Well, am I a showboat, and if so, then is it reasonable for me to be one or not? I have been told that a good instructor doesn’t throw pointy loops, tight accuracy loops, or distance casts around students. The reasoning behind this idea stems from the thought that when students see loops or casts that are difficult to do, they will be intimidated, feel bad about their progress, and be more likely to quit practicing. This isn’t an outlandish idea. People with certain personalities in certain circumstances react in a myriad of ways to the same stimuli. Something very similar to this can be found in the people that call me, “the saltwater guy.” Trout fly casting instructors in certain parts of the world feel threatened by people that can throw distance. So, they write me off as the distance caster, and their egos feel safe once again. I hope they never suffer the psychological trauma of seeing me cast in other ways.

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The last three rod shipments sent to the US from Spain all had a 550-650 USD tariff applied. A couple of replacement sections and a blank went through with the same courier and without tariffs. I don’t think ~$600 is reasonable and makes even less sense because these were on $200 value packages. These were shipped with UPS. We will try next shipping via FedEx because a 300% tariff is complete nonsense.

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Our case finally turned up from the airport towards the latter end of last week; how they'd managed to 'lose' a 6 foot tube with 'Bazuka' written on the side of it, which had been especially checked in as oversize luggage, is beyond me. What made the situation worse was that the EasyJet logistics rep absolutely guaranteed that the case hadn't been loaded in Jersey as he'd spoken to the baggage handlers and they'd have remembered such a distinctive load coming on the aircraft. This turned out to be a complete lie, he hadn't checked at all – he probably popped outside for a few puffs of his vape and then came back in and made it all up. Many thanks to Laura (not that she'll be reading this – but maybe someone who knows her will be) who went to Jersey airport to try and find the rods. After being given the run around for a bit she eventually found out that the case was on the plane and must be in Liverpool somewhere, unfortunately at this time Tracy and I were back in Wales.

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Last Friday I was fishing and teaching my nephews. It was an absolutely great day, despite weather. Well weather was kind of okay too, sun, +20 celsius... but wind....Winds are getting much powerful than normal. Blows were really strong and dropped lots of leafs from trees already.
 
Normally when first leaf goes on water graylings shut their mouth for few days. On Friday not sure if it was because leafs or my desperate dry or die with wind, as all bigger graylings were missing. We caught some okay graylings and even smaller trout, yet no big graylings.

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Do you know about Paul’s stupid bell? You probably do and if you don’t you should know and will know soon at least. I know about the bell. I know a lot of things that Paul talks about. The problem is that I’m stupid and forget about all the smart things Paul tells me. I’m trying to better, I’ve started to write down all the smart things I “discover” during practice. Well I have been writing them down but random or structured notes on the computer doesn’t seem as effective as writing them down with pen and paper.

By “discover” I mean that it can be things I’ve found out earlier, by myself or being told by Paul. I can spend a whole training session in frustration only to rediscover something that I should’ve known. Can be both frustrating and quite entertaining. Very entertaining when Paul tells me how many times I have discovered something.

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We’re on the second leg of my big bye-bye, visiting my son and daughter-in-law in Vienna. We took a train to Salzburg to look around and found to our surprise and delight that it’s a big week here, the celebration of St. Rupert - the Salzburger Rupertikirtag. Rupert, who lived in the seventh century, was the founder and patron saint of Salzburg in both the Catholic and Orthodox traditions, and was known, among other things, for establishing the salt mining industry here (hence the name Salzburg). He’s often depicted carrying a bucket of salt. Last evening the crowds were huge. There’s kind of an Octoberfest vibe. Lots of beer and trad wear, Dirndl and lederhosen - the general term is tracht. Lots and lots of tracht. It seemed like half the women wore dirndl. And they were young. It seems like everyone has some. When do they buy these clothes? How often are they worn? There’s no real equivalent in the US that I can think of. I suppose there’s trad-wear within various ethnic communities but these are fragmented and smaller groups - not a national uniform. Rupert’s celebration will last all week. People were having fun and as of 9:30 last night, it looked like good family fun beer- drinking not withstanding. 

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