T H E F L Y D R E S S E R S ’ G U I L D

EDITORIAL CHANGE We are very sorry to advise that we are losing Andy Steer as Editor. Andy has been a stalwart of the Branch and we are grateful for all his hard work keeping us up to date with the Branch’s activities. Roy Gurney will be temporary editor whist a replacement is found.

ARLINGTON OUTING

Thursday 26th May 2016 The Branch annual outing to Arlington has been arranged for Thursday 26

th May – get your

application in URGENTLY to Roy Gurney as we have to book in advance for the preferential rates – also needing to know numbers so we can get the drinks and sandwiches ordered! Those who can’t make it during the day can have a wonderful evening’s fishing as we gather at the lodge for refreshments about 8.30 pm onwards. If you’ve mislaid your entry form, E-mail Roy at fdgsussex@capel29.plus.com or phone 01273 581519 immediately.

CASTING CLINIC Thursday 19th May 2016

We will be holding a free casting clinic on the evening of Thursday 19

th May, starting from 6.30

pm, at Stanmer Park. There is plenty of parking and the site will probably be just on the left after the entrance (depends if there are any other activities which might clash). We all need a “refresher” so do come along and benefit from those instructors who give their services gratis.

Big Fish Competitions 2015 Peter West Trophy (Best Rainbow from Sussex water) Chris Croucher 8 lb 8 oz Jack Jupp Memorial Trophy (Best bag at Ashbourne outing) Ray Burt 7 lb Brown Trout Cup (Best Brown from Sussex water) Tony Harrison 6 lb 9 oz Members’ Reservoir Plate (Best Fish from Sussex Reservoir) John Plowman 7 lb 4 oz John Leitch Brown Trout Cup (Best Brown from Sussex Reservoir or River) No entries Bewl Pairs Competitions Frank Darrah Memorial Trophy

Ray Love & David Painter Charity Pairs Chris Croucher & Paul Daltrey

Branch Trophy Day – Duncton Mill Jimmy James Memorial Trophies (Best Bag) Winner Paul Daltrey 13 lb 8 oz Runner-up Ray Burt 13 lb 6 oz Plowman Trophy (Best fish)

Tony Harrison 5 lb 14 oz Best Brown, Tiger or Brook trout

Andy Dunk 5 lb 4 oz Gemma Winder Trophy (4 Lake Challenge)

None completed Peter Neave Trophy (Best Arctic Char)

Ian Dunk 5 lb 7½ oz

Stillwater Challenge – Chalk Springs Jim White Pairs Nigel Duckworth &

Paul Davis Best fish Chris Croucher 8 lb 8 oz Best bag Chris Croucher 17 lb 1 oz

Brass Monkeys Day 2016

Best fish Nathan Winter 4 lb 1 oz (Brown) Best bag Peter Naisbit 7 lb 11 oz

New date for your diary HOG ROAST

Sunday 3rd July 2016

Sussex Branch

Newsletter

A P R I L / M A Y 2 0 1 6

Chairman’s Chat This is another unusual one; a distillery in Scotland asked us to install a screening system and to design a fish pass to allow adult salmon to ascend an intake. The spawned adults would produce smolts which would descend the river on their way to the sea, passing through the distillery water intake system. If screened out by conventional screes, this would result in massive smolt mortalities. If the river water only had the larger floating debris removed by wide bar screens, the smolts would end up in the distillery. So what to do? We recommended and designed our Smolt Safe Screen which was based on finely perforated sloping plates using the surplus water from the burn to wash the smolts over the screen to a channel downstream. The perforations in the screen would allow the extracted water for the distillery to be taken, almost clear of debris. That is straight forward; laser technology would produce the stainless steel plates, perforated by any shapes required. So what was the outcome, the Engineer for the distillery decided to copy our design but use mild steel screening plates, he also reduced the angle of the screen. Consequently his screen trapped smolts due to lack of gradient on the screen and it became a smolt killer. The mild steel screen plates rusted, the perforation areas reduced and restricted water flowing to the distillery. So this multimillion distillery project, to increase output came to a grinding halt. It served him right.

Tony W.

