Current Writings:
Fly fishing the Guy Fawkes
You know your onto something really special when you look down to your reel and you see a spinner hanging on for dear life in the gusty wind. I was standing bankside of the Guy Fawkes River, the sun was out...

Read on here.

Power of the pipe
The power of the UNIX shell is one that any UNIX or UNIX variant operating system user should be taking full advantage off. One such function is called piping - in particular piping text from a source...

Read on here.

From roaring river to sparsely spaced ponds
My first encounter with the Turon River was before my passion for fly fishing began, I always remembered it as a fast flowing river, there was always the sound of rushing water as it travelled from its upper reaches towards its end at the Macquarie junction. Even twelve months ago, when the locals were saying that the river was dead and there were no fish in it, I managed to find a trout...

Read on here.

shintara UNIX articles:
Power of the p|pe here.
Setting up X on OpenBSD here.
Using the UNIX shell as a tool for the www here.
Changing your default shell here.
Dual boot Slackware Linux and Windows XP here.
Installing and configuring GRUB on FreeBSD here.

X on OpenBSD article
Many thanks to 'shameless anonymous coward' who sent me an email correcting the infamous X on OpenBSD article.

"The OpenBSD installer now asks if you want plan to run X. It seems that it sets up a basic template for you. As installed, I ran startx and was greeted by the friendly face of fwwm.
Also, you don't need to work with the config in both /etc and /usr. X looks in /etc first, and only goes to X11R6 directory if it can't find it."

I haven't installed OpenBSD for a couple of years now, but as I have noticed on other UNIX like operating systems XFree86 is no longer used, thus making configuration a whole lot easier for the X window system. If only X.Org was around when I used to use OpenBSD - configuration would have been so simple! The article has now been updated to reflect that it was written in February 2003 and doesn't apply to newer versions that use X.Org.

Honest reviews:
Sage TXL 1wt: A once saught after fly rod by myself has caught a fair amount of small stream fish, its very soft though quite nice to cast I class it to be a little too slow. Being a 3 piece its also a burden!

Pro Angler 1/2wt Master: My first venture into the world of twig style fly rods, nice and simple to cast, the action in my opinion is a little to fast for small streams. The huge bonus is the 7' length which helps you sneak in through thick overhead foliage and being 4 pieces make it a pleasure to carry in your backpack all day long!

Sage XP 4wt: This has to be one of the best fly rods I have ever laid my greasy little fingers on, its fast enough to tackle large streams and yet subtle enough to flick onto spring creeks without creating to much of a bow. Its a shame Sage dont make these anymore!

Sage TCR 6wt: My favourite fly rod of all time, casting into blustering southerlies or punching out a full length of line to a distant sipper this is the rod that can do it!

Scott X2s 7wt: I bought this as a replacement for the Sage SLT 7wt, very nice actioned rod, Scott rate it as fast but after using a TCR nothing seems fast anymore! The rod has enough power to punch out a full length of line, but enough subtlety to place a dry fly in close. My main gripe is after giving it a work out the ferule joints came lose in all four sections, keep an eye out on this.

Sage SLT 7wt: A great rod for the super relaxed caster, this rod taught me to slow down and wait for that back cast to straighten right out, as much as I wanted to keep it there was too much surplus rod stock!

Sage FLi 9wt: The rank outsider may be the best name for this rod, full of power yet great value for money. It handles big flies and strong salty winds, as much as I dislike salt water fishing this is the rod that gets me out on the coast.

Burke & Wills Redgum Swag: What can I say without being politically incorrect? Dont waste your money on one of these swags, I bought the top of the line Redgum double, over $600 worth of swag and it leaks water like a siv. I have sent the swag back, made feel stupid by the people at Burke & Wills, had it repaired and it still leaks - if you want a wet nights sleep buy one of these if not look elsewhere!

Cooper STT Tires: I am dubious as to whether I should give these tyres a great wrap or steer people clear! The STT is a tough tyre but it has some major fall backs, the tread is just not spaced widely enough therefore rocks and debris get caught within the tread and dont dislodge until coaxed, there are also some chips and tears on the sidewalls which worry me, the main culprit is one that happened with less than 5000km's done.

The fishings been good...
Got back from a fishing trip late yesterday afternoon, to say it was winter would not be a lie. Two days before Christmas and it was blowing a gale, raining and damn cold - I saw the weather report, it stooped as low as 5.5 degrees, and this is supposed to be summer?!

A mention of thanks to Blue Fly for the photos

Another new purchase for my fly fishing collection happened recently, a new Sage Z-Axis 9' 5wt arrived to its new home, but didnt last at the new home for long. Day two of having the rod I decided to head out into the car park at work and get some feel for the rod. After a short period of time a strange whistling noise that I was trying to block out got the better of me and the fact that my line had become extrodinarily rough was daunting. After inspecting the first (and only) stripping guide I made a ghastly discovery...

The material inside the stripping guide was all cracked and in some parts broken off, there was no sign of any physical damage to the outer part of the guide so it must have been a manufacturing defect. I had test cast a few rods before coming to the conclusion of the Z-Axis, but didnt notice this problem when I initially test cast this particular rod, I can only put this down to being out in a park on a windy day.

So my new rod that I have yet to use is back at the Australian distributor, and being a brand new rod I have requested a new one rather than a repair... will be interesting to see what I get back. In the mean time they have provided me with a loan rod, a 5wt Sage TCR. Certainly not a Z-Axis but I found the gesture of a loan rod to be extremely nice. In essence its most certainly an indication that Sage are good with their warranties and it pays to purchase from an authorised dealer!

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Comments:

Nice One.