The trip to Wherwell this year was on the same weekend as the Rugby World Cup semi-finals, this turned out to be a blessing in disguise! The weather on the Saturday morning was appalling, very heavy rain and wind gusting to 40 knots. Some brave souls ventured onto the water early but six of us met at the White Lion at 8:30 for breakfast and watched the England v New Zealand game. By 11:30 the weather situation had not changed much and continued for the rest of the day. [...]
This year’s AGM was again rather lacking in numbers but those that did attend enjoyed a sociable evening. After the business was finished and coffee and biscuits Bob Sharp and John Gamon tied us some of the flies that they have found successful this year. On the Business side at present there are 22 paid up members. The treasurer reported that the funds are healthy and that it is not proposed to increase either the annual subscription or the evening workshop/speaker subs. Pictured above are two of this year’s [...]
A report about a trip on the 1st November.
On 1st November, Bob Ayres and me were fortunate enough to get a day on the Denford Fishery on the
River Kennett. This is a small estate of mainly carrier fishing which has undergone drastic
improvements over the last 4 years, after it seems, years of neglect .As yet, it is not completely settled down.
Big catches are not yet the order of the day at Denford, the fishing, in the main, is not easy, but the Estate is very pleasant and [...]
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 [...]
Bob Sharp fished Ravensthorpe with two friends on Thursday, 28th March 2019 and had a very successful day.
The fishing in the morning started very slowly so they moved to the middle of the reservoir into the deeper water. There they found feeding fish and started catching on size 12 & 14 black buzzers, fished as a team of three on a floating line and a 6m leader.
In three hours Bob had 8 rainbows with the best being about 10lb, together with fish of 6lb and 5lb for a grand [...]
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 [...]
Tom Bird was the Guest Speaker on 7th February 2019. Tom is a member of the England Squad and the Five Nations Team and is a Ranger and Fishery Guide at Draycote Water.
Tom’s passion is fishing the dry fly on still waters and he has gained considerable experience and respect for his demonstrable skill at this aspect of fly fishing and also based on the Dry Fly Fishing Master Classes he has given at Draycote.
The first half of Tom’s presentation included all aspects of dry fly tactics on still [...]
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 [...]
Clive Collier was once again the Guest Speaker at the Christmas Special evening. The main focus of his presentation was grayling flies particularly in the context of the Hanak European Grayling Festival held on the River Dee in November of 2018. Clive demonstrated the use of Edgebrite in the tying of a grayling hare’s ear pattern with which he has had success. He also tied a Perdigon pattern which has been successful on the welsh River Dee at Llangollen followed by a Squirmy Wormy pattern tied to international rules.
Clive [...]
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 [...]
