woowoowoo – photos, fly fishing, food, maps & cycling

Apexel 100mm Ultra Macro Lens for Smartphones

I can’t help myself with cool looking gadgets, and this lens certainly seemed to pack the goods. I mean, just look at that hunk of glass!

Unfortunately, as so often happens, the reality of online shopping isn’t always up to expectations.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s good. The lens is as good as it looks – that glass delivers a clean, sharp image across the sensor – no fall off or distortion in the corners. The mount is pretty solid, delivery was prompt, and the price is excellent. So, what’s the problem?

I expected more magnification.

There’s only one real ‘comparison’ image on their website, and it depicts a fly – one shot with the straight phone lens, and the other with the HB100 Ultra Macro. Based on this comparison, you’d be hoping for the 4x magnification depicted… you’d be disappointed.

I suspect the reason they’ve used a 16 Pro Max for this comparison is so that they can also leverage the optical zoom on that phone. So, what you see here is not comparing apples with apples, it’s a bit of smoke and mirrors to stretch the truth.

To give you a more realistic view of what to expect… here are some results from my iPhone 13 Mini (yes, I’m still using that!). First a photo with the standard lens, no zoom. You can see why I’m looking at a clip on macro!

Next, with the Apexel 100mm Ultra Macro Lens in place, but no zoom. Almost exactly 2x magnification. The clarity is great – I just haven’t enhanced the shot at all, and it’s not the full size file, so it does look a little dull – that’s not the fault of the lens.

The 13 Mini has no optical zoom – only digital, so this next shot is about 2x digital zoom and 2x macro for a 400% enlargement. Still looks great, but it’s still well short of what was ‘promised’ on the website, and if I go further, the digital zoom will start to be apparent.

I’m not unhappy – this level of magnification is pretty good for my needs, and the clarity is better than I’d expected, so it still represents good value – especially if you have a phone with a good optical zoom. They just didn’t need to fib to sell it – if they’d just provided an honest comparison, it would have been fine.

Artificial stupidity

PSA… though I’d hope my friends and family would already know this… DON’T TRUST AI!

Exhibit A: A simple google search for the interval between dates (April 15, 2022, and December 31, 2025) yielded this convincing answer via Google’s Gemini AI. I was looking for a date to see if a product was still covered by warranty, so the years calculation was particularly relevant.

To be fair, Gemini did calculate the number of days correctly: 1356 (not including the end date), however that’s as far as you can trust it. It’s 3.7 years, not 2.38; 44.5 months, not 38.7, and almost 194 weeks, not 124. These are not hard facts to verify, yet Google’s much vaunted AI seems incapable of the most basic maths. Hells bells, even the second result is a few days out – what is happening to the world‽

Seems the old days of “google it” to get an answer are gone. You might get an approximation, or an opinion, but if you want real answers you need to dig a bit deeper!

In this case, my digging was confirmed by a simple spreadsheet, and backed up by the ever reliable Time and Date.

Staff only

So, the Flyfisher reckon they’ve tested wading staffs – even claiming they tasted the best wading staffs! – sorry, they got it wrong. As someone who’s used these for years, I’m going to offer a few pointers.

Firstly, yes, wading staffs are life changing if you spend a lot of time on our rivers. Slippery rocks, steep banks, strong currents, and fallen logs, are all made easier with that extra bit of stability. They’re also great for pushing long grass aside when you don’t quite know what might be hidden there, and for holding those evil blackberry branches back while you squeeze through a gap, and for knocking a fly out of a pesky overhanging branch!

So, the Flyfisher tested a few of the name (and I’d argue, overpriced) brands, but there are other options. Top of the list, I’d out the Speedline Wading Staff from Rod & Fly. Note that the price is currently around one fifth of those on the Flyfisher review. Yes, it’s arguably not of the same quality, but I got 5 years out of my first one, and am two years into my second. They’re good value, sturdy, and very comfortable. Hurley’s have them too, but you’ll see that the Stalker name somehow doubles the price!

I recently competed in the High Country Flyathlon, and knew I’d need a staff, but also knew that my Speedline wasn’t quite right for the job. A little too heavy, and too long for a running pole, so I set about finding the ‘perfect’ running/hiking/wading staff, and am pleased to report that I reckon we have a winner.

I settled on the Komperdell FXLite hiking pole, and here’s why I reckon it’s close to perfect.

