VOLUME 32, ISSUE 2. August 2025

After a very brave fight, our Life Member, friend and fishing companion, Mark Bransgrove passed away early in July. Mark was sent off in fine fashion with a large contingent of Flyrodders attending the funeral and, with fly roids held high providing a ‘guard of honour’ at the start and finish of the service. Mark had a large impact on the club and many of its members and his passing will be felt by many.

On a high note – at the end of the month, club member Steve Peach was notified that he had been selected as a member of the Australian Masters Team for the 2026 World Masters Fly Fishing Championships being held in Norway in August next year. Between now and then there will be a number of activities conducted by the club to help fund the team (Steve advised me that the rules state that individuals can’t fund raise but it can be done on behalf of the team).

There are still 80 members of the club who haven’t renewed their membership for the current financial year. If you are having financial difficulties, please contact me directly and we can come to a confidential arrangement.

During the month we conducted the annual tie-in. This year the emphasis was on skills improvement and from all accounts all those who attended improved their skills, ranging from a couple of members who had never tied a fly to some who have been tying flies for many years. A huge shout out to Dave Wilson for planning and conducting the activity and those more experienced tyers (Phil Burton and John Vaccaro) who took some of the newer tyers under their wings.

By now you would have received a number of emails regarding a major raffle that we are conducting. The raffle will be drawn at the August club meeting and tickets can be purchased online prior to the meeting or at the August meeting. A day on the harbour with Justin Duggan is a prize well worth spending a few dollars on.

The morning of Sunday 24 August will see our second saltwater activity, this time conducted at Banjo Paterson Reserve at Gladesville. At the time of writing this report there was still one position available.

This month’s guest speaker is Jo Starling who will be speaking on her experiences on the side-line of the World Ladies Championships and women in fly fishing in Australia. One of my objectives as President is to increase the number of women in the club and I hope that some of Jo’s insights will assist with this.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the committee for their hard work as well as those club members (David Wilson, David Caddies, George Nolevski and Gavin van der Wagen) for their conduct of our regular monthly activities.

Tight lines and stay safe.

David

President

From the Editor

Jason with a bass after dark on the Grose River

Fellow Flyrodders,

On a recent trip to TCD, I noticed a fly fisherman sitting by himself under the shade of a tree, looking out over the water.

“Any luck?” I asked casually.

He shook his head. Neither of us had seen a trout all day.

“I keep coming back though,” he said. “For the chance to catch one of the monsters out there. Well over ten pounds, some of them.”

“Is that right?” I said, suspiciously.

“Let me tell you a story about my twin boys and you can make up your own mind about TCD. When they were babies, one always looked to the left and the other to the right. I named them Forward and Away.

They grew up to be brilliant fly fishers. One evening we came here after work and saw a brown trout cruising along the edge, chasing baitfish. Just down there.”

He pointed to a small cove along the eastern bank.

“That fish was well over ten pounds. My son Forward landed a size 18 black nymph in front of the fish and hooked up. Fought the fish for ten minutes before he slipped and was pulled under the water. Never saw him again.”

“That’s terrible,” I said.

"It was," he replied. "But you should've seen the one that got Away."

Jason Hemens - Editor

Last Month's Club Meeting

By Jason Hemens

At last month's meeting, David Blackwell gave an informative and humorous presentation about a recent fly fishing trip with fellow club member Rupert Morton to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Not only did we hear about the fly fishing on offer in this part of the world, particularly for the hard fighting grayling, we were also taken through the history of the region. David had put a lot of effort into the presentation and provided a detailed overview of the trip, all the way down to a summary of costs.

The only figure which seemed dubious was the bar tab, which was surprisingly low. Members concluded this may have been a precautionary measure in case the costings were reviewed by better halves.

Thanks David for taking the time to put together an excellent presentation for club members.

Some photos from 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:

Next Monthly Meeting

The next Monthly Meeting will be held on the 11 August 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.

