VOLUME 31, ISSUE 9. April 2025

We held our first mid-week ‘Go For Bronze’ casting day, and it was such a success that the organisers are considering increasing the frequency from once a month. A big thanks to everyone who participated!

It was heartening to read the feedback from some of our new members who attended the Jindabyne weekend. It seems everyone had a fantastic time, most people caught at least one fish and everyone learned a lot. We are looking at putting on another Jindabyne weekend before the end of the season – details to be advised.

Dan Palmer represented the club at the CFA meeting in Jindabyne, and his report is included in this month’s edition of The Fly Rodder. He did a great job in ensuring our club was well-represented and keeping us up to date.

There are still three spots left for our Tumut trip in May. If they aren’t filled soon, we will have to cancel that part of the booking, so be sure to sign up if you're interested.

I had a great chat with Craig Somerville, one of our members who attended the inaugural Harrington Fly Fest last weekend. Forty attendees had a fantastic time learning new techniques and tips. Craig will write a full report for next month’s edition of The Fly Rodder, so stay tuned for that. I also spoke to the convenor of the activity; he was really pleased with the way the weekend went (rain notwithstanding) and it looks like this will become a regular fixture on the annual fly fishing calendar.

Our February Buy, Swap, and Sell night was a great success. If you have anything fly fishing/outdoor activity related that you want to sell, you can always advertise them in the Flyrodder. Just email the details to the editor, Jason Hemens (jasondh1972@gmail.com ).

And lastly, we are seeking a member who would take on the role of ‘Salt Water Coordinator’. This role involves planning and conducting saltwater activities in and around Sydney. If you have a passion for saltwater fly fishing and are enthusiastic about organising events, we would love to hear from you.

Thanks again to all members for your participation and enthusiasm this month. Looking forward to another busy month ahead!

Tight lines,

David

President

From the Editor

Jason with an Estuary Perch

Fellow Flyrodders,

We have a bumper edition of the Fly Rodder this month.

Thanks to new member Michael Haagensen for volunteering to write a report on the recent club trip to Jindabyne. Michael’s enthusiasm and appreciation of our club shines through.

Thanks also to regular contributor Rob Cummins for his account of a trip to New Zealand – Rob managed to fall off a cliff and catch a 6 pound PB, so he had plently to write about.

I always look forward to Bob Hart's reports about his adventures in New Zealand. Have a look at the photos from his latest contribution - either Bob is shrinking, or the trout are getting bigger.

And finally a big thank you to Committee Member Dan Palmer, who represented our club at the recent CFA meeting in Jindabyne. Dan’s comprehensive report is included in this edition of the Fly Rodder.

Cheers,

Jason Hemens - Editor

Trip Report: Jindabyne - To Nymph or Not to Nymph

By Joseph Michaels (aka Michael Haagensen)

On the weekend of 14–16 March, James Webber of the Flyrodders generously convened a weekend of fly fishing in the Snowy Mountains as a welcome event for new members. Seven immediately registered for the event – Anthony Clarke, Roy Burton, Peter Douglas, Michael Haagensen, Scott and Paula Newbery and James Webber. Sadly, due to illness Scott and Paula had to pull out, and the remaining five enjoyed the run of Piste Haus Ski Lodge.

Any trip report in the 2024/2025 season is obliged to mention yet again that fishing has been tough, and so it was on this weekend. The title of my report somewhat holds the key to who was catching and who not.

Michael and James brave the heat

As mentioned, the trip started on Friday when, on arriving at Piste Haus, I found James had also just arrived. We unpacked and possibly a little rashly, given the warm weather, headed immediately out to the Thredbo arriving in full hot sunny weather at about 2 pm. We walked downstream from the picnic area on the Perisher road for close to a kilometre in baking heat. As the river started to widen, we came across a pod of cormorants, which we sent packing down river in the direction of the lake. We assumed at that point that the birds had been working up stream, and so it would be pointless to walk any further, and we slowly fished from that point back up to our cars. Although we fished some beautiful water and the last hour afforded some cooling shade on many of the runs, the only fish sighted was a minnow-sized trout that attacked James’ fly in the bridge pool. Day 1 result? Blank! But what about the others?