Light. Very light!
Strong. The joins are well reinforced and the pole has relatively little taper, so it’s strong all the way down.
Smooth. No clips, or toggles on the lower parts to catch your line.
Easy to use. Spring loaded, so it pops open quite easily – all the wading staffs have this ability, but the Komperdell goes one better… each of the spring loaded ferrules has a push button lock. This actually adds a small step, but it’s worth it. All the other staffs rely on the spring tension to hold it all together, trouble is, one day that spring tension will fail. You’ll almost certainly be five k up a rocky river, and suddenly your staff is like a stick of wet spaghetti. You don’t want that.
Quality. This is one of Europe’s leading brands of pole. You don’t get tougher testing grounds than that.
Support. They have a good warranty, and loads of support, as well as relatively cheap replacement spares – tips etc. are easy to buy and replace.
2 for 1. Yes, for the same price as your name fishing brands, you get two staffs. Get out on the water with one, and stick the other in the cupboard for later – or share the purchase with a pal.

The lock button on the Komperdell hiking pole.

The only downside from a fisherman’s point of view is the lack of a holster, but they’re not complex. You may have an old one, or you can go full lightweight and look up ‘running pole quiver‘. You’ll also need to add a tether, so you don’t lose it midstream. Get one with magnets like a landing net, so that you can clip it up close to your waist rather than letting it drag.

That’s it! I’m sure the three reviewed by Flyfisher are very good, but I just had to point out, there are some attractive alternatives.

The working box

After a nasty incident involving salt water and rust, I started using what I call a ‘working box’ of flies when I’m fishing. So, when I change flies, they don’t go back into the main box wet (or salty!).

Over a session, I might use the same fly several times as conditions change, so I find it a handy way of of organising things. At the end of the day, it’s nice to review what you did, and the decisions you made along the way.

From Top/left: Damsel nymph, Humungous, Olive Woolly Bugger, Tabanas, F-Fly. Middle row: Unweighted Brown Nymph, Caddis Nymph, Pheasant Tail Nymph, Caddis Nymph. Right Row: Throbbing Knob, Stickie 2.0, Stickie 2.0.

Fly saver

If you fish in small streams (or even larger ones!), you’ll have hung a fly up on a backcast, or a missed strike. Sometimes, it’s just inconvenient, and the fly is within reach, but more often than not, all you can do is hopefully tug… shaking the branch with your 6x tippet, until something gives way; usually the tippet!

This little tool – simple and cheap to make, and super lightweight – can sit quietly in your bag/vest until needed (quite often, if you cast like I do!)

So, what is it? Basically a really light grappling hook. You put it on the tip of your rod, place the hook over a strategic branch, remove your rod (nice and safe!), and haul on the string until the fly is within reach. I rescue at least one or two flies per session on small streams – saves me so much frustration.

You’ll need: a 20cm length of standard garden poly pipe irrigation hose; a length of strong cord (I used brickie’s string); a large fish hook (point and barb removed); a small chunk of compressible foam (not pictured, but I used a bit of super cheap EVA mat).

Cut the ends of the hose on an angle, and cut two slots near the end on one side to thread the cord/hook through.

Cut the point of the hook right off with a pair of wire cutters, and file it flat so there’s no sharp edges.

Tie the string to the hook securely.

Thread the hook through the slots, so it sits out from the hose like a tiny gaff. This is a bit tricky, but you’ll get there!

Finally, stuff a little chunk of foam in the end near the hook – this is to stop your rod tip going all the way through.

And there you have it… a tool I’ve been using for at least five seasons now, and it’s saved me so many flies. I hope it finds a place in your vest!

On the nose

Used to love a nice bit of Tasmanian salmon. There was a time when it seemed a pretty solid, and sustainable choice. I also knew how to cook it, and it was bloody delicious.

Salmon by David Pursehouse https://www.flickr.com/photos/mdid/3261992969/

And then, the problems started to surface. Pollutants in Macquarie Harbour, reports of fish in poor condition, question marks over the feed used. I stopped buying it around the same time as the ABC Four Corners episode Big Fish – not because of it, but it just confirmed my feelings.

Do I miss it? Absolutely! Every now and then I see someone eating it and remember just how great it was to cook with. Unfortunately, the controversy still rages, there have been fish kills, and a lack of agreement about the way back. Even goodfish.org says no.

Could its demise have been avoided? Maybe – we’ll never really know, but you could tell when its price was so low compared to other fish, that corners were being cut. And the popularity meant that supplying such a market would become unsustainable.

Staying dry this summer

Flyfishers eagerly anticipate the warmer weather, when the fish are ‘looking up’, in search of insects on the water surface. We carefully apply floatant to our flies, and do our best to dry them in between ‘drownings’ in the mouth of a fish, or the swirl of a turbulent stream. Eventually, despite our best efforts, dry flies transition to anything but dry, and have to be retired.

