VOLUME 31, ISSUE 1. July 2024

Thank you to all the members that voted on the motion to reduce the Club’s joining fee from $50 to $10. The motion was passed by a 6 to 1 ratio ( 99 for and 16 against) and the joining fee is now $10.

Thank you also to the members that reached out to the Committee with suggestions of possible uses of the Club’s funds. At the last Committee meeting we discussed those members suggestions and after some debate arrived back at our previous position that the best new use of the Club’s funds would be to secure accommodation on a property with dam or river access in Lithgow/Oberon area. Second best would be to secure access to private dams we could stock in the same area. The Club has in the past had such arrangements, once with accommodation on a property that had three dams that we stocked, on another occasion we had accommodation on one property with access to dams on another property. Unfortunately, due to changes in property ownership we have not had access to such facilities for some years.

Committee members over recent years endeavored to find appropriate accommodation and dams but clearly unsuccessfully. So, we are asking for your help, if you are aware of dams in Lithgow/Oberon area that you feel could be suitable for stocking or of accommodation on a property with river access can you please bring your suggestions to the Committee. Speak to a Committee member you know or drop me an email (denisjhill47@gmail.com) and we will follow up your suggestions and hopefully once again be able to secure these sorts of resources for you all.

Finally, another request from the Committee. There are some Committee members thinking of stepping down at the end of the year. Our traditional approach has been to recruit new Committee members into positions concurrent with the previous members stepping down. We would like to try something different. We would like to have 2 or 3 members join the committee now as general committee members. This will allow these members to get to know the Committee and its workings and thus facilitate a more orderly transition of key committee positions at year end. If you are interested in helping your club by joining the Committee, speak to me at a meeting or event or drop me an email – denisjhill47@gmail.com.

Tight lines

Denis

Denis fishing Loganburn in NZ - the fish just took a cicada fly

From the Editor

Jason with a bass from his canoe taken on a surface fly

Fellow Flyrodders,

Over the winter months there aren't as many trip reports so I've taken the opporunity to trial a couple of new ideas in this edition.

The first is a 'Spotlight On' segment which is a Q&A with a member to learn a little more about people in the club - both their love of flyfishing and their lives outside of it. This month the man of the moment is Dave Wilson - read the article to find out why he was once interviewed by Molly Meldrum!

The second concept is called 'The Flyfisher's Friend'. The idea is to present an expert tip or insight from an experienced member each month for everyone's benefit. Steve Peach kindly agreed to be the first cab off the rank - read on to discover why Peachy believes you have to 'fish with your feet' in rivers.

I'm always keen for feedback to improve the content for members so let me know what you think of these ideas.

In this edition, the feature article is a celebration of our Club's 30 year anniversary which I hope you find interesting.

Thanks to Roger Thornback for his trip report from the Alpine National Park in Victoria, and to David Caddies for his monthly report on casting practice which arrives in my inbox with the regularity of a Swiss Watch.

Cheers,

Jason Hemens - Editor

jasondh1972@gmail.com

Happy 30th Birthday Sydney Fly Rodders Club!

Gordon Dunlop and Rod Harrison raffle a Sage 10wt at the first club meeting in 1994

Introduction by Jason Hemens

Our wonderful club turned 30 this year and I think that's something worth celebrating. So I asked Gordon Dunlop, who has been there from the very beginning as our first Treasurer, to pen a few words about the inception of our club.

I also felt it appropriate to ask Gavin van der Wagen, Editor of the Fly Rodder for a decade, for his observations over the years.

Thanks also to Peter Morse for supplying a selection of printed, black and white photos which I have scanned and included for your viewing pleasure. I hope you enjoy the article and join in the celebration of our club's history. Here's to another 30 years!

Where it all began

Rod Harrison and Ian Ryall ready for action

By Gordon Dunlop

The conversation about starting a Sydney Fly Fishing club started with Peter Morse, myself (Gordon Dunlop) and Chris Wright.

Two others individuals also became founding members. They were Brett Richards – Manager of the Compleat Angler in Sydney CBD and Paddy McGuiness, a friend of Peter Morse, also from The Blue Mountains.

We had a feeling at the time that another club, NSW Rod Fishers Society with an incredible history that went back to the early 1900s was a very conservative club with a major focus on trout fishing. However, I had given lectures there on saltwater fly fishing at that club.