As the dusk was drawing in, we headed back to Piste Haus to see who else had arrived, and whether they had faired any better. Roy Burton was there on our return, and since he had not gone out with a rod, the blank stood. Next to arrive was Anthony Clark (aka Clarky), a new member based in Bathurst, but no stranger to a fly rod. Clarky had spent the afternoon on the Thredbo upstream of the Ngarigo camping grounds and had managed to net 5 fish. Welcome and encouraging news. By now it was completely dark, but it was still some time before Peter Douglas arrived since he evidently had also been fishing on the Thredbo, at SkiTube, nabbing a total of 8 fish on dry flies in total darkness. He described how the heat of the day had caused a flurry of insect activity as night fell, and the fish had been eager to eat almost anything he threw at them.

So ‘now there were five’ and over the evening we got to know each other a little and started to consider where to fish tomorrow. Beverages were imbibed and the banter continued into the wee hours, guaranteeing that no one was heading out for a dawn raid on any of the local waters.

The next day James took Roy out to explore the Mowamba River. Roy was keen to find out where this stream was and what the fishing was like. They were confronted with rather challenging access – lots of undergrowth including impenetrable blackberry brambles. When they did find the river, they were disappointed to discover it was low with little flow, but they had come and so they tried their best. James spooked what he thought was a big fish, and sometime later when he saw the fish cruising back downstream to its favoured holding water, he alerted Roy and the next thing he heard from Roy was “I’m on”! Roy meanwhile did not have a net on him and so James came racing back from upstream to save the day, and easily the best fish of the trip at more than 3 lb was netted and recorded for all to see.

Roy Burton with the fish of the trip

Meanwhile, Clarky headed further up the Thredbo in search of its headwaters, while Michael and Peter headed to Tom Groggins, where they went to the horse camp and walked downstream some distance to slowly fish back up to the car. Michael started out fishing a dry dropper rig with a partridge and orange spider on the point, while Peter fished a single tiny nymph on a euro nymphing set-up. Michael struggled, while Peter very quickly started catching small rainbows and by lunchtime, he had netted 4 fish. After lunch, having watched Peter catch 2 of those specimens effortlessly, Michael changed to a single nymph – the closest he had to a small perdigon.

Peter Douglas onto a rainbow

And into the net! Peter's third rainbow at Tom Groggins

Peter managed 2 more, so that all up he hooked 8 and landed 6 for the session. Michael was less lucky. But there was still SkiTube and that amazing after-dark rise, so they jumped in the car.

Since Clarky had not found much water in the upper Thredbo, he also went over to Tom Groggins but he went to the campsite, where after a modest start, a group of 4WDers crossed the ford just upstream of him and stirred up a plethora of fish food resulting in a bonanza. One fish after another came to his net (also using a euro nymphing rig) and by the close of the day he had netted a grand total of 22 rainbows. By far the most numerous catch count of the trip. Clarky later suggested to me that this was more good luck than good management, as he had no idea there was such a thing as a 4-wheel-drive hatch!!

When Michael and Peter arrived at SkiTube, they immediately found small brownies rising, and they thought this was going to be a repeat of last night’s spectacular session, but it was not to be. No matter how stealthy, no matter which fly, they could not interest the fish. After failing to set the hook when a fish took his orange and partridge, Michael left in disgust in the last light of dusk, while Peter fished on and before stopping for the day, managed to catch likely the same one that Michael missed. Bugger!

View of the Thredbo on the last day before the weather closed in

River Report: As you can see from the above photo, the Thredbo is running quite low, with a few reaches (e.g. below SkiTube) close to stagnant. There is now ample algae on rocks in the slower moving stretches. The rain that fell on the last day has provided some welcome relief. With more falls this week and forecast for the coming weeks, there is a good chance it will improve for autumn and early winter fishing. The upper Murray is comparatively better; although running low, it has stronger flows through its long pools. Given the geology, the river also has some sections of fast concentrated flow, providing excellent structure for trout.

The next day we all agreed we would dine at the local pub in the evening and headed out to various locations on the Thredbo during the day. Michael was determined to try euro nymphing and after Clarky lent him his spare rod and he had tied up a few perdigons size 16 and 18, he also went out to the Thredbo. But the weather was against us all. Winds gusting to 40 km/hr made virtually all fishing impossible. Then around 2.30 it started to rain, and bit by bit everyone returned to Piste Haus to lick their wounds. To make the obvious lesson from the trip even clearer, the only fish caught that day were netted by Clarky and Peter, again using the effective nymph rig.

