VOLUME 31, ISSUE 7. February 2025

Welcome to 2025! I hope you had a break over Christmas / New Year and got out onto the water and had the opportunity to cast a fly. I am very much looking forward to the year ahead.

The committee have been working hard to ensure this year is filled with opportunities for all members. We are in the process of finalising the activity calendar, which will include some new activities as well as events from previous years. Two of the new activities that we have on the calendar are a late season trip to Tumut and the Harrington Fly Fest.

To better serve you, I am keen to conduct a survey aimed at gaining a deeper understanding of our membership demographics and your expectations. This survey will help us tailor our events to better meet your needs and preferences. Your participation will be greatly appreciated.

Additionally, we are keen to gather input from members regarding suggestions for guest speakers and topics at our monthly meetings. Your ideas and recommendations will be invaluable in helping us bring diverse and engaging speakers who can provide insights and knowledge on fly fishing and other outdoor related topics. Please share your thoughts and help us create a lineup that reflects your interests.

I would like to extend my thanks to last year’s committee for their exceptional work and dedication. Their efforts have laid a solid foundation for us to build upon, and I am truly grateful for their contributions.

Here’s to a year filled with plenty of opportunities (and fish)!

Regards and tight lines

David

President

From the Editor

Jason with a TCD rainbow

Fellow Flyrodders,

With the Year of the Cormorant behind us I’m looking forward to 2025 with the blind optimism of a flyfisher. I wish all of you fishing success over the year ahead and expect a steady stream of trip reports for the Fly Rodder…

A reminder that Fly Tying commences in a new location this year - The Freeway Hotel in Artarmon, in the same room we use for our Monthly Meetings.

Dave Wilson will be hosting the February meeting on 17 February, with a focus on beetles and ants. The intriguingly named Narcissist Beetle is on the menu – have a look at the photo in the Fly Rodder to see why this fly deserves its name.

For those members considering their first trip to Christmas Island this year, Gavin van der Wagen has written an excellent article packed full of information to help you make the most of it. Thank you, Gav.

At last year’s Christmas Party, members were delighted to see Mark Bransgrove and Phil Burton announced as Life Members. Thanks to you both for the years of service you have given to our club.

Cheers,

Jason Hemens - Editor

Planning a Trip to CXI - Christmas Island

By Gavin van der Wagen

So, you’ve decided to plan a trip to Christmas Island; for short CXI. One of your best fishing trip decisions!

Actually, you’ll be staying and fishing on the island of Kiritimati. There are many islands in the group; the main Island being Kiribati, where the government and Parliament resides.

You’ll fly into Nadi Airport in Fiji, on a Tuesday, then catch a connecting flight to Cassidy International Airport, in Kiritimati, departing Nadi Airport just before midnight and arriving around 6:00am the following morning, Wednesday. So, you lose 2 hours flying into Nadi, then another 2 hours flying into Kiritimati.

You can’t buy a thing at the airport, not even bottled water.

Then the journey, or should I suggest the adventure, begins!!

It’s an hour and something trip from the airport to your accommodation, traveling across the top of the Island, from North East to North West, in a truck with an open back (save for a flimsy roof for cover from the sun) and hard wooden bench seats. Basic but it gets you there, in one piece.

You arrive a bit tired, but as soon as you see the water you get a new lease of life. You arrive around about 9:00am from memory, check in and get ready to head off fishing around 11:00am ish.

This will be the first view as you arrive:

Your first view on arrival

There are a number of accommodation options, depending on who you book the trip with; but the main two are Ikari Lodge and The Villages. I booked a trip through Gavin Hurley Fly Fishing and stayed at Ikari Lodge. A number of our club Members were on the same flight and stayed at The Villages.

The package (excluding airfare) costs around $3,800 depending on what options you take. I had my own room and shared a boat with my fishing mate. It’s a must to have your own guide.

You’ll book your own flights with Qantas or Fiji Airways (Code share) to Nadi and Fiji Airways to Kiritimati and back. I just booked both flights with Fiji Airways. Then, a week later, the following Tuesday afternoon you fly back to Nadi Airport, around 2:00pm or so. Your flight back to Sydney is the following morning, Wednesday, around 9:00am. So you will need to book overnight accommodation. The popular choice is the Fiji Gateway Hotel, which is just a hop, skip and jump to the airport, some 250 metres away. You need to book this yourself.

You will also need to take plenty of cash with you, and they accept AUD or USD.

