Paul Arden | Tuesday, 23 December 2025
Is late! So I’m fifty-fucking-five now. I know that will surprise many of you who, quite understandably, think I’m very much younger. But I’m actually quite grown up and almost in my prime. Soon I will have some regal, statesman quality about me. I might even get to wear a crown or underpants. Of course a haircut is right out of the question.
I’ve been fifty-fucking-five for four days now and I can tell you, that I think by this point in life, no one can tell you what to do, think or how to behave. You don’t need to fit into the world anymore, but instead the word needs to adapt to you. So that’s exciting and I’m curious to see where this is all going to lead to this year. There will be more hair, of this there can be no doubt!
On my birthday I had a guest, Brandon Feller and his wife, visiting for two days, renting The Ronan. Unfortunately Brandon got ill and only managed one day of his trip. But I hope very much that he comes back and takes over an island for an extended stay or stays.
Every once in a while you meet people who you instantly just know are going to be great friends. And I had that feeling in spades.
There aren’t that many hardcore anglers in this world. So that’s probably a big part of it. If I was to quantify “hardcore” in this case, it means that fly fishing comes first. And everything else in life fits around this principle, whether that’s work, relationships, everything. This means being on the water 300+ days/year. In my case it’s 330 minimum, and pretty much for the last 35 years.
I live in a lot of different worlds and they all have incredible privileges. But full-time fly fishing is the one that personally defines who I truly am. And for the next *hopefully* 40-odd years of my life, that’s what will continue to define me. I’m almost certainly on the other side of halfway now, but maybe only just about halfway in terms of number of days fishing, which is a much better way of looking at it! Man, if I have as much fishing ahead of me as behind me, then this is going to be one hell of an awesome life.
Lots and lots of stuff happening on Sexyloops. Here I have fishing guests every other week right through the Wet Season and beyond. The fishing is really turning on right now and it looks like it’s shaping up to be the best Snakehead babies season in many years.
I hope to have the new Sexyloops website up and running sometime in January. Andy the Redneck is a master rod builder and will be building Sexyloops Tornadoes in Texas, stating sometime in January. I’m very excited about this and it’s something we have been discussing for years.
My wife gave me a 360 degree camera for my birthday. I have a lot of movies to make to get SexyloopsTV firing again. Really looking forward to see what sort of content I can generate with this new machine. I’m going to have to buy a new MacBook very soon, since the old one is creaking.
Zoom coaching really is flat out and I don’t think I can take on any more students at the moment, but if you are particularly keen then let me know what time zone you are in and we can discuss.
Have a brilliant day today and an awesome Christmas. And Chris Dore, and everyone else in New Zealand… Merry Fucking Christmas to you!!
Cheers, Paul