There was another club, Lakeside Casting Club, but without any focus on the saltwater scene. Saltwater fly fishing had started to become popular and promoted by the likes of Rod Harrison, Peter Morse, myself, and many others.

We felt that a club that covered both salt and freshwater fishing would be a success. After all, it’s not possible to head to your favourite trout stream every weekend but as Sydney siders we have access to many opportunities in saltwater with minor changes to fly gear.

By word of mouth, publicity through tackle stores and through some fishing magazines the word was out and The Sydney Fly Rodders Club held its first meeting in June 1994 at The Occidental Pub in York Street Sydney.

Peter Morse was elected President, Chris Wright - Secretary, Gordon Dunlop - Treasurer. We had 60 members the first night and within a short period of time more than 400 members.

Chris and I had the responsibility of setting the foundations of the club - subscriptions, bank accounts and much more.

Gordon Dunlop in conversation with Dave Wilson and Alan Barber

Our first speaker was Rod Harrison. The club’s success, I think, was on getting speakers that were experts in their field, being fresh or saltwater. Speakers like Rod Harrison, Kaz Busch , Steve Williamson, Steve Starling, experts in fly tying - Dave Wilson and fly casting - Peter Hayes, Peter Morse and even myself. Any good fly caster would help others that had joined the club.

John Coles who passed away designed the club logo.

In 1994, we did not have the advantages of social media and the internet as it is today.

Chris Wright – Secretary was the nerve centre of the club compiling the news letter with input from me and phone calls to club members, tackle shops and the fishing grapevine. Chris and I would print the letters, fold them into envelopes and post them to members of the club. A challenging monthly process.

The Sydney Fly Rodders Club today has a similar structure today as it did in the mid-1990s. However, the Club’s current committee does a wonderful job and to a much higher level of professionalism and deserves congratulations for extending the clubs life to 30 years in 2024.

The pictures below are from the first club meeting...

Gavin's Life as Editor

By (you guessed it) Gavin van der Wagen

In July 2014, there was a changing of the guard in terms of The Sydney Fly Rodders Committee. Previous President Colin Henderson decided to have a well-earned break, as did some of the other committee members. Gary Bickford then took over the reins of President, and I along with a number of other club members joined the new committee.

It was very soon after this that Gary Bickford seized the opportunity and convinced me to take on the responsibility as Editor of our monthly newsletter, The Flyrodder. A quick crash hand over, as Gary had stepped in as an interim editor a few months prior. He seemed very happy to pass on that responsibility to me which filled me with some trepidation at the time, but as it turned out there was no need for any concerns as I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of my ten years as Editor.

During my term as Editor there was considerable change to our automated processes, and the transition had some rocky stages along the journey until it evolved into it’s current stable form.

But firstly, I have to pay tribute to the early era of The Flyrodder and the committee at that time. The then Editors had to type the newsletter, probably into an MS Word format, and then print off some 250 copies (not sure what the membership numbers were then, but this is our current number and good from a comparison point). The rest of the committee would assist to fold and insert the Flyrodder into envelopes, address them, stamp them and then post them. Every month!!! So, during my tenure if I ever had a gripe or some systemic irritation I would always think back to what effort was necessary in the “early days” and this always sorted me out pretty quickly; so well done to those earlier committees as I know full well what effort is involved even though I was fortunate enough to be involved during the fully digital and automated stage. I salute you!

When I took on the Editor role (that reminds me; Gary still owes me many beers) we were on the MailChimp platform, which was very stable and straight forward to use. Very MS Word like where you could copy, cut and paste etc; plus the distribution was automated which made this activity far less labour intensive than “the good old days”!

Some years after my early days of editorial bliss we decided to build our Website on an “integrated” Wordpress platform, so the Flyrodder was migrated across to the new order. It didn’t go without it’s issues and challenges; but we had a website and the Flyrodder was “integrated”. Well sort of!! This did assist us in growing our membership and provided an interim pathway to our current environment. But Wordpress is an “Open System” and upgrades come thick and fast with no obvious software release order, which means that the maintenance is indeed very “high maintenance”, and things were occurring that hadn’t occurred previously (caused by the release modifications), and therefore was very frustrating.

After enduring this system for a number of years, the committee decided that we needed to move to another more stable and fully integrated environment that included a website, a Membership module, Events module (we were using EventBrite at that time), Financial module (up to this point it was very labour intensive for or Treasurer James Webber and simply a nightmare at Membership Renewal time) and a Flyrodder and communications module that were all handled within the same software platform.