The normal tip to your guide will be $50 per day x 7 with a bonus of $50 on the last day. The room service ladies will wash your clothes every day if you want. I had washing done twice and left $20 each time in the basket they provide for collection. Then on the last day when settling your bill for drinks (beer and water mainly), you leave $100 or $150 for the kitchen & staff. Your package includes 3 meals and 3 bottles of water per day. You DON’T drink the local water. Then you pay for extra bottles of water as required. I even used this to brush my teeth.

If you want wine or your favourite scotch, then take your own.

I took $800 in cash and it was just enough.

Don’t forget to ask the kitchen to make you a couple of sandwiches for lunch as you will be out all day. They will throw in an apple or so as well. Breakfast will be cereal, bacon, sausages and eggs, toast etc. Dinner, we had lobster on two nights, then other mainly fish meals; plenty of tuna as this is their major industry (you will notice the Chinese ships there just offshore.) We also had some pork, a decent stir fry and curry meals; but you are hungry and it goes down well. Unfortunately, you can’t order lobster mornay, and they cook it just OK.

Lobster time

Dining room with a view

OK, enough of the housekeeping, and let’s go fishing!!!

What gear did I take.

A 8# 9’ rod with a good reel and smooth drag, and floating line.

This was the setup for bonefish, with 15lb tippet, but I used 12lb which was fine. Bonefish gotcha fly with pink thread and head, and tan arctic fox or finn racoon wing (pink is the go to thread colour). Plus some with tan thread. Take about 20 flies bonefish flies. I took 40 bonefish flies and most came back; but you never know. Be prepared. You don’t lose many, but just in case because you can’t buy them there. Plus your crab flies, GT brush/minnow flies.

A 9# 9” rod with a floating line and 20lb tippet for mainly trigger fish, with crab patterns. Squish’s Shrimp fly is also good.

The weather is very comfortable and the water is warm, so I just wet waded in shorts and long sleeve shirt, leggings to avoid sunburn, wide brimmed hat, face buff and good wading boots. Plus, sunscreen. The water was so inviting I felt like diving in. Being in the water helps to keep you cool.

This is what a pancake looks like, sublime!

You will take these two rod setups when fishing the Pancakes. The pancakes are where you will do most of your fishing for bonefish and triggers. Pancakes are literally roundish like a pancake, where the bottom is 2 to 3 feet deep. The bonefish come from the deeper water to feed on these pancakes, and the triggers will generally be found on the drop offs, but also on the pancakes. This is fantastic fishing; well it’s all fantastic.

Nice bonefish

Wading the pancake

A must fish is the Back Country as this is where you will find big GT and bonefish, bluefin trevally; I caught a queenfish there as well.

Here you will take your 8# bonefish setup and a 10# setup, if you have one, else your 9# setup. I probably took my #9 and #10 setups.

The back country is that bit of land between the pancakes and the open seas. You will wade and walk along the land looking for whatever presents itself. You’re hunting and sight seeing for fish; it doesn’t get bloody better!!

A typical back country GT, but there are bigger, I know I missed one around 30lbs

There are even small fish there like this bluefin trevally

Ocean side (used to be called Korean wreck, but this was salvaged by the Koreans many moons ago.) This is an absolute must as well. It’s all an absolute must. Here the ocean waves crash onto the reef.

But first getting there; what a journey and adventure that takes about an hour and forty minutes. You’ll travel across the top of the island again, branch off down the East coast bypassing the airport, then travel down the east coast, around the southern side and about a third up the western side; roughly speaking and very roughly traveling. (There isn’t a road down the western side of the Island.) I’m not trying to put you off, but it was such a wonderful day that I wanted to do another day there, but others wanted to do it.

Why is it so good you might ask. It has a beautiful wading reef with the ocean waves crashing on the outside. All manner of fish; big GT, bonefish, sweetlips and huge milkfish, plus anything else. We fly fished the reef area, but used strong spinning gear to cast over the reef and beyond the breakers, where there are some big fish. I used a 20kg rated 7 foot spinning rod and a reel with a quality drag; and just used big surface poppers.

Flies were the usual gotchas and shrimp/crab flies plus GT brush flies and minnow flies; same as for the back country chasing GT’s (I forgot to mention that earlier). A black brush fly with some blue and red and flash worked well.

The milkfish, monsters over a metre, were on the reef and would cruise with the small waves coming in to the shore, then floating back out whilst feeding on the weed. I had some Milk Magic flies that I tied, and was casting in front of them, then amongst them, on them, over them and they weren’t spooking at all. In hindsight I probably wasn’t getting down deep enough to just above the reef. Next time. So, the milkfish won the day.

