead videos to edit from earlier in the year, as well as a Zoom discussion on coaching and competition with my good friend Lee Cummings. This week I visited the East side of the lake. Next week I’m heading back down south again!! Hopefully I’ll find somewhere there where I can film some more flycasting drills. Maybe a perilous rocky outcrop. It’s crazy how high the water level is for this time of year.
I hope you’re all having a great week!
Cheers, Paul