So how do we get there? Ideally a member with some IT savvy was required to drive this project in order to achieve the outcomes that we so desired. It was just before our annual “Committee Renewal” election time of the year in 2020 that we were fortunate enough to identify within our midst the perfect candidate, and I managed to convinced one Alan Baldry to join the committee and to take on the project management of this very vital activity for our great club. And what a masterstroke this turned out to be; as Alan embraced the Webmaster position within the committee and put in an enormous amount of work, and with his IT background (both technical and managerial), the project was run like an IT development project, which ensured that we achieved the objectives and outcomes that we required, in a “straight forward”, controlled and orderly manner.

After much evaluation of the available “potential” solutions around the globe it was decided to adopt the Wild Apricot software solution from Canada, using their environment customised to our requirements, which was all modified by Alan. As a result of Al’s evaluation process Wild Apricot was a clear winner. Alan presented his findings and recommendations to the committee, which was duly accepted and the project was swiftly underway.

The new system was customized, thoroughly tested, implemented, signed off by the committee and went live in June 2021, just in time for the 2021/22 Membership year and renewal process. A very slick and professional process. This put some real smiles on the faces of James Webber, Treasurer and David Major our Membership Manager as this process went off very smoothly and removed all the frustrations of previous years. A major step forward.

The benefits were immediate with everything being automated and integrated on the same platform. Our website was more able to attract new members, and this combined with our FaceBook and Instagram sites meant that we had a bigger presence in the social media arena. From this we have had a great cross section of Members joining the club. More women members than ever before, and more younger members. Our membership profile and numbers is now in a very healthy state.

After 10 years of producing The Flyrodder I just felt like I needed a break, and started thinking about who would be an ideal replacement. It didn’t take long and I identified Jason Hemens as I felt that the role of Editor was right up his ally, and a great match for his skills and background. I had a chat with Jason, fortunately he didn’t hesitate and the rest is history. I know that Jason will find the Flyrodder every bit as rewarding as I did, and as you can see already from the results he is doing a wonderful job. It’s also great to have a change with some fresh ideas and different ideas to the product, for continuous improvement.

The success of the Flyrodder is heavily dependent on contributions from the membership, whether it be trip reports, personal trips, snippets of information and other contributions of interest. I would therefore encourage you, our members, to send Editor Jason snippets of information that you believe will add some value to the Flyrodder.

In signing off I would like to give my heart felt thanks to our members for all their contributions to the Flyrodder over the years which helped to make my job easier and a lot more fun.

I’m now enjoying my editorial retirement, sitting back and having a good read of The Flyrodder each month.

See below for a selection of pages from the first two editions of the Sydney Fly Rodder....

Second Edition front page and subsequent pages below

Trip Report: Alpine National Park, Victoria

By Roger Thornback

Just got back from a week with friends on the Wonnangatta River in the Victorian Alps around 800 km from Sydney.

The Victorian Alps form the bottom corner of the Great Dividing Range which stretches for 3,500km up the eastern coast of Australia's Great Dividing Range - Wikipedia. The Alpine National Park is about the size of New England in NSW or Wales in the UK. Our campsite is located in the Mount Darling - Snowy Bluff Wilderness Area about 3 hours drive NW of Bairnsdale at the junction of the Wonnangatta and Moroka rivers. It is reached via the Wonnangatta Road, a dirt track from Waterford near Dargo. Alpine National Park (parks.vic.gov.au)

Comfortable camping

We met old friends, hiked a little in glorious weather, drank wine in moderation and ate to excess every evening as it was down to 4 degrees at night in early June. There was only one other group in our 20km-long valley so we were essentially alone on the landscape.

This was my first attempt at fishing a large river flowing quite strongly after a wet spell. I spent two beautiful bright mornings on the river with my nymphing tackle without result despite multiple changes of locations and nymphs. Others have previously caught Browns on lures but the fish were not there for me.

All was fine until the last night when the wind started to gust strongly, a feature of this valley. We were up at 4am dismantling the tent before it blew away! Then the rain started so it was a wet crash-out at dawn. Once on the “road”, we had to remove small trees blown down overnight and ford several apparently bottomless ponds before we could get out of the valley. (Tip: Engage 1st gear in 4WD low range with central diff locker on. Track the left-hand wheels approximately where my off-sider is standing and give it plenty of wellie to get enough traction to pull the right wheels out of the muddy pit. Works for me.)