Not sure why, but a little while back, I had a bit of an idea about this. In the bottom of our laundry cupboard are a few different treatments we apply to gloves, jackets etc. to keep them dry. They’re pretty good stuff. What would happen, I mused, if I treated my flies with this stuff before I even hit the water?

Here, for your amusement, is what I did, and how I tested it.

I mixed up a fairly strong solution of the waterproofing liquid (about a teaspoon to a cup of water), and soaked the flies for 10 minutes.

I dried them on paper towel in the sun, but these solutions recommend using a tumble dryer to ‘heat cure’ the treatment, so I put them in a 50° oven for 10 minutes. I just felt like that was a fair equivalent.

After drying, it was time to do a test. I’d kept an untreated one out as a control, and I put the two flies in a dish of water, and waited!

Actually, I waited quite a while. They were both bobbing around like corks for at least an hour! Eventually, though, it was clear the untreated one was slowly losing the battle. It wasn’t obvious from above the water, but from the side I could see that its whole body was under, with only the tip of the wing keeping it afloat.

The treated fly, on the other hand, still had most of its hackle above the surface, with the body only just sitting through the surface.

Even more telling was a close look at the flies themselves. After a shake – like you’d do to try giving a fly a quick dry out – the floss body of the treated fly was several shades lighter than the other, and looked dry, while the untreated fly looked waterlogged.

So, there you have it. Not very scientific, but I felt it was conclusive enough that I went on to treat everything in my box that I wanted to float. I’m hoping this summer I’ll spend more time fishing dry flies than I will applying treatments and trying to get them to stay afloat!

An adventurous day for my iPhone

For a change of scenery, today I had a run at Woodlands Historic Park. While exploring an alternate path, I stepped over a fence, and somehow my QuadLock belt clip let go, and I dropped my phone. Didn’t realise until I’d driven back home to Brunswick. So began a stressful day. 10:50am.

As soon as I saw this, I realised what had happened. I’d climbed through a fence to investigate an alternate path. It must have caught on the phone and pulled off my belt clip.

At home, I used Find my iPhone to locate it, and this is when I realised what had happened. It was exactly where I’d stepped through the fence. I took another phone with me so I could call and hear the ringtone, and my mountain bike, because my legs were trashed from the run! Walked back and forth over the area, calling repeatedly over a period of about 10 minutes. I then realised I could send an alert sound to it via Find my iPhone. No sound. It clearly was no longer where I’d dropped it. Sent another alert, but this one didn’t get through. Tried calling again – straight to message bank – the phone had stopped responding. 11:50am.

Really disappointed, now, I headed home again. Looked up Find my iPhone again, and was surprised to find it had moved 7.2km to Australia GSM World, Dargie Court, Dallas. That looked mighty suspicious! I mean, they even list iPhone unlocking as one of their services! Not the same ‘unlocking’ as taking control of a phone, but if someone didn’t know, they might have tried the shop. I decided to ring them. The person who answered the phone seemed evasive, but ultimately claimed to have no knowledge of the phone. At this stage, I didn’t realise that the phone icon had changed – a black screen indicates that the phone is off or not connected. Still, what could I do? 12:44pm.

My phone makes a visit to Australia GSM World in Dallas.

Giving up hope now, decided to report it to the Police, after all, the phone shop had to be involved in some way, even if it was only to tell someone “no, we can’t unlock that phone”. So, I’m on the phone to the very lovely person on the Police Help Line, when Find my iPhone reported a new position! This was very strange – the phone was now back at Woodlands, but at the homestead carpark. I thought this was promising – maybe someone was handing it in. I thanked the person on the Police Help Line, and tried, several times, to call the Woodlands Homestead number – nothing. I would have been surprised if it had been open, but it was worth a try. 1:07pm.

Resigned to losing my phone, had a shower, and some lunch. Returned to my computer and Find my iPhone, to once again be astonished by another reported location. Dimboola Road, Broadmeadows – right outside the Town Hall, and more importantly, opposite the Broadmeadows Police Station! I gave it a minute or two to be sure, before ringing the station. Sadly, no – “no-one has handed in an iPhone, but I’ll take some details” – then, while I was still on the call – “oh wait, someone’s just handing one in now!”. A Council worker handed in the phone. 1:31pm.

And now parked outside the Broadmeadows Town Hall.

