T H E F L Y D R E S S E R S G U I L D Sussex Branch Newsletter Oct 2014 Our Autumn Auction A Date for Your Diary Our Autumn Auction will be on Thursday 16 th October 2014 At our usual venue of Patcham Community Centre, Ladies Mile Road, Patcham, Brighton. (please ignore the date on the tying programme, which wrongly shows the auction on a different day). This yeas auction has a few differences from previous auctions, and the main changes are listed below:- THE AUCTION WILL START 15 MINUTES EARLIER, STARTING AT 7.30PM. VIEWING WILL BE FROM 6.45PM - 7.30PM. (if you arrive at 7.30pm when the auction has started, you will still be able to register with Roy Gurney and therefore bid. You will not be able to view). THERE WILL BE NO BUYERS PREMIUM 2. Lots of people to come along to bid and to support the event. The first part is complete we have over 300 lots for you to bid on, now we need people to come along on the night. So if you have not already done so, now is the time to pencil the evening of Thursday 16 th October into your diaries. In addition to coming along on the night, you can help in another way all of you have friends who fish, or tie flies, or even do both. You can show your support for this club event, by telling them about the auction, and encouraging them to come along as well. OUR AUCTION IS OPEN TO ALL, NOT JUST CLUB MEMBERS, WITH EVERYBODY WELCOME. I can promise you an enjoyable evening, a great chance to top up on material, tackle and books, and to treat yourself, and most importantly LOTS OF GOODIES AT BARGAIN PRICES! See you on the night Tony Harrison (what you bid is what you will be asked to pay, if you are the successful bidder. Nothing will be added). This years autumn auction will be a mixed auction with a combination of fly tying materials, books and fishing tackle. Under the following categories:- FLY TYING MATERIALS FLY TYING TOOLS AND STORAGE BOXES FLIES AND FLY BOXES CLOTHING A WIDE RANGE OF FISHING TACKLE RODS REELS FLY LINES BOOKS AND DVD S MISCELLANEOUS Club Fishing Outing Grayling Fishing on The River Test Saturday 8th November The catalogues for the autumn auction is attached to the newsletter. Please print it off, as you will need it on the night. For our auction to be a real success we need two things:- 1. A wide variety of lots for you to bid on 1 Cost Approx 40 e-mail or phone Paul Davis to reserve your placeflytyer@inbox.com 01306 621157
Who s the Daddy? A Fly to Try in October The summer is over, daytime temperatures are dropping and the nights are drawing in. These are not things to be sad about because it heralds the start of some of the best sport on our stillwaters. This time of year makes the dry fly trout angler think of one thing Daddy Long Legs or Craneflies if you prefer their correct name. Daddys actually hatch all year around because there are 327 recorded species in the UK. The smallest is only 3mm long (body length)and the largest (Tipula maxima) has a leg span of 100mm (that s 4 inches in old money!) and a body up to 32mm (1¼ inches). This largest species actually hatches from April to October (with the peak hatch in September & October) and is very common around stillwaters as the female lays her eggs in the damp mossy fringes of ponds, ditches and streams. On hatching, the larvae take to an aquatic existence just below the water surface, before continuing their development in submerged leaf litter. The Daddy of them all - Tipula maxima (Photo by Graham Calow) The most common species is Tipula oleracea and these also hatch from April to October although the peak hatch for this species is June to August. This species (along with most of the other Cranefly species) has a terrestrial larval stage known as 'leather jackets' - 2 which get themselves a bad name from gardeners and farmers by feeding on the root system of grasses. The common Tipula oleracea (Photo by David Nicholls) What makes all of the craneflies so good to imitate is that they often hatch together and in large numbers. This, combined with the fact that they are poor fliers in all but the gentlest of breezes, means that they are often blown out onto the water where trout take benefit of this protein packed foody windfall. Looking at the pictures above there are a number of key factors when tying a Daddy imitation. Firstly size - Tipula oleracea has a body length of up to 25mm (1 inch). So these are big insects, so tie them big. Colour is a major factor shades of brown are the order of the day most Daddys bodies are tan or grey/brown. Thirdly legs - there are 6 and they are long and spindly with three joints. Daddys float, so make sure your imitation floats (yes I know that a gold head daddy is a fish killer but I think that it works, not because the fish think it is a Daddy but, as a lure with vibrating mobile rubber legs). So how do we make a Daddy pattern based on this knowledge well firstly you need a detached body and there are a myriad of ways to do this but I think the best two are using a foam tube or using very fine cord. The foam version has plenty of patterns and is easily found