Worth a cast?

Four hours to Bairnsdale for lunch, then six hours through the border ranges on deserted roads to Cooma, base for the 1950’s Snowy Mountain Scheme, a hot shower in the motel and a sleep in an actual bed. Another six hours across the New South Wales countryside next day and we were home.

I always leave the mud on the ute for a few days, just for the extra street cred in the ‘burbs!

Suburban street cred!

In the Spotlight - Dave Wilson

Now there's a man who knows how to wear a leather jacket...

1. How did you first discover fly fishing?

As a 1950’s kid at Cooma North Primary, there was no escape! Both next-door neighbours fly fished and tied flies. One was on the Committee of the Monaro Acclimatisation Society. He had a fly-tying vise permanently attached to his favourite chair. The other was experimenting with “white moths” to match the hatch (of snowflake caddis) at Peppers Creek (a tributary of the Badger R). I started out spinning and “graduated” to fly fishing under my neighbour’s instruction.

2. What was the first fish you caught on fly, and the last?

My first was a rainbow on a Red & Black Matuka using very crude loan gear as a kid. The last was a flathead at Smiths Lake on a Club casting event, although I’d prefer to brag about my last NT barramundi on a Pink Thing.

3. If you could give one piece of advice to someone starting out in fly tying, what would it be?

Buy / borrow only sufficient materials and tools to tie your favourite flies until you decide if you like it or not. Avoid the common mistake of going down the path of random pattern tying - thinking you will pick up the essential skills haphazardly like I did over the years! Focus on learning the fundamental skills common to most patterns and you will be able to quickly tie anything!

Attend Club activities or short circuit the noise and do my fabulous skills-based course at flytyingskills.com and support this unashamed plug!

4. If you could spend a week fly fishing anywhere in the world, where would you choose?

Jurassic Lake in Patagonia, Argentina. I’m drawn by the landscapes and promise of giant trout.

5. Do you have any other hobbies or interests outside of fly fishing?

I usually have a wood working project on the boil – usually wooden gadgets associated with fly tying / fishing. Photography and videography are hobbies along with posting vids on social media to keep active.

6. What are you most proud of accomplishing in life?

Apart from raising a family, as a Technical Instructor I designed and ran Telecom’s first course in data transmission. In the construction industry I played a significant HR role in building the Alice to Darwin railway and the Sea Bridge on Laurance Hargrave Drive (featured in every new car advertisement it seems).

Winning the Australian open in freshwater fly tying in the late 90s was a highlight – with unexpected appearances in mags and TV, along with top ten placements in dry fly and nymph in the Mustad World open. (As competition angler Peachy says, “competition builds skills”. Competition fly tying is no different).

7. Tell us something your fellow fly fishers would never guess about you…

As a Drum Major in the Mudgee Cadet Unit, I played the Last Post on a B Flat bugle on ANZAC day. As a Sydney based blues band drummer, I was interviewed by Molly Meldrum for Go Set Magazine (when he had a Beatle hair style and no hat). It was a pinnacle night when we featured with the La De Dah’s (Kevin Borich) at Here Disco!

Sir William Hudson was the instigator of the Snowy Mountains scheme. As a Cub during Bob-a-Job week I polished his shoes!

8. What’s the best part of being a member of the Sydney Flyrodders Club?

The friendships and learning from others. The fact the Club has focussed on all aspects of fresh and saltwater fly fishing has always drawn me, along with the culture of teaching others.

My evolving portable custom fly-tying rig. I’m finally able to Zoom macro-style almost any aspect of fly tying. (It’s a bit over the top but someone had to do it!)

Last Monthly Meeting and Guest Speakers Report

For our June Monthly Meeting, Josh Mulders (Haul Fly Fishing) gave a talk about fly fishing options for trout and bass around Sydney.

You can view this meeting video and indeed all the previous presentations on our Members Private Video Library on YouTube. To view them please Login to our Sydney Fly Rodders Website; click on Members and select YOUTUBE CHANNEL, as per the picture below.

We have many wonderful videos in our Private Members Video Library, in fact they're all wonderful and informative, plus you can view them at your leisure!

The following are some photos from the meeting:

Next Monthly Meeting and Guest Speaker

Our July Members Monthly Meeting is at our usual venue, The Freeway Hotel in Artarmon, on Monday the 8th July 2024.

The Meeting will kick off at 7:00pm, but come along earlier and enjoy a pre meeting drink with fellow attendees. The doors will be open from 6:00pm.