The Client viewing his failed screening

system partially copied from our design.

PROGRAMME There have been a few changes and additions to the programme, so with this newsletter the current edition is attached. It will be updated periodically and will be regularly updated on the website – sorry if we’ve been a bit behind lately!

April Speaker

ESOX Ice Fishing It was a great pleasure to welcome back Diane and Steve from ESOX ON ICE whose previous visit last November was disrupted by the beginning of the parking saga at Patcham, coupled with horrendous weather. They gave us a superb account of ice fishing in temperatures down to -30º for some of the most handsome pike in conditions that one could only imagine. Despite many of us having been at the first talk, there was no lack of interest as more and more new twists to the art were revealed – indeed there seemed to be little repetition and we were treated to a most informative presentation. Suffice it to say that no-one left before the end – it was our latest finish of the season which shows the fascination of the subject. Nevertheless, I suspect it would take a brave man to organize a trip for our members which would make the Brass Monkeys seem a summer picnic! But, who knows – the interest was keen, despite one venerable member saying: “I found this really weird. Would you want to go to that expense and discomfort to go fishing? Are they taking people to Canada to Ice fish or are they just enthusiasts? Do they do this for a living? “I also found their approach to tackle weird. I cannot see that you can hand line a 20 lb pike in. The “rods” were pathetic and the interest in the ice fishing targets surprised me. “I must be getting cynical……….” (It should be pointed out that the individual did miss the first talk when the need for handlining was explained in greater detail and also a bigger rod in a tent might cause a bit of havoc! – Ed.)

Diane is keen to come back with tales of angling for catfish and other delights, which led them to ice fishing in the first place, and we look forward to that date sometime in the near future.

Shades of ESOX?

BUILT WING SALMON FLY WORKSHOP

This is a unique opportunity for members to learn new techniques and to benefit from lots of tips and suggestions which are relevant to everyday tying. For the last three years Alan Middleton has run this workshop, during which two flies are tied, one of which is a built wing salmon fly. As this can take 4-5 hours to do, it is not possible to fit this into normal evening meetings, and Alan, who ties in excess of 5,000 flies each winter, is ideally equipped to pass on his knowledge and expertise to the nine members who attended (a badly cut thumb and ‘flu meant two others couldn’t make it). The room was set up in the form of a U-shaped table with Alan at the head so all can see, and at 9 am a start was made on the flies – the built wing Beresford’s Fancy and the Culdrain salmon/sea trout fly.

Beresford’s Fancy

The flies were tied in stages – Alan tying half of the body as we gathered around, then back to our vices to try to emulate his efforts. Those of us who had not tied a built-wing fly before soon discovered it is all about accuracy and proportions. Once the rear of the body was complete we again huddled round Alan’s demonstration for the front half - then back again to our vices. During this, Alan kept us all supplied with coffee and biscuits with lashing of encouragement and practical tips. By late morning we had all completed creditable fly bodies and could now concentrate on the piece.de resist-ance - the building of identical wings Alan explained that a wing feather is not unlike Velcro and when preening with their beaks they are in effect zipping them back together. From a fly-tyer’s perspective the key factor is that fibres from a left wing will only zip with other left-wing fibres (and right with right). The ideal width of wing is about 24 or 25 fibres, which gives lots of permutations, e.g. 8 strands 3 materials, 6 of 4, 5 of 5 and so-on, depending on the pattern and how brave you feel! He told us of a Japanese tyer who used 25 different fibres to form each wing! Putting theory into practice is never easy, especially wiggling small slips of feather together so they join, but with lots of help and

encouragement all the group managed to build two wings. The next challenge was to attach these very fragile built wings to the top of the hook, either side of Golden Pheasant. Ideally you need three hands – two to grip the wings and wiggle them into a “V” and a third to put the bobbin over in a ”pinch and loop” before pulling upwards, compressing and attaching the wing – and, hey presto, you are nearly there! Just a few more attachments and most of the group ended with a credible Beresford’s Fancy. The second fly tied was the Culdrain, a large black shrimp imitation. By this time, the group were in fine fettle and finished it in 45 minutes (no doubt spurred on by the fact that England were due to play Wales in the 6 Nations at 5 pm!).