Yet another drive out into the northern wilderness, but this time with a happier destination. The lovely policewoman I’d spoken to earlier reunited me with my phone. One last surprise, though… the SIM had been removed!

So, those are the facts, but they raise so many questions! What happened at Australia GSM World? Who took the phone back to Woodlands, and why? When was the SIM removed? Did the phone keep reporting position without it?

The answer to the last question is quite astonishing. Apparently, it can! Once a device has been marked as lost, it will snitch to any other Apple device it can find, and continue to report its location. I am so impressed, and grateful!

D- Must try harder…

Love this extremely low effort phishing attempt, I don’t even think they deserve marks for trying – because they didn’t!

Trouble checking in?

Checking in is now mandatory at all shops and venues in Victoria. A lot of people still don’t check in, though. Why?

It’s framed as a compliance problem, but I’m absolutely convinced it’s also a user experience problem, and that a simpler, more robust process, would lead to higher checkin rates. I’ve watched people attempting to scan, and failing at rates of greater than 50% – they are trying to comply, but it’s just too hard.

It’s common now to find yourself standing in a queue to check in – many businesses only have one poster up to scan, so for a variety of reasons, only one person at a time can check in. It should not take so long, and there are a few reasons for this.

Firstly, the Services Victoria app is just slow. I don’t have an brand new phone, but it’s not that old either – still, this app is by far the slowest to load to ready (25 seconds!) of any app I have. This is less of a problem now that the app can be correctly triggered from the camera, but even that didn’t work properly until more recent versions of the app, causing a lot of people to just stop using it.

Second, the codes are very complex. QR codes work best when the string of text is short. These ones, however, encode a monstrous 215 character URL! Here’s one I used today…

Why is this a problem? More characters means more dots in the QR code. More dots means smaller dots, that are harder for cameras to interpret reliably. Add to this, that most are situated in less than perfect lighting, and laminated, so that reflections cause problems as well. You have to be right in front of the poster, cut down reflections, wait for the camera to focus… it’s a perfect storm, really – especially for the sort of cheaper, low powered phones that many older people choose.

Infuriating, because there’s an easy fix – shorten the URL! The two QR codes below do exactly the same thing, but the one on the right has been shortened using bitly (not advocating bitly, just an example!). The result is a far easier code for a phone to read. Use matt lamination sleeves and you’ve solved most of the technical problems.

Blows my mind, really, because on the posters below the QR code, they have an alternate 6 character location code. If they can do it in 6 characters, why do they use 165?

Why use an app at all? If a six character code can be used, why not just use SMS? Phones are pretty good at that stuff! I suppose there’s the problem where a percentage of people have caller ID turned off, but I’d suspect that’s a smaller proportion of people than we have just giving up now.

Of course, the biggest question is, why did Victoria have to develop their own app? Check-in should have been a feature of the Covid Safe app from day 1, feeding into a single, centralised system. The bonus would be people opening the app on a regular basis, instead of it sitting idle, forgotten, and useless on their phones. Just another failure of the federal government to seize leadership when it needed to.

I can’t see the QR code thing going away in a hurry. I really hope they fix it.

Roll your own braided loops

Does anyone else do this? Probably not. The material is very hard to source, the commercial product is not expensive, and most good quality flylines have welded loops already. So why do I do it? I have no idea, but here’s how…

You’re going to need some braided material. I have some Gudebrod. I don’t think they make it any more. It’s too heavy for all my flylines, but it works ok for #8+

It came with a super tricky little hook tool, but I prefer a stout darning needle.

I cut about 24cm. That gives me 8cm of double, and 8cm to attach the flyline.

Fold the line to create an 8cm double.

Insert the needle near the loop and exit about half way/4cm. along the short end.

Thread the tip of the long end through your needle and draw it through with the needle. So now your short end is about 4cm and the long one about 12 cm.

Now, repeat with the short end, drawing it though the long one, and exiting after about 4cm.

If you get the lengths right, the short end will draw up inside the long one, with no cutting required. The long end is now 8cm or so, and ready for you to feed in your flyline.

I like to add a little whip finish with some rod building silk (mine’s also Gudebrod!), and varnish with some UV resin. I also soak a little bit of super glue into the area where the flyline meets the enclosed braid end.

Neat as a pin, eh?

The frustrated fisherman’s map of Melbourne

Lockdown V2 allows fishing, as long as you stay within the locked down area, and stick to your nearest practical water.

I blended the locked down Local Government Areas, with a list of waters that have been stocked by Fisheries to create a quick reference map. It’s pretty up to date, too!

Open the map >