The pub did not disappoint. We had a lovely meal and retired to Piste Haus to consume the last of the beer and red wine in our larders. Some had an early start and so we turned in early. It was a terrific outing, as it always is in such an extraordinary landscape. The fishing was tough, but enough were caught in quite different circumstances that lessons could be learnt, and I think we are all looking forward to visiting these waters, as well as fishing together again. New waters, new friends – what more can you ask for.

Trip Report: Kiwi Kapers

Rob with a beautiful 5lb Mataura brown

By Rob Cummins

In mid March, three Flyrodders (Denis Hill, Steve Higgins and moi) along with former Flyrodder, Roger Donbavand, who flew out from England, ventured over the ditch for two weeks of troutin’, mirth and merriment on the South Island. Our trip involved a week of guided fishing in Southland on the Mataura and Waikaia Rivers around Lumsden (south of Queenstown) with Hurley’s Flyfishing followed by a week further north in the rivers around Twizel, mostly without guiding.

Tasman River valley - Mt Cook on the left

For those who have not fished in Southland, it is a completely different experience to Oz. The trout are mostly big, strong, fast, very easily spooked browns, averaging around 3 to 4 pounds, but much bigger fish are not unusual. For such big fish, they typically eat tiny (size 16 to 22) nymphs and dries, and in late summer, minuscule willow grubs (size 20) tight under the willow trees. When the real grubs are popping from the willow leaves into the water during the warmer afternoons, the browns can become fixated on them and will touch little else. For the best success, the tiny willow grub fly should be slapped down just ahead of the trout’s nose - no mean feat when the willow hangs low over the water, and if the wind is howling.

Trout delicacy - the Willow Grub

At other times, the trout may be lazing in quiet backwaters, or on inside bends, or at the foot of drop offs, which are very common on these big rivers.

With good guides, almost all fishing is by sight. Although the water is often gin clear, regular fishos like us have little hope in spotting most fish. Even when a fish is pointed out by the guide, it is not unusual to still be unable to see it, so the angler relies on the guide for direction and length.

Denis’ first of the day

Even when a fish is spotted in these waters, it’s no slam dunk to catch it. They can be absurdly spooky, very picky and often just frustratingly uninterested in eating. The perfect cast can be met with a fish scooting off, scaring the scales off any other nearby fish. Lining a fish virtually guarantees it will spook, so accuracy and length is critical. If hooked, they fight hard, fast and tough, and getting them rapidly pop on the reel is essential, always being ready to quickly strip in metres of line to maintain a bent rod when they suddenly swim straight towards you.

On a couple of days we had to endure some caramel brown water following a night of heavy rain. We all felt slightly icky after being forced to use squirmy worms as regular flies didn’t elicit a bite. We’ll recover though…

The Mataura after a deluge - Squirmy time (ugghh)

Trips like this inevitably bring some shaggy stories worth telling…

Early one morning, an unnamed individual, but for simplicity let’s call him Steve, was inelegantly hopping and straining and struggling for several minutes to pull on the second leg of his waders. In utter frustration, he wrenched off his waders to start again, only to discover he was still wearing one of his Crocs. Such an easy mistake, eh?

The heart-stopping moment of the trip came when yours truly performed a backward somersault with pike and twist when a high bank (3 to 4m high) gave way. Or maybe I tripped - I’m not sure as it happened so quickly. Anyway, I landed in the water, head first, buried in some gravel. Remarkably, my only injury was a tiny scrape on my bald bonce, and some gravel in my ears! It truly could have been horrendous, and it serves as a salient reminder to us all about the real dangers of dodgy riverbanks.

Our second week around Twizel was very different fishing, especially for Denis and me who went unguided all week. On three days, Steve and Roger used a local guide who knew all the hotspots and could regularly see fish to catch.

Steve’s superb 5 pounder

Roger with a pretty brown

Steve trying hard not to crack a smile with a stunning Waikaia brown

Roger’s fish of the trip - an Ahuriri 6.5 pounder

We fished the Tekapo, Ahuriri, Tasman and Ohau rivers. Although fish numbers were down in the second week, the scenery was incredible, with massive snow-covered mountains at the end of braided river valleys always watching over us. The water in these rivers was usually an amazing clear grey-green colour, cold and clean.