Our July Meeting is an open discussion night. We will lead the discussion through gear, rods and reels, knots flies and any other topics where both newer and more seasoned members have questions that the combined knowledge of the Club can address.

There are no silly questions. If you have something that you want answered, put it to the forum and conversely if you have something that you just want to share with others because you have cracked the code or mastered something new, please feel free to share it to the forum.

So come along and enjoy another great night out with fellow members.

For those unable to attend the meeting we will be recording the presentation and then uploading it to our Club Members Private Video Library on YouTube.

You will also be able to view all the previous meeting presentations that we have recorded, and view at your leisure.

Many of our attendees arrive a bit earlier and have dinner either before, else the bar staff will deliver your meal order to our meeting room and you can enjoy your meal, and or drink, whilst the meeting is underway. The food is good value for money and the company is priceless!! So come along and have a relaxing and entertaining meeting where you can meet other members and pick up on useful snippets information that is shared amongst the group.

Our Meeting is normally held on the 2nd Monday of each month, unless it is a public holiday; in which case it will be delayed a week.

There is ample parking in the parking garage under the Freeway Hotel, which is accessed from Dickson Avenue (at the back), just off Reserve Road, in Artarmon.

The address is 115 Reserve Road, Artarmon 2064 (for GPS).

Looking forward to catching up at the meeting.

Last Month's Casting Practice Report

By David Caddies

There’s nothing like a bit of a self-imposed challenge to get the casting juices going. If you don’t like that metaphor I have other even sillier ones I’m saving for another day. But read on, I’ll get serious in a moment. Eighteen members turned up (I’m not going to mention the weather because it’s always nauseatingly perfect on casting day) for the advertised commencement of the winter program. That is, to participate in a day of demonstration, teaching and casting our way through the grades of FFI’s fly casting skills development program (I’m calling it the FCSD). Well, half a day at least, but we now seem to easily get from 9 until noon with more than half the attendees still casting, chatting and hanging about. With a more individual focus to the day’s activities which the FCSD provides it will be more flexible from now on – it will be more about your casting needs than the broader needs of a mixed group.

All those present set out to grapple with the casts in the Bronze or Silver level. Once you see what is expected in each cast and how it is meant to be done and how success is judged, it becomes easy to see how this is not only a clear and progressive guide to developing casting skills, but lays an immediate ‘ruler’ over your casting. By that I mean if you quickly attempt all the casts in one level, you can see immediately what you need to work on. So, if you can do the tasks involving, say accuracy with a fixed length of line, but you can’t be accurate to roughly equivalent distances when shooting line, that tells you exactly what you need to work on. Ie. Controlling for accuracy when shooting line.

What that reveals is that to progress on that kind of task you would be better off spending practice time and maybe getting some instruction on techniques for shooting line, not necessarily accuracy. To that extent, the development side of the program is very much slanted towards individual development because you show up your own strengths and weaknesses based around a set of very specific casting tasks.

On a slightly different tack, the first cast in the Bronze level is a foundational cast called the ‘pick up and lay down’. It is a cast I drill every time I have a rod in my hand to go and practise. It is a cast you do every time you go fishing. It is not a cast you need to do to 60 feet (but good for you if you can). It is a learner’s cast and an expert’s cast. Anybody can do this cast and get some kind of result at a basic level, but it is really the cast that tells whether your technique is good. A small instance: if someone told me that he or she was unable to regularly cast to 50’ (for example) but wanted to, I would ask to see how they do the pick up and lay down, which would be a good diagnostic tool, as multiple basic skills and compound movements are embedded in it. I’d say the same thing if the person said I can cast fairly accurately to 50’ any day except a windy day. Many self-taught casters have successfully learned to cast (some) distance and (some) accuracy in spite of their faults: sometimes the fault goes away – more often we incorporate it into our ‘style’. If that does not hinder your fishing, does it matter, you may ask. You’ll have your own answer to that, but in my experience, fly fishers are anything but complacent when it comes to their fishing knowledge, skills and capacity.

