"FLY FISHING NEWS"
(Please note our Calendar has now moved to a New Page)
Updates on the activities of Crediton Fly Fishing Club
Winter Work Parties
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In the New Year we had to call off two of the ten Sunday morning work parties because of bad weather and dangerous river conditions, but despite this twenty five members and three guests attended at least one of the other Sunday work parties, with an average attendance of 12 members, and large sections on the Yeo, Creedy, Culvery and Culm were cleared. |
2008
This year we will be working on the river every Sunday morning for the first 10 Sundays of the New Year on a variety of waters including the Culm, Upper Creedy, Taw and Yeo depending upon river conditions. We start at 10 am, and the venue can be ascertained by phoning David Pope on the Evening before - (Not on the day please!)
Members are expected to attend at least two bank clearing mornings during the closed season.
As well as getting some useful pre-season exercise and having a lot of fun, those members who attend regularly will also be benefitting from greatly reduced membership subscriptions next year.
£10-00 Vouchers
Once again the Club is issuing £10.00 Vouchers to a maximum of £50.00 per member for attendances over and above the basic two required. These can be redeemed against the next year's annual subscription.
Fly Casting Instruction Day, March 8th 2008
What a great day it was! Weather was perfect - Sunny, with only a light wind. Everyone received some individual tuition, and the topics and skills taught covered a whole range of casting including basic roll cast, switch cast, double hauling, spey casting, doublehanded spey casts, spiral Ts and many other casts.
Thankyou Nick and thankyou Pete. We learned a heck of a lot. This Year Peter has arranged for the Casting Clinic to be on Wellard & Scott's ponds at Broadwoodwidger. There will be three AAPGAI instrctors from Scott Flyfishing to look after everyone - So lot's of individual attention. Instruction will cost only £25.00 per head, and will include a BBQ.
Stillwater Fishing trip to Blakewell Fishery 2008
The pictures are from the 2006 trip where David, our Chairman, managed to hook 12lb and 9lb rainbows on consecutive casts, and ended up with a total of 5 fish for 27lb - Luckily he sells cold smokers!
CLICK for pictures of previous trips
CFFC Winter Fly Swap 2008 This year's theme is NYMPHS, as a lot of our more successful members used the NZ method this year (for those members who feel this is akin to float fishing I commend you to Mr Cherry and Jim, if its good enough for Bernard Venables it’s good enough for me). Hopefully we will get a good selection of nymphs that work for us on our waters.
Patterns already submitted are Diawl Bach - Cethin Davies, Arthur Cove PT - Mike Willis, Copper John - Paul FitzMaurice. Please submit your pattern as soon as possible, the dates of the fly tying evenings are on the inside back page. Anyone who has not received a form and who would like to enter, please contact Mo Graham.
For those who have not entered before, just let Mo know which pattern you wish to tie and he will let you know if someone has picked it before you, and also how many you need to tie. If you have never tied flies before, either enter or just turn up and we will endeavour to teach you the basics and pass on any tips and techniques to everyone.
There will be two fly tying evenings in January and Febuary (see calendar) where there will be demonstrations and some fly tying instruction for those who would like to learn.
All of last year's and archives of previous years' flyswap patterns and pictures can be accessed via our Flyswap page
Early Season River Walk April 2008 Membership and Subscriptions 2008
Details of subscriptions and an application form can be down loaded from the Membership Application page.
Those members who earned discounts during last year's bank clearing will receive these with the winter newsletter.
Subscriptions need to be received by the treasurer before the end of February. Failure to apply by this time may affect your chances of re-joining as it is first come, first selected. After 28th Feb you will also be required to pay a re-joing fee of £25.00
Temporary Membership permits are £30.00 for a five weekday period. We have also introduced a very limited number of Day Permits priced at £15.00 per day which are bookable in advance. These may be obtained through the Secretary or the Crediton Information Centre, Old Town hall, High Street, Crediton EX17 3LF.
Winter Grayling on River Exe This is Hatswell fishery, north of Tiverton. Clive Edwards, kindly made it available to us for the first time a couple of years ago, for limited fishing outside of the salmon season, and to date it has only been lightly fished because of high winter river levels.
If the conditions are right and you want to give it a try it shpuld be well worth the effort, if for no other reason than to enjoy the attractive environment. It also helps to work off the effects of all the mince pies.
Access is limited to the salmon closed season, and to two rods per day. It is essential that you contact the Hon Sec prior to fishing to obtain permission and to familiarise yourself with terms and conditions of fishing.
Visit our Photo page for links to Maps of the Fishing
Saltwater Fly Fishing Trip
We meet on a Saturday and generally start about 9-9.30am. Watch out for further details on the website calendar. For anybody who has not been before it’s worth it just to see huge shoals of mullet totally ignore your fly! Sooner or later we will catch one.
Contact Mo for further details if you would like to come. If you are a glutton for punishment there are more picures from previous years here.
2007 Catch Returns
A simple breakdown by rivers reveals the following numbers of fish caught
A full analysis for earlier seasons, including trout sizes, numbers per caught per month on each river, catch per effort and river profiles is now on the website at 2006 Fishing Reports Page. Also there are graphical comparisons for earlier returns on the 2004 and 2005 Fishing Reports pages.
Ever fancied professional casting tuition, but never quite got round to it? Well here is the ideal opportunity!
Last year Pete Tyjas, a long standing member of the Club is a STANIC level 2 Coach and holds the Advanced Game Angling Instructors Certificate (AAPGAI) kindly offered to provide instruction for Club Members on a day especially set aside for Club Members, in association with Nick Hart who is also a very well known guide and instructor.
It was fantastic to see everyone double hauling in next to no time, and no doubt many will be further honing these skills at Blakewell on the 21st.
As this is likely to prove popular again this year, you are advised to book for this in advance, as places will be limited. Please send your cheques (payable to Crediton Fly Fishing Club) to Howard the Hon. Treasurer.
This year's trip is on Wednesday 20th February, and is being organised, as usual, by Mike Weaver. The fish have always been in very good condition at Blakewell, despite the time of year, and on most occasions catching fish has been relatively easy.
This takes place on Sunday 13th April. It will start at 10.00am at Dunscombe Farm lay-by on the A377 Exeter to Crediton road (at OS grid SX 861 991) There is ample car parking on the lay-by / old part of the road. The walk will take all day so please bring a packed lunch. This is well worth attending particularly for New Members as you will be shown all the access points and will be able to pick the brains of seasoned members about the various stretches/flies and any other useful information. It is also a good way of meeting other members before the season and summer takes over.
Members decided that Standard full membership subscriptions for the next twelve months should increase by £2.00 to £86.00, Seniors by £1.00 to £62.00. Cadets and Juniors will remain unchanged at £20.00 and £10.00 respectively. The joining fee and late payment fee remain the same at £25.00
This year we decided to retain winter grayling fishing on only one stretch of the river Exe.
This is a great way to meet up with members and have a chat about how the season has been progressng. This year it will again be held in September on the Camel Estuary, near Padstow, but we will fish from the other side of the estuary, as our resident expert, Mo Graham, has had far greater success there in recent years.
Although we had a wet summer, members who picked their moments had some good catches. 1324 trout were recorded on 33 catch returns. The “Largest Fish of the Season” Cup went to Greg Mason for a 21” trout from the Culm and the “Chairman’s Cup” went to Mike Weaver for his catch of 396 fish, 146 from the Creedy and 249 from the Yeo. The total aggregate was the second highest in the Club's history, surpassing last year by 200 fish.
Creedy 208 Culm 200 Culvery 22 UUU 71 Taw 88 Yeo 734