The Culdrain

To sum up, Alan put together another brilliant day and everyone got a lot out of it,with all the new skills and tips transferable to regular fly-tying. The next stage is to mount one or both flies into clear acetate as a paperweight or in a frame. This was done on a Thursday evening and some results are shown below.

The word of Alan’s expertise and fun teaching is spreading far and wide, as he has been asked to do another all-day workshop for Wessex Branch. Finally, a very big thank you to the Branch for supplying both the room and all the materials, and from the “class of 2016” a special thanks to Alan for sharing his enthusiasm and passion for fly-tying, for his tips and suggestions and for his humour and patience which made for a unique and great day out.

Tony Harrison

Competitions and Outings Bill Smith has arranged a fine programme for this season and you will all have received entry forms for the various events. Please, please let the organisers of each event have your entries as soon as possible as it is necessary in most cases that the venues require confirmation of numbers and sometimes deposits in advance. For the benefit of new members, it should be stressed that all our events are intended for enjoyment, and “competition” is really an excuse to get together in a friendly atmosphere – an opportunity to meet up with fellow anglers. Do come along to as many as you can – we look forward to seeing you! A copy of the fishing programme is also sent with this newsletter, as well as being included in the full programme.

Darrah Pairs Competition April 2016

This year the number of anglers participating was regrettably low: just eight. However, these hardy souls ventured out on to a sunny but cold Bewl Water to compete for the Darrah trophy. My boat partner, Alan Wells, and I started drifting from the main bowl towards Chigley wood and after an hour and several drifts without contact with a trout we moved to the seven pound creek region again with no success. The chief ranger, Rob Barden, had recommended four areas to try and so far his first two had drawn a blank. Our third area was the bank between Ferry point and Monty's seat. Here we met Ray Love and David Painter who had started here and for obvious reasons had not moved. David already had six fish and Ray two! Alan and I fished further along the bank but with no success. It was now time for lunch. From the lunchtime conversations it was clear that some anglers had caught just one or two and a few like me had none. Only David and Ray had really succeeded. During the afternoon session Alan missed two fish and eventually caught one on a buzzer while I still blanked so that when all boats weighed in at five pm the total caught by eight anglers was eighteen trout but since David and Ray had ten you can see the rest of us did not do so well! The largest fish was caught by Chris Nunn at

3lb. 14oz. and the trophy for this year goes to David and Ray. In early season reservoir fishing success often comes to those who locate the fish quickly and the stay with them. Later in the year as the water warms up the fish are more widespread and surface activity gives an indication of where they are located. My thanks to all those who took part and congratulations to David and Ray. I hope to see more of you at next year's competition and at the Charity Pairs event in the autumn.

John Plowman

Parking at Patcham

At long last the problems of parking on Thursday evenings have been resolved. For the last night and hopefully for next September onwards, we will enjoy seeing more of you in attendance as we thrive on having everyone joining in, whether tying or just chatting. We start again with a speaker on 1

st September

so make it a date in your diary! In the meantime come and join us on some of the outings arranged – get those entry forms completed!

STOP PRESS!

BARCOMBE RESERVOIR

With regard to the recent interest shown in re-opening Barcombe for fishing, we have now had a definitive response from South East Water – and it is not good news. They say that “with the increased spotlight on security issues, we cannot foresee a scenario where the main site could be re-opened for fishing.” The problem is that the only access to the site is directly through the treatment plant, and, given the close proximity of the processing and industrial elements, unsupervised access would be unacceptable, Still, it was worth trying – but a sad loss of fine “top of water” sport nevertheless.