To make life even tougher, we caught the spawning run of the kokanee salmon - the land-locked version of the normally anadromous (sea-run) sockeye salmon. These small salmon die after spawning and while they are seen in their hundreds (or thousands!) they invariably refuse a fly, plus anglers are supposed to avoid targeting them. They chase each other constantly and tend to spook any trout in the area. Although it was fascinating to watch them, we ultimately cursed them! We all strongly recommend that anyone fishing around Twizel (or Wanaka) should absolutely steer clear of the salmon run which is through March and into early April.

Salmon, salmon everywhere. Such a PITA!

I must mention one particular fish. Denis and I were having a tough day on the beautiful Tasman River when late in the day Denis spotted a big brown lazing in a quiet edge. Denis was having one of those days when his line was constantly tangled, so he offered the fish to me - what a guy! I knew I’d only get one shot, so after a distance-testing cast well to the side, I landed my tiny dry (a size 18 Dad’s Favourite) about 40cm in front of the trout’s schnoz. It absolutely monstered the dry, I lifted and all hell broke loose. It took off upstream and down, back upstream after Denis touched it with the net, it jumped, became tail-wrapped, then turned downstream again, so we both chased it down the river. I was struggling to steer it towards the bank due the tail-wrap, but after a chase of about 100m, Denis heroically swiped the net around this gorgeous 6lb brown buck - my personal best ever on fly. Thank you Denis - you made my trip with your generosity and netting skills!

Rob’s 6lb PB. With help from Denis

Twizel is famous for its huge (20lb plus) trout caught in the canals near a king salmon farm. These trout stuff themselves on the leftover food from the farms but can be caught on lure or fly. The canal banks are packed with (mostly lure) fishos, but we refused to join the circus until our last day when boots and waders had to be left to dry (to keep Oz Customs happy). Although we saw several average sized trout, we couldn’t get any to take a fly. We claimed the high ground though as we didn’t shame ourselves by stooping to use a fly shaped like a salmon farm pellet. Yes, these exist! Squirmies were bad enough, but pellets? Nup. Some people rave about the canals but we didn’t really see the appeal.

The other three then flew home, but I stayed behind to be joined by my wife for a three week road trip of the South Island. Tough, I know.

It was such a fun two weeks, and it was fantastic to have Roger join us from the UK. We all caught some incredible fish, enjoyed lots of laughs and maybe a glass or six of medicinal red, which helped with the lurgy we all caught from one of the guides. Sad, but true.

In summary, every serious fly fisher must visit New Zealand at least once. It is truly an exceptional experience. You’ll test every aspect of your skills, but be rewarded with some amazing fish and locations.

Denis happy with a Mataura brown

Trip Report: New Zealand

Bob with a magnificent 7 pound brown

By Bob Hart

I started fishing at Fairlie on the South Island. The weather was very good throughout my stay, although it was cool. I was told by the locals that they did not have any warm days during summer, which was most unusual. However, rivers had good water levels, and flows.

On our first day we headed up to the mountains, where we had fabulous weather, sunny, and hardly any wind, which is a rare event in that area. Fishing mainly dry flies such as blow flies #12, we released brown trout of 7 pounds, 6 ¾ pounds and 6 pounds, as well as several rainbows averaging 4 - 5 pounds. In short, a great day. For the rest of my stay we released an average of six fish per day averaging around the 4-5 pound mark. When we did use nymphs, they were #16.

Next stop was Twizel, where the weather was fabulous - warm and sunny; a typical summer’s day. Our first day we fished the Ahuriri, which is noted for its big browns, however, not this year. We released around seven fish, mainly hooked on nymphs, but they were around 2 to 3 pounds. The next day we fished the Tekapo River, which fished very well on dry flies with fish around the 4 pound mark. All and all, a wonderful day.

Last stop on the South Island was Te Anua. Here, we fished a combination of dry and nymph fishing, with the Matura River fishing dry flies. On the South Island I used my Sage XP 5 weight.

Our last fishing destination was on the North Island; the small town of Murupara, noted for its timber industry. Wading a small stream, with my friend Murray, we released an average of ten fish per day, the great majority rainbows of about 2 pounds, and most on small dries such as #16 and #18 parachute Adams. As we were fishing a small river I used my glass Epic 580 on my dry flies, and if a nymph was used, which was not that often, we used the Sage XP 6 weight. The nice thing about the glass rod is that when you have a two pound rainbow on, it felt like a whale was hooked. I mean that rod really bends, when a smaller fish is on. Although only 8 feet long, the glass rod is a lot heavier than a carbon rod of the same line class that is one foot longer. But on smaller rivers, and fish, the glass rod is really a lot of fun to use.