I’ve mentioned elsewhere from time to time that the FCSD is a self-paced program, but to be able to say (convincingly) that you have achieved all the set casts in a level you need to have that confirmed by an observer. At bronze level, that person can be any club member to observe all the casts you do and then give you a sign off (yes, even your faithful fishing partner can do it). At silver and gold level, it’s more formal, so that sign-off can only be done by someone who has already certified at gold level or is a certified casting instructor and has had that certification registered with FFI. The reason for setting this out is to point out that “paper” certification is available but is not a necessary step in your casting development. What is important to your casting development is to find out whether your fishing could do with a better approach to your casting. I’m suggesting that the FCSD is a good and very available ‘ruler’ which you can personally consult for a ‘casting check-up’ and course outline for future casting extra-ordinariness.

On casting day, a majority of members present committed to formally going through the Bronze or told me that they were intending to do so. They, and all the others present worked through the exercises anyway and I think everybody found their own level and enjoyed the day. If you want to get formal about it, or want to know how to go about doing it by yourself, come along and find out the details and the how-to. Any beginners or new casters reading should not be deterred by any sense of formality or that you have to be of any particular level to come to casting practice; the less you know at first visit, the better we like it!

We’ll continue next casting practice day. I do suggest you have a look at the program online at Fly Fishers International and search for Fly Casting Skills Development. Lots of information and how-to videos. If the site does not work for you, try Google using the above search terms.

Reminder: do bring your own copy of the level you want to do so you have a personal reference on the day. Ie download to your files section of your phone or print it out. Gavin, George and I will be there to help you through the tasks and keep a record of your progress if you want to.

See you in the park

David

The 'pick up and lay down cast'

James Webber fine tuned his technique ahead of his trip to Christmas Island

Straight down the line - no pressure with the rest of the casting crew watching

Fish on! The Grass Carp at casting practice keep things interesting

Mark Bransgrove kept an eye on proceedings while boring out the reel seat for his latest rod build - a fibreglass Kabuto from Japan

Club Monthly Casting Practice - Details and Event Schedule.

SFRC MONTHLY CASTING PRACTICE 9am Sunday 14 July 2024

Reminder: Leave your 9 – 10’ trout leader with the 5X tippet at home. Bring one which is 8’ – 8’6” and terminating in 8 or 10 lb tippet. This session will suit DT or WF floating lines, for the single-handers. Two-handers, bring what you got.

Start time is 9am:

HOWEVER: If you wish to have a go at being evaluated for any one or more of the casts in the Bronze Skills Development Program and you would like to come earlier than 9, send me a text message to that effect on 0434 671 085 and I’ll be there to set it up, from 8am. Coaching and demonstrations will be going on after 9, but with not much opportunity for individual evaluations. Early notice would be appreciated, but don’t let that stop you from a late practice on Saturday to see if you’re ready!

All members are welcome to join in the club’s usual monthly practice session. If you want to know everything about the club’s casting practice sessions, read the whole blurb in the Flyrodder magazine.

WHERE: Timbrell Park, Henley Marine Drive, Five Dock. Go to the western end of Henley Marine Drive, past the cricket pitches, baseball nets and just past LIvvi’s coffee kiosk and kids’ playground area. There is an open area opposite where Ingham Avenue intersects with Henley Marine Drive which we usually use. It is not part of the sports fields. If conditions there are not suitable on the day, we will be just opposite, across the canal, or anywhere within sight that I can find.

So come and give it a try, as there is so much to be gained by attending these sessions. And they are Free!!!

If you can’t make it this time and want some good practical instruction to guide you, check out this site: https://www.flyfishersinternational.org/Learn/Learning-Center-Resources/Fly-Casting/Casting-Instruction

I don’t know if that link works for you. Google FFI flyfishing and delve around. Most stuff is open to non-members.

For 2024, we have moved to the second Sunday of the month, except for May as it's Mother's Day.

So put these dates in your diary for 2024:

14th July 2024

11th August 2024

8th September 2024

13th October 2024

10th November 2024

8th December 2024.

Last Month's Fly Tying Meeting

Our very own David Major in his element at the fly tying meeting

Jared Klein led our fly tying meeting last month and showed members how to tie a Tabanas fly and a CDC split wing (Caddis and a Mayfly dry patterns). Both are great flies for Thompson Creek Dam and Kosciuszko streams.

Thank you Jared for volunteering your time for the benefit of our club.

Tabanas fly - a great pattern for dry dropper as it floats like a cork

Next Monthly Fly Tying Meeting

Our next Monthly Fly Tying Meeting will be held on Monday, 15 July 2024, from 7:00 pm to 9:30 pm. The doors will open at 6:30 pm to give you time to set up for a 7:00 pm start.

