After several years of tough fishing conditions firstly at Chew and Blagdon, and latterly at Rutland and Eyebrook, the Chiltern stalwarts decided to venture much further north this year to Stocks Reservoir in the Forest of Bowland, under the gaze of Pendle Hill, just north of Clitheroe. The reservoir is fed by the River Hodder which runs peaty with water from the fells. Because of the travelling distance,  Monday was included as a travelling day before our 3 days of fishing and return homewards on the Friday.

Stocks Reservoir Fishery [...]

Richard Ellis was the Guest Speaker on 21st March 2019. He is the Fly Tying Awards and Fly Tying Competition Secretary for the Fly Dressers’ Guild and the Treasurer of the Thames Valley Branch of the Fly Dressers’ Guild.

Richard tied six nymph patterns for still waters and rivers together with three dry fly patterns and an emerger pattern.
The nymph patterns included a buzzer tied with black wire, a variant of the Hare’s Ear nymph aimed at grayling, a variant of the Pheasant tail nymph, a so called “bottom [...]

Lindsay Simpson was the Guest Speaker on 17th January 2019. The evening commenced with a short video of his visit to Norway last year to experience the superb grayling fishing that is available.

Lindsay started by tying two grayling flies; one described as a sacrificial tag fly with a 1 gram jig back for use as the point fly and the other as a grayling nymph fished on a dropper.

These were followed by still water and reservoir patterns. Lindsay tied his version of the Grafham killer shrimp which is based [...]

The Guest Speaker on 22nd November 2018 was Caroline Emmet. Caroline is an Editor of the Fly Dresser, the journal of the Fly Dressers’ Guild which is published quarterly.

Caroline tied a number of flies, predominantly emergers based on the use of peccary quills, CDC and Elk hair. The peccary quill is a thick quill sourced from the Peccary, a small pig-like hoofed mammal with stiff quills that have alternate black/dark and cream segments. When tied as a body, a single quill creates dark and cream coloured sections reminiscent of [...]