Paul Arden | Monday, 17 August 2026
It’s been an interesting week of fishing. Dramatically unsuccessful. There are snakehead babies around and some big fish with them. Most afternoon/evenings I’ve had 2-4 shots. Although none yesterday evening, surprisingly. And none on Saturday evening for that matter either.
My casting has been a bit wild. Not the precise shots I expect and I was starting to lose confidence, which is never a good thing. I thought it was me being a bit off the ball. And spent some time reworking my shot. I haven’t chased babies for some months now.
I was also exploring a different rod ringing configuration, that we have applied to our latest competition rods. Which works wonderfully well on those, and so I thought it would be good to explore on my HT8 snakehead shot rod too. Shots did seem longer when I first adjusted the ringing.
However I started to wonder if that it was this that was causing my shot issues. On Saturday evening I went back to the old format and immediately my shots were as they should be.
I don’t understand why this was the case, why a certain rings configuration should be better for distance casting, but somehow inhibits the fast shots. But there is no question about it that this was what it was.
We have to try everything, I know, but my goodness, this really makes no sense to me. It was affecting my haul, power application and shoot. My timing was off and my accuracy was wild. Totally bizarre.
So we won’t be fitting these to the HT8!!
I’ve been pricing up the international shipping costs for Andy the Redneck’s Tornado builds, since I’ve been getting requests. For now we will also include International shipping charges on these too, with the current prices. It’s not possible to find a better finished rod. Of course we still build in Spain too if you prefer.
You must check out Andy’s build quality in Hot Torpedo Owners Club. Just staggering. This week I plan to make a video on the HT/Tornado 8. This has been my goto rod for most of my time in Malaysia. And if you don’t fuck with the rings configuration, then it’s the best 8WT shot-taking flyrod out there bar none!
I’m still running my original Serial no 4 (a Trev build). It’s been my bonefish rod, caught my largest brown trout (11.5 lbs from the Kola Peninsula) and 90% of my Snakehead here, including all the ones over 6KG.
Last week I fitted solar panels to each of my two fishing boats. This is to keep the bilge pump batteries topped up when I’m away. But also helps keep the electric trolling motors running and with less battery swaps.
I always enjoy woodwork. I don’t have Stuntman Ronan’s extraordinary woodworking skills. His fly tying cabinet is simply beautiful. What an incredible craftsman he is.
This week I’ll switch back to the centre of the lake. I’ve spent enough time now fishing the eastern side. If you are interested in Mahseer fishing here on Sungai Tiang then let one know. The river should be excellent right now and I’ll spend more or all of your trip up the river with you.
I still have room for one more flycasting student on Zoom. Let me know!
Have a great week!
Cheers, Paul