Surfing

Surfing
In 1999 Cally and I travelled around the globe I carried a surfboard to Indonesia , South Africa, Australia, California and Fiji . It was during our time in Austaralia that I found saltwater fly fishing. The fishing overtook everything else and surfing and kitesurfing vanished. Lets be honest . Fly fishing doesn’t exactly burn off the calories and during this period my waistline increased. I had gone from slim surfer to fat fly fishermen over the course of 8 years . This winter it suddenly hit me . I moved to Cornwall for Surfing . I live less than a mile from the Uk’s most respected wave and I have been living like a old man. This summer I managed to address this. Most days I run along the beach or surf. This has provided essential balance and im packing 10 kilos less to date.

Bass fishing in the UK 2009
This has been a strange year . The bass fishing was great in May with blitzing bass everywhere on every visit. Then I spent two weeks striper fishing on Cape Cod in June. When I returned the weather had turned terrible the baitfish had vanished and the bass with them. My guided bass fishing bookings were down on the last couple of seasons. So the summer was somewhat of a non event. I did have the pleasure of sharing a few great days with clients during early September. I missed the best tides of the prime month due to the Tarpon fishing trip to Costa Rica in September and here we are now , its October and once again I will miss some great tides while we are in Los Roques Venezuela .

Saltwaterflyfisher is born

Globetrotting has been my passion all my life. The travel side of my business has been expanding all the time , while retail side contracted in 2009 . The URL Saltwaterflyfisher.com has been registered with us for several years and the concept has finally come to life . The new website should reach completion sometime soon. The ethos is simple and pretty much a case of back to roots. To provide a personalised service built upon on visitor experience. It’s easy to stock pile destinations to send your clients too, download a few images of fish, bedrooms and scenery . Assimilating a portfolio of destinations that you or your colleges have been to that you can offer ‘’hands on advise’’ about takes time. The concept goes further and runs deeper and there are other elements besides travel.

This Blog needs an enema !!

Its been almost a year since I last made an entry, thats shameful. Its been an eventful year with plenty of highs and a couple of lows. Its certainly been a year of change and reflection.
The business
After 4 years of obsessive hard work I came into the year on a high. Despite the recession business had never been busier. This coincided with the launch of the long overdue upgrade to the retail website along with the development of the new Logo. A total overhaul of our accountancy systems was also called for. The business had grown and we had no database or decent data management in place. When you run a tiny business from a bedroom then you can afford to be inefficient, as the business grows these weaknesses’s start to cause havoc. Add the birth of my daughter in January and I had my hands full , looking back , no wonder I was so stressed out!
Then it went thud ! Just when I thought I couldn’t take any more it went worryingly quiet! After re investing all of the profits from the last couple of years that came as an un welcome change. Five months later I feel I know what needs to be done. Its a case of going back to our roots . I have switched the investment back into new flies and fly tying products.