We were very lucky with the weather, although on the North Island, local people were complaining that the weather was too cool for summer. Luckily, the fish did not mind the below average temperature.

Tight lines to you all.

A solid six pounder

CFA Meeting Report

By Dan Palmer

In early March, the NSW Council of Freshwater Anglers held the Fishing for the Future conference at the Gaden Trout Hatchery in Jindabyne, discussing fishery and habitat management to sustain our recreational freshwater fishery.

Gaden Trout Hatchery

The day kicked off with a talk on what the hatchery does and a tour of the facilities. The hatchery has recently completed a major $8.6m upgrade, which included recirculating aquaculture tanks housed within a new hatchery building.

Hatchery manager Mitch Elkins took us on a tour of the existing ponds holding Rainbows, Browns, Brooks and Atlantic Salmon. While they sustain a healthy population, Mitch pointed out that over the summer there were periods where the temperature of the water feeding in from the Thredbo river was as high as 27°C.

We were then ushered into the rather impressive new hatchery building that houses the recirculating tanks, which gives the team complete control over the environment of the fingerlings. These tanks are more efficient, with up to 50kg of biomass per cubic meter produced. The visitor and education centre has also received an upgrade and I’d highly recommend a visit when the hatchery reopens to the public in the coming months.

Upper Murrumbidgee restoration project

Antia Brademann, the Waterwatch Coordinator and Facilitator of the Upper Murrumbidgee Demonstration Reach presented on the importance of habitat restoration, showcasing her work on the upper Murrumbidgee. The Upper Murrumbidgee region is particularly important as it contains naturally spawning populations of both Macquarie perch and Murray Cod. Degradation of riparian vegetation, fish habitats and erosion have led to a significant decline in river health. Antia’s work focuses on the removal of invasive weeds such as Willows, restoring the riparian vegetation and improving fish habitat on the river bed.

Macquarie Perch and Trout Cod rehabilitation project

Luke Pearce, the Senior Fisheries Manager for Habitat Rehabilitation in the NSW Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development presented his work on rehabilitating populations of Trout Cod, or Blue nose as he prefers to call them, and the Macquarie Perch, or the Macca.

A once abundant species, the Macquarie Perch now occupies only 200km of streams across the entirety of NSW. Since European settlement there has been a 90% reduction in the population in the Murray Darling Basin and ~90% of the total biomass within the basin is made up of alien species.

Luke played a key role in the relocation of trout from Winburndale Dam to the Mill Pond in Portland – a project that benefited both conservation efforts and local anglers. While the dam and rivulet support a self-sustaining population of Brown Trout, there is no public access for anglers. Meanwhile, the Macquarie Perch has been reintroduced to these waters in an effort to establish a thriving population. Interestingly, observations from this project suggest that when populations are balanced, Macquarie Perch and trout may be capable of coexisting in a healthy ecosystem with abundant food sources.

The Trout Cod has seen a similar decline in population, until the 1980s, there was only one wild remnant population remaining in the Murray river. Despite the establishment of a captive breeding program, populations are limited to the Murray River between the Yarrawonga Weir and Barmah. Efforts are underway to increase numbers of stocking and fast track the recovery of populations. The government has recently released the trout cod 10 year action plan which can be viewed here. The plan in summary is to expand the captive breeding program, establish a minimum of three new viable populations and begin monitoring of populations to demonstrate the increase in abundance, distribution and genetic diversity.

The day closed with an open discussion led by NSW CFA president Gary Bickford. This highlighted the need for greater efforts towards conservation and habitat restoration and further funding from the New South Wales and Commonwealth government for conservation projects as a priority. The CFA have acknowledged the need to improve their communication strategy and overhauling their membership structure in order to better represent recreational anglers and attract a more diverse membership.

Attendees were in agreement that the day was informative, produced valuable insights and would like to see it return next year, so I’d encourage anyone with an interest in trout management and conservation to follow the NSW CFA.

New recirculating tanks in the hatchery facility

Luke Pearce presenting on Macquarie Perch

Queueing up for lunch

A few browns about on the Thredbo

Last Month's Meeting - Buy, Swap, Sell

Our last monthly meeting was a 'Buy, Swap, Sell'. There was a large turnout of members looking to trade, sell or pick up a few bargains.