It was absolutely quality fishing there.

What an epic day this was.

My first fish at Ocean Side, a sweetlip in the deeper water

A nice GT cruising the breakers

Lunch break view and siesta

The gear that I used here

I reckon 3 days on the pancakes, 2 days in the back country and 2 days at Ocean side would be just perfect if you can arrange that; perhaps request that with your guide on the first day. But start off on the pancakes. This is the bread and butter fishing and main reason for the trip.

You can fish outside and also in the deeper water around the island. One of the guys there caught a good sailfish on fly, but for your first trip there you really need to focus on the pancakes, back country and Oceanside.

I took my own First Aid kit, which had the usual stuff, plus tummy stuff, either to make you go or stop you going, plus various elastoplasts and betadine. I did pick up a tummy bug, so the stop what ever it was did the trick.

I also took Electrolyte pills and Hydralite sache’s to add to the water bottle each day.

Don’t forget the travel insurance.

There is no mobile reception there, but they do have Wi-Fi, which didn’t work from the bedroom but did from the dining room. But who wants to spend much time on the phone here anyway. By the time you’ve had dinner you’re pooped around 10:00pm and just want to hit the hay. Some groups partied on a bit.

The staff are wonderful and tidy your room each day whilst you are out, and you come back to a different artistic towel arrangement.

This is a highly recommended trip and one that you will never regret.

So, start planning and make your bookings. Let the fun begin.

Gavin van der Wagen

In the Spotlight - Denis Hill

How did you first discover fly fishing?

I was a very passionate Land Based Game fisherman for years but stopped fishing when we moved overseas the first time. I saw fly fishers on the rivers in the US as I came up to retirement and I thought I must try that.

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

My first try at fly fishing was with a guide on a river in New Jersey (USA) and I caught 27 stocked rainbows in a morning - I took another 6 fishing trips before I caught another fish and another 10 years before I caught anywhere near that number of fish in a day again. The last fish I caught was a brown in the Fish River in spring.

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

Get some casting tuition and practice casting and then - do some more practice - 10 to 15 minutes a day.

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

I would choose the Waikaia River in NZ when the willow grubs are on - it's all sight fishing and very demanding - totally brilliant.

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

Food and wine - with the emphasis on the wine, travel and gym to keep me fit enough to keep up with the grandkids and the wine and travel.

What are you most proud of accomplishing in life?

I am still married after 48 years with two wonderful daughters and 4 terrific grandkids.

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

I am an open book really, but maybe as the Fly Rodders all know me in my later life it may surprise some that until my 50s I had so much hair it had to be thinned out each time I had a haircut to keep it tidy.

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

Easy - the members, so many wonderful, interesting, generous members.

Christmas Party 2024

April Vokey was a popular Guest Speaker

Our annual Christmas Party was held at the Ranch Hotel in December 2024. April Vokey was guest speaker at the well attended event, where members enjoyed sharing a drink and a fishy story or two.

A highlight of the night was the announcement of two new life members - Mark Bransgrove and Phil Burton. Both Mark and Phil have made significant contributions to the club over many years and thoroughly deservethe recognition.

Here's a few pics from the night:

Denis made his final presenation as President - thank you for your years of service

Introducing two new life members! Phil Burton and Mark Bransgrove

Christmas cheer!

An animated discussion about the intricacies of balance sheets and Excel formulas. Thanks for your continued support of the club as Treasurer, James.

Two trouble makers walk into a pub...

When you forget to save a seat for a good mate. Sorry Andrew!

April with some words of wisdom for the next generation.

Next Monthly Meeting and Guest Speaker

The next Monthly Meeting will be held on 10 February at our regular venue, The Freeway Hotel, 115 Reserve Road, Artarmon, 2064 (Google maps) commencing at 7:00pm. Members will arrive from around 6pm so feel free to come early and enjoy a drink and some dinner with fellow members.

Our guest speaker for February is David Bracks. David is a Master Casting Instructor and will be providing our members with insights into his fly casting journey, the FFI (Fly Fishers International) organisation and the benefits of training and certification.

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

A well attended session to kick off 2025

By David Caddies

Practice was a bit of a trial in January due to the high humidity out in the field, but only if you overworked yourself. Nobody did that, actually.

We had 33 members and visitors turn up, which made communication a bit difficult, especially as I had chosen that day to talk about line design in the context of spey casting. Well, maybe something rubbed off, but if any message should have stuck, it is that the weight forward line that almost everybody normally uses is capable of making casts we call spey casts. You already have the line, so all you need to do now is get a few simple spey casts into your repertoire and life on the stream gets easier.