Steve Peach will lead the session and show members how to tie a selection of quick and easy flies to fill a euro-nymphing box - a basic euro mayfly nymph, a tag nymph and a perdigon.

Beginners are very welcome with experienced tiers giving help.

We provide all materials. If you don’t have your own tools, we have loan kits.

We normally have experienced tiers to help and look forward to seeing you at the meeting.

For those who don't have a vise, we have ample spare one's available.

We particularly welcome first timers and all levels of fly tiers as you will all learn something from these wonderful sessions.

If you would like to just come and observe, then please do so to see if this is for you. You'll be surprised at how "easily" you can get into tying your own flies.

The venue is the Henley Community Centre in Hunters Hill, and we meet in the Green Room on the right as you enter.

The venue address is: Crown Street, Henley, NSW 2111. As you turn into Crown Street, from Victoria Road, take the first left and drive down a bit of a bumpy road, and it's the last building about a 100 yards down the drag. There's parking off the track and walk through a small road, but it's a short walk to the front door.

The Flyfisher's Friend

When trout fishing in rivers - Fish with your feet!

What the heck does that mean???

Well let me tell you about when I started fly fishing. At first, I couldn’t cast very well, so all of my fishing for trout was at pretty close range. Sure I spooked some fish by getting too close, but I also caught a few. As I got into fly fishing more, I spent a lot of time learning to cast better at the park, and suddenly my casting distance began to radically improve. I was stoked about that, but for some reason my catch rate actually started to decline…..What the….?!!

I had fallen into something that I now call the “intermediate trap”. And I’m not talking about intermediate sink rate lines. I’m talking about intermediate ability level. In my rush to put my new distance casting skills to good use, I had failed to appreciate a simple truth of trout fishing - the trout don’t care about how your cast looks, they care about how your DRIFT looks.

By casting further I was actually making 3 serious mistakes that were costing me fish:

1. I was straightening out my leader too much.

2. I was casting across different speeds of current, and

3. I was putting my fly line over a lot more fish.

All 3 of those mistakes spook trout - the first two because they create the dreaded “drag” on the fly, and the third because the fish actually see the fly line in the air or landing on the water.

What I should have done instead is change my position in the river, to make a better presentation to the water that I want to fish. That usually means getting closer and casting shorter. It also means looking at the currents and working out how I can reduce drag on my fly, by not casting across too many differing current lines. It sometimes means covering some less prime water with the fly first, clearing the water ahead of me and working my way over into the best position slower, rather than trying to put my first cast straight into that honey hole on the far bank….

One of the very first things I try to assess when I get to a river is “How close can I get to the fish here?”. That is going to change depending on the circumstances - generally speaking if the water is shallow, very clear, and with very little flow, then you are going to have to stay back a bit and away from the fish. Conversely, if the water is a bit coloured, has a bit more depth, and particularly if the water surface is broken by riffles, then you can usually get pretty close to the fish without spooking them, if you’re careful. And in doing so, you will be able to make shorter casts which will be more accurate and controlled, give you better soft presentations of the fly, better contact when you need to set the hook, and most critically allow your flies to drift better. And remember, THAT’s what the trout sees, the DRIFT, not your 70 foot double haul cast right across the river!

So these days I try to remind myself on rivers to fish with my feet, by which I mean instead of just casting further, get into a better position. Do that consistently and the fish will come.

Tight lines and may the trout be with you!

Peachy

Now Online - Brian Henderson's New Single Hand Spey Course

By David Caddies

A while back, Brian had the idea to make a series of very practical online teaching lessons covering single hand spey casting. Brian’s casting and teaching expertise is world class by any standard available. Even given that, the challenge of filming a teaching program to put out for online audiences was something he and his wife Anne set out to master. Nothing is straightforward when you need a variety of running-water venues (far from home), good light conditions and reasonable weather to make enough film to result in a final product which has hours and hours of detailed demonstration and teaching. The results are in – now available online.

When you see the word “spey” you may think of long rods and salmon fishing. What you should probably think of instead is a 9 foot single hand rod, fishing the Thredbo or the Cox’s for trout in every nook and cranny – because spey casting will get it done. It’s a type of cast, not necessarily a type of rod or a place.