With so many items on display, our regular meeting room looked more like a weekend market. Here's a few pics of the evening, thanks to Peachy:

Next Monthly Meeting

The next Monthly Meeting will be held on the 14 April 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.

Pete Gouw of Nervous Waters will be our guest speaker for the evening.

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

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.

Looking forward to catching up at the meeting.

For those members unable to attend our meetings, we take videos of presentations and uploading them to our Club Members Private Video Library on YouTube. Below is a graphic showing where you can access them from the members section of our website:

Last Month's Casting Practice Report

Jodi Bird achieved his FFI Bronze Level Certification

By David Caddies

There were a dozen of us at Sunday casting practice in March, which is sort of a ‘cozy’ number these days.

During the exercises we did on the day you could have, as the saying goes, ‘thrown a blanket over the lot of us’ at any time, so closely did we stick together in very focused activities. We drilled down into the most basic of casting mechanics. To add some novelty, we tried and studied various ways to stuff up our casts, all in the pursuit of understanding more about what is ‘right’ and how to make casts which are right, or at least better.

Also somewhat different was that, except for about 15 minutes of the whole session, only one of us had a rod in hand at any one time. The other 11 were under the spotlight to observe and help the one with the rod achieve his target. Everybody had a turn – well, 3 casts in fact, with each of 3 identical rods and lines. Progress and improvement was mapped by analysing the result of the first cast, which was left on the grass wherever it lay. The object was to look carefully at that attempt, get help from the brains trust for ideas on how to improve, then have the next cast, then repeat. If you think that takes trust in your fellow members, you are right. Everybody was appropriately civilized, polite and constructive. Not to mention that onlookers usually see a whole lot more about your cast than you do – especially when there is a whole bunch of them. Shared success (meaning noticeable improvement, not necessarily actually hitting the bullseye) can be very positive. Especially if they burst into spontaneous applause – which they did.

The object of the exercise was to not only work on improving a particular type of casting stoke but to experience the process of detailed observation and applying diagnostic skills into meaningful feedback, whether to yourself or others – in this case, both. Overall, everybody spent much more time analysing casting strokes than actually casting. It’s not something we do all the time as a group, but nearly all the one-on-one moments at casting practice involve feedback one way or another.

Do I think people should go through all this analytical feedback process when fishing? Maybe every now and then, but its best application is to make casting practice more effective. Overthinking your casting performance when fishing can ruin your day, so don’t get into that.

See you in the park

David

Some photos from casting practice - thanks Gavin van der Wagen:

Club Monthly Casting Practice - Details and Event Schedule.

SFRC MONTHLY CASTING PRACTICE 9am Sunday 13 April 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

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

Last Month's Fly Tying Meeting

At our March Fly Tying Meeting, 13 members tied foam and deer hair HOPPERS. The main skills applied to the deer hair hopper were spinning deer hair and being able to apply both loose shaping wraps and tight binding wraps in the right places to control flair.

Next Fly Tying Meeting

The next Fly Tying Meeting will be held on 28 April at the Freeway Hotel, 115 Reserve Road, Artarmon. The doors will open at 6:30 pm to give you time to set up for a 7:00 pm start in the room we use for our Monthly Meeting.

We will be tying a Caddis adult and lava.

The ELK HAIR CADDIS dry fly is a “go to” for many. In Australia it is an excellent imitation of a Snowflake Caddis and in tan colours for the cinnamon caddis found in lower areas. Craig Coltman, (captain of the Australian Fly-Fishing team for many years), adds an orange tag to his “Championship Caddis”. Tom Jarman(Guide extraordinaire and Australian team member) adds an orange sighter at the front of his. Both use bleached Elk Hair and Craig adds CDC to his wing.

We have found Sheep Hair is a superior substitute to Elk Hair as it is less inclined to flair, floats well due to natural lanolin and is cut to shape rather than stacked.

The PEEPING CADDIS imitates various cased stick caddis lava. Varied species create different cases in shape and material depending on where they live. An interesting innovation by Peter Hayes (Australian casting Champion for many years) is to use a slip of yellow glove rubber to introduce more movement to the peeping lava. Interesting to note that the free-swimming uncased caddis (hydropsyche) uses a silk net to catch passing food is the classic “Czech Nymph”. Best tied on a curved hook as they “curl” when tumbling in the current.

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.

New Members

We extend a warm welcome to new member Jonathan Wright.

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