We are very excited to have Jo Starling as our guest speaker for the evening. She will be sharing the lessons she learned on the recent World Ladies Fly Fishing Championship held in Idaho (why she was on the sidelines is a story in itself). Jo will also talk about women in fly fishing in Australia.

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.

Last Month's Casting Practice Report

By David Caddies

Sydney’s winter makes the outdoors the place to be when the sun shines. Fourteen of us did that the last casting practice day. Quite a few things stood out for me that day and I have enjoyed their recollection and turning them over in my mind over the past weeks. This is actually my excuse to myself (and to Editor Jason) for not writing this piece sooner. Coming to write about them now, they seem less significant in the telling. You can judge.

1. The scary 20 and 25 foot accuracy cast.

Everyone knows (?thinks) this is a very challenging cast: harder than 35 feet for example. Sometimes you can just fluke it (ie flopping out the line in the general direction with much rod-swishing hoping the fly will flutter down on the target). But those who can only fluke need not apply when the wind blows. Even if it’s not windy, the fly nearly always falls short. There’s a necessary technique and it rests on confidence to work out the right amount of line, cast a narrow loop (not a domed shape arch) with the correct downward adjustment of casting angle.

Actually, the bit that I spent time thinking about was not the technique but, because most of the members present showed real progress in trying it, how is it that this particular cast be learnt relatively quickly compared with some casts which just take a long time of serious practice towards incremental improvement? Such as, the difference between making a reach mend cast, which takes a lot of practice, compared with being able to hit a target 20’ away quite quickly just because someone showed you the ‘trick’ and it happened to be within your normal skill range – you just didn’t know the ‘how’ part of it. Something like the difference between slow food and fast food. Some improvements come slowly: some come fast. Message for learning – regularly pick some low-hanging fruit, as it’s good for morale.

2. How serious are you about catching that fish?

Here’s the scenario: You have seen a few fish and caught a couple on dries and terrestrials. It’s been windy all day. The fish you have your eye on is fairly close within range of a shortish cast and is fully engaged in feeding in a sheltered backwater. It’s not moving far from its station as it rises to eat what seem to be a steady stream of near-invisible surface and sub-surface insects. The fish have generally been spooky today. You are rigged with a short, heavy leader better suited to the open stream and you have a dry/dropper rig on with a grasshopper on the top dropper and a nymph on the point.

Let’s assume that the better rig to present to this fish would be a small dry or emerger on a light leader, the grasshoppers having stopped moving about and some insect hatches are occurring.

I started thinking on this because one of the members at casting practice said they were told by a guide to ‘just have a go’ at a particular fish with a rig which angler and guide knew was unsuited to the conditions. In other words, “you are an outside chance on this one but it doesn’t matter”. I don’t know all the circumstances but I do have a particular view of what ‘matters’.

What weighs on the mind of an angler as they decide whether to take their chances right away and present with the rig they already have on, or to spend time changing to the more likely rig?

Here are some of the possible thought processes:

(i) Can’t be bothered changing, so give it a crack with rig as is, but not really a chance at all. Go through the motions.

(ii) This top dropper worked earlier today on other fish so it is a slim chance.

(iii) There will likely be more chances at other fish if I miss this one. I’ll get more fish for the day by not wasting too much time on this one.

(iv) I can’t be bothered changing and all I’ll do is spook it if I try so I’ll leave this fish alone – make no cast. (If you are this guy and you do make the cast, you really are a number (i) aren’t you?)

(v) I’m going to spend the time to change my rig. I don’t care if there are plenty of other fish in the water; this is the present opportunity and I must be deliberate about giving myself the best opportunity to catch this fish. I own this fish. The discipline is good for me. (Ouch!). I meant the challenge).

I assume you face these situations and have made decisions such as set out above. Obviously the choices are not always clear and pragmatism is not necessarily a bad thing. However, fishing with the fly is not easy, but now that you’ve taken up this ‘not easy’ sport, give some thought to which of the above choices (i) to (v) you usually make. And, why is that?

3. Bricks and mortar fly shops.

Heard examples of great service from actual fly (and general tackle) shops. Sadly, their numbers are dwindling. Take your kids to one soon. Wiggle a rod. Give them the same memories you have.