27th November 2016 2016 FLY FAIR

Published by the Sussex Branch of the Flydressers’ Guild

Chairman: Tony Woolnough 01273 483833 Secretary: Paul Bond 01273 420410 Treasurer: Roy Gurney 01273 506184

Temporary Editor: ROY GURNEY

29 Capel Avenue, PEACEHAVEN, BN10 8NB

E-MAIL: fdgsussex@capel29.plus.com

Visit our web site

Sussexflydressers.org.uk

T H E F L Y D R E S S E R S ’ G U I L D - S U S S E X B R A N C H

P R O G R A M M E 2 0 1 6

P L E A S E N O T E T H A T F L Y - T Y I N G A N D S P E A K E R S ’ E V E N I N G S A R E H E L D

E V E R Y T H U R S D A Y E V E N I N G S T A R T I N G F R O M 7 . 3 0 P M A T P A T C H A M

C O M M U N I T Y C E N T R E , L A D I E S M I L E R O A D , B R I G H T O N , B N 1 8 T A

ALL ARE WELCOME TO SPEAKERS’ EVENINGS AND AUCTIONS

MONTH DATE & DAY EVENT

ORGANISER

May 2016 1st (Sunday) Match v. Eastbourne F F - Arlington Reservoir Bill Smith

14th (Saturday) Match v. Sussex S&TA, Duncton Mill Roy Gurney

19th (Thursday) Casting Clinic – Stanmer Park - 6.30

26th (Thursday) Branch evening at Arlington Reservoir Roy Gurney

June 9/10/11th (Thur/Sat) South of England Show, Ardingly - Demonstrating

18th (Saturday) Carp on the Fly – Passies Pond, Lancing Bill Smith

July 3rd (Sunday) HOG ROAST – bring the family to Clayton! Bill Smith

24th (Sunday) Stillwater Challenge – Chalk Springs Roy Gurney/Bill Smith

August 27th (Saturday) John Watt Competition – Grafham Water Chris Nunn

September 1st (Thursday) Speaker - TBA

8th (Thursday) Fly Tying Commences

18th (Sunday) Branch outing to Ashbourne Roy Gurney

October 1st /2nd (Sat & Sun) South of England Autumn Show & Game fair - Demonstrating

2nd (Sunday) Branch Trophy Day – Duncton Mill Peter Winder

6th (Thursday) Speaker – TBA

9th (Sunday) Charity Pairs – Bewl Water Ray Love

20th (Thursday) Auction of fly-tying materials & tools, tackle, books, etc

November 3rd (Thursday) Speaker – TBA

27th (Sunday) iFISH 2016 - Fly Fair – South of England Showground, Ardingly – THE fly and tackle fair of the South – come and support your Branch!

December 1st (Thursday) Speaker – TBA

4th (Sunday) Branch Christmas outing and lunch – Brick Farm Peter Winder

15th (Thursday) Still tying! But with mince pies too!

January 2017

5th (Thursday) AGM – followed by Quiz and coffee, etc

October 15th (Sunday) Grayling fishing on the Test - Wherwell

T H E F L Y D R E S S E R S ’ G U I L D -

S U S S E X B R A N C H F I S H I N G P R O G R A M M E 2 0 1 6

MONTH DATE & DAY

EVENT COST ORGANISER

February 28th (Sunday) Brass Monkeys Cup – Hazel Copse

- Bill Smith/ Wayne Duerden

April 9th (Saturday) Match v. Hastings F F – Powdermill Reservoir £42 Bill Smith

17th (Sunday) Frank Darrah Pairs competition – Bewl Water £45.50 John Plowman

May 1st (Sunday) Match v. Eastbourne F F - Arlington Reservoir TBA Bill Smith

14th (Saturday) Match v. Sussex S&TA, Duncton Mill £50 Roy Gurney

19th (Thursday) Casting Clinic – Stanmer Park - 6.30 Free

26th (Thursday) Branch evening at Arlington Reservoir Variable Roy Gurney

June 18th (Saturday) Carp on the Fly – Passies Pond TBA Bill Smith

July 24th (Sunday) Stillwater Challenge – Chalk Springs £47 Roy Gurney/Bill Smith

August 27th (Saturday) John Watt Competition – Grafham Water Free Chris Nunn

September 18th (Sunday) Branch outing to Ashbourne £48 Roy Gurney

October 2nd (Sunday) Branch Trophy Day – Duncton Mill £38 Peter Winder

October 9th (Sunday) Charity Pairs – Bewl Water £49 Ray Love

December 4th (Sunday) Branch Christmas outing and lunch – Brick Farm £45 Peter Winder