A few members had a try of a couple of trout spey outfits, being longer rods equipped with more specialized lines. These lines are specialized in the sense that although they are weight forward in profile, their use on longer rods means their tapers are proportionally longer and thicker than for shorter rods and to account for the fact that their main application utilizes roll casting as part of the casting process, not overhead casting. As fishing tools, their design is also driven by the kind of fish and their habitat which is being fished, including depth, speed of flow and bottom terrain. Not only that, but the kind of payload being cast in the form of the fly, is a main driver of line design. Two words dominate the style of lines being used: Scandi and Skagit. You may not realise that the design of your 5 or 6 weight line is now likely to be influenced by developments in the world of Scandi casting. Eg. There are lines for your 9’ rod now called “single hand spey lines” – ie a fatter-than-usual weight forward.

Unless you really want to know more about this kind of fishing, you don’t need to delve any further into it than the above. If you fish waters in Australia exclusively, your current 9’ rod and weight forward line is all you need. However, what we all should take from the world of longer rods and lines with funny names are some of the techniques that go with them, for use with our current gear. Roll casting on grass is always a bit of a challenge, so learning spey techniques is correspondingly difficult. Nevertheless, we’ll incorporate some useful stuff into practice day from time to time.

Next day, there will be more focus on getting members started on, or moving through, the Foundation, Bronze and Silver programs. That is, hands-on, straight away. The program gives you instant feedback on the state of your casting ‘health’ and what kind of pill you need to take to improve. It’s a fast diagnosis tool and a laid-down syllabus for practice on the day and in your own time. If you want to practice casting and don’t know what to practice on, come and find out. Practice without tears because you practice the right thing!

See you in the park

David

Club Monthly Casting Practice - Details and Event Schedule.

SFRC MONTHLY CASTING PRACTICE 9am Sunday 9 February 2025

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.

2025 dates for fly casting practice

9 February / 9 March / 13 April / 18 May / 8 June / 13 July /10 August /
14 September / 12 October / 9 November / 14 December

Next Fly Tying Meeting

A reminder that Fly Tying commences in a new location this year - The Freeway Hotel in Artarmon, in the same room we use for our Monthly Meetings.

The date for the event is 17 February, with doors opening at 6:30pm to give you time to set up for a 7.00pm start.

You may even like to grab a meal from the pub. We ask that you eat downstairs beforehand or on the mezzanine level in the meeting room to avoid mixing hooks, fur, feather and occasionally lead with your food!

Dave Wilson will be back in the chair hosting our monthly fly tying session. The theme for the night will be tying Beetles and Ants.

In Dave Wilson's words...

Hot windy days are a time on streams and lakes when ants and beetles provide meals on the wind for trout.

Wait for a wind gust and make it appear the ant or beetle has been blown from a tree into the shade, where without sunglasses trout usually hang out on summer days.

When fishing Gum Beetles during a fall in Tassie, it’s important to make your beetle stand out among the others with a tag, butt or “tail” to increase the “look at me” factor. Trigger points or hot spots are important “look at me” additions to flies.

After tying a very simple (but effective) ant, will tie a Narcissist Beetle that stands out above all others with its flashy looks. You will notice several YouTube demonstrators who clearly don’t know the difference between a butt, tag or tail.

All will be revealed on the night .. at our new location.

Beginners are very welcome with experienced tiers giving help.

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

We have all the necessary fly-tying materials for the flies being tied in the session. For those who don't have a vice, don't worry, we have many spare vices you can use.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.

Harrington Fly Fest

The Harrington and Coffs Coast Fly Clubs have extended an invitation to our club for the Harrington Fly Fest event that they are hosting. All the information pertaining to the event is available via the QR Code link in the flyer below or alternatively click here.

Any SFRC Members looking to attend this event will need to register their attendance of the Harrnington Fly Fest and make arrangements for their own accomodation. We do however ask that you also register your attendance on our system SFRC Register so that any other SFRC members attending, will know who else from our club is attending.

New Members

We extend a warm welcome to new members Bowen Dempsey, Russell Harte, Michael Kelly, Graham Kenny, Ariunbayar Lkhagvajav, Andrew Nettleton and Eleni Newbery.

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

VOLUME 31, ISSUE 7. February 2025

Featured content

Dates for the Diary

Fly Tying 17 February 2025: 6:30PM: Freeway Hotel, 115 Reserve Road, Artarmon

Harrington Fly Fest 28-30 March: Discovery Parks, Harrington Beach NSW

President's Report