See you in the park.

David

Some photos from casting practice, courtesy of Gavin van der Wagen

Club Monthly Casting Practice - Details and Event Schedule.

SFRC MONTHLY CASTING PRACTICE 9am Sunday 10 August 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

10 August / 14 September / 12 October / 9 November / 14 December

Last Month's Annual Tie-In

By Dave Wilson

Our annual Club Tie-In was held on Saturday 19 July. It was a skills improvement workshop aimed at members new to fly tying and others who just wanted to improve. I was ably assisted by Phil Burton and John Vaccaro who were kept very busy supporting those who were tying flies for the first time. A big thankyou to Phil and John for their help.

After a quick spiel on “Twisting Threads beyond Colour”, the Tie-In tradition of a morning tea of scones, jam and cream was served - then we got serious.

As tying random patterns is bad for learning, the patterns we used in the workshop were chosen only for their skill content. These skills are included in almost all patterns known to man.

The group of 15 consisted of several individuals who had never really tied before or had attended only one or two Club Fly Tying Nights.

Our agenda was built on attendee feedback which ranged from “I’m an open book” and “never tied a fly” to “I’d like to focus on my dubbing skills etc”. Some members nominated patterns they would like to tie. We therefore switched the usual Hare and Copper with Gehard Benze’s Clumsy (which is really a hackle-less mini-Wooley Bugger) but using the same 6 core skills as a Hare & Copper. We also tied a Bead Head Flash Back Nymph in lieu of a Hares Ear Nymph at member request. The addition of a bead forces tiers to learn how to whip finish. We also focussed on tying both conventional and parachute hackles along with a couple of techniques applied lead weighting and peacock herl application.

Because of the limitation of the 11am Hotel start, we did not have time to tie a fly containing 19 FFi skills! Also, in the interests of time we opted for demonstrations on tying weed and cabbage flies requested by couple of members. (Q: How many skills does a Cabbage Fly contain? A: Just two .. hardly a learning fest!)

It was great to see the skills progress and quality of flies tied for the first time. As with any new skill, practice and repetition are critical. They say that “practice makes perfect, however, without feedback too many people practice the wrong thing. So, attending both fly tying and casting sessions where feedback occurs, leads to rapid skills advancement. Constructive feedback is always available at Fly Tying nights. To be an all-round fly fisher you need to be able to tie your own flies.

See you at the next Fly-Tying Night!

---

A selection of flies from the Annual Tie-In:

xxx

Next Fly Tying Meeting

The next monthly fly tying meeting will be held on 18 August at The Freeway Hotel in Artarmon in the room we use for our Monthly Meeting 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. 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!)

The theme for the night will be tying the Carey Special and Spiders.

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.

Event Organiser

If you have questions, please email the event organiser, David Blackwell.

New Members

We extend a warm welcome to new members Steven Bradford, Ross Isles, Vikas Khanna and Tony Layton.

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

Piste Haus Ski Lodge - Jindabyne

The Fly Rodders have access to the Piste Haus Ski lodge in Jindabyne during the off season at an affordable rate:

Positioned in Jindabyne village walking distance to Banjo Patterson Pub and short drive to shops/restaurants/etc.
8 bedrooms, mix of doubles, twins, triples and bunks
Sleeps 14 all up and 10 comfortably
$75/room/night
SFRC get access from October to end May (off-season for skiing)
Large open plan and well-appointed shared kitchen, dining and relaxation area with log stove
Bring your own linen, towels, pillow, sleeping bag, blanket
Parking for up to 4 or 5 cars on site and others on the street

The syndicate that owns Piste Haus has been very generous in allowing the Sydney Flyrodders access to this excellent facility at such a low price. Therefore, we encourage members to feel free to make use of this offer (either in groups or as individuals – it does not have to be an official club trip), as long as we always remember to follow the house rules and leave the place clean and tidy.

If you are interested in booking please reach out to James Webber (treasurer@sydneyflyrodders.com.au

https://pistehaus.com.au