If you’ve seen Brian cast you understand how effortless and beautiful fly casting can be made to look. But Brian is truly dedicated to wanting fly fishers to be inspired to get better at casting and have access to the means to do so, wherever they are. That has been his principal motivation in conceiving and carrying out this project from the very start; he wants his audience to ‘get’ it and want to do it when fishing. It is not for me to try to describe his ability to cast, demonstrate, teach, organise material, optimise the filming and editing process (good one, Anne!) and be clear and eloquent on-camera, so I had just better say it speaks for itself.

See it at: http://www.brianhenderson.com.au

There’s a Members’ Login button but you don’t need that to have a look through the introductory outline stuff - mostly video. This includes 3 excerpts from different segments of the program, so you can gauge the nature of the teaching and its subject matter, as well as find Brian’s explanation of the course purpose and design and reasons why spey casts are useful to all flyfishers. The course design is progressive, the intention being that you can use it to self-teach by following the modules in order, cast by cast in sequence, or bits of each, depending on your need. Yes, you would take it on a device to the park or the water to follow the lessons as you practice.

If you want to have full access to the course, there’s a joining fee and then you use the course as much as you want. Brian will be adding material to the program over time, covering more related topics.

A dozen or so Sydney Flyrodder members have had the program in their hands for nearly a year now. We workshopped it and gave feedback to Brian, including over a Smith’s Lake weekend, which was truly memorable and inspiring. By the way, most of those guys also use double hand rods, so they have killed two birds with one stone, the principles of the casts and their uses being the same. Those Members should check back in to see their updated content.

I think all SF members would find a dip in to the site to be interesting and worthwhile, whatever you may presently know about spey casts and even if it’s an entirely new thing to you.

Use the Contact button on the site to get straight to Brian if you have questions.

National Carp Control Plan

The Australian Government is investigating a long-term biological control plan to reduce the impacts on our waterways from one of the country’s most devastating pests – carp.

For more information and a webinar on the topic, click here.

New Members

We extend a warm welcome to new members Enda Keegan, Eamonn McGuinness, Norm Steyn, Santiago Suarez Lago and Phil Twiby.

We encourage new members to join in on the many activities that we run as this is a good way to meet other club members and also to improve your fly fishing skills and most importantly to have a great time.

Looking forward to meeting you at our Monthly Members Meetings and at events throughout the coming year.

Sydney Fly Rodders Facebook Pages

We run two SFRC pages, one is our public page and it posts events and activities of the club. It also shares posts from other pages like CAS, DPI on things relevant to the places and areas that we fish.

I post some fly tying every now and then and share links to events I find that might be of interest to followers. This page is a little like our Web page, it showcases the club to attract members and provides details of club events. At last count it has more than one thousand followers.

We added another page. This is reserved for members only and cannot be seen by anyone outside of the group. You will need to send a request to join. Any member can post on this page and it is a great opportunity for members to put up a post or two about anything fly fishing. I would like to encourage members to use this page to post fishing reports or photos of flies that you tied. Being connected to other members you can ask for some casting or gear advice, or organise a short trip when you suddenly have some spare time.

There are also hundreds of other groups; bream on fly, carp on fly, bass, trout....areas like alpine trout, Sydney Kayak Fishing....fly tying groups, buy sell swap fly gear pages and individuals like Aussie Flyfisher, Sydney Flyfishing to check out.

Phil Burton
philipburton@bigpond.com

Sydney Flyrodders Instagram Page

The Sydney Fly Rodders are now on Instagram. Many thanks to our Member Maddie Chew Lee, who offered to set us up and apply her significant experience with marketing and communications in particular within the social media space.

Please follow the site and add your comments, and lets grow this platform for the club. It will also attract new members to the club.

Below is a snapshot of the site. We aim to sync (in particular look and feel) the Instagram account with our Facebook account and also our new Website, which I talk more about in the preceding section.

Sydney Fly Rodders WhatsApp Group

We have an Exclusive Group on WhatsApp for our Members, which is a great way to communicate informally and to share ideas, seek advice and also to plan and seek interest for impromptu/planned fishing trips.

I can highly recommend this to members. We have arranged a number of trips now from a weekends bass fishing through to a casual and social Sunday morning or afternoons fishing at Narrabeen Lake or Hen & Chickens Bay etc. And there could even be a BBQ thrown in for a social get together afterwards. This will happen on most if not all occasions.

Should you wish to be included in this group, then please email me to request your inclusion, quoting your mobile number which is required to link you into the Group. You will need to download the WhatsApp first if you haven't already done so.

Please contact me for inclusion.

Jason Hemens

Editor, Flyrodder

jasondh1972@gmail.com

The End