in books and on the web. The cord method was mentioned to me and invented by Simon Young who lives in Sussex (Simon will be on Fly Tyers Row at ifish so make sure you go and see him at work). Charles Jardine rated a Daddy with cord for the detached body as the best Daddy pattern of them all! I like it because it is quick and easy and because the cord is soft just like the real insect. It also behaves naturally when the fish rises to take the fly the snout of the fish hits a dry fly first so if the fly feels stiff and hard the fish knows something is wrong and often aborts the take. With a cord detached body it moves and bends as the trout s snout hits it so, to the fish, it feels natural. Thread: Legs: Body: Thorax Cover: Hackle: Wings: Tan (I have used Brick Beige Nano Silk) Pheasant Tail long fibres knotted twice Tan Dubbing (I have used Beaver as it is naturally waterproof) Hackle Tan Foam Tube. Pale Brown Genetic Cock Saddle Cree Indian Cock Hackle Points The fly below takes account of using a cord detached body, it has long pheasant tail legs, it incorporates foam, a waterproof dubbing and a genetic hackle to keep it floating plus it has large wings like the original. I can vouch for its success and have caught quite a few rainbows on this pattern through the summer months and into autumn. Key points to remember Remember you need a man-made fibre cord polypropylene is the most widely available but don t use cotton it soaks up water and sinks! Also you need to melt the end of the cord to get a nice blob o the end that looks like the genitalia on a real Daddy compare the fly with the photo of Tipula oleracea. Also to add further floatability soak the cord in Watershed (a permanent waterproofing that needs to be applied at least 24 hours before using the fly). Use the longest pheasant tail fibres you can find for the legs they are easier to knot and look more realistic. To make knotting the fibres a breeze use a very fine crochet hook (a few pence at a Charity Shop) or a boilie baiting hook (if you re a coarse fisherman). Daddy Cool Hook: Size 10 Curved Buzzer/Grub (I have used a Charles Jardine Pupa/Grub Hook) Detached Body: Very fine Polypropylene cord coloured with permanent marker and soaked in Watershed You don t need to add wings for the fly to work but they do set the fly off nicely Cree (natural ginger grizzle) feathers look very similar to the wings on Tipula maxima. As always - need any further advice or help tying these patterns or need any of the materials just call me on the shop number 01273 252504 Mon to Fri 9 to 5. Tight Threads Paul Davis 3
Branch Outing Fishing Ashbourne 21/09/2014. For late September the weather was very kind, apart from a breeze that made casting in some areas round the lakes rather challenging. Eleven members arrived to fish the Ashbourne estate and they enjoyed a sunny day, good fishing and a superb bar-b-que at lunch time. Unlike last year when not many of the anglers caught their 3 fish limit, this year the fish were far more cooperative, 6 anglers caught their limit. The lakes were also in beautiful condition, in that the bottom lake was not full of weed and so could be fished properly. The two lakes at Ashbourne are set amongst trees and the grass surrounds are beautifully mowed. The fishing got underway at just after nine o clock and finished at 4 o clock with the weigh in, see results table. As one would expect most fish were caught using the various types of sunk flies that are allowed. The rules stating a single fly, maximum size 10 and all brown trout must be returned. However there were several fish caught on dry flies, the most successful angler in this respect was Barry Markham who caught all his fish on dry flies. Janice was affected by the brown trout rule, as she caught a 2lb-08.5oz brownie and had to return it and did not manage to land any rainbows. Roy Gurney Tony H Tony W Fred Wassell Colin Avis Bill Black Barry Markham 14oz 11oz 14oz 06oz 15oz 2lb- 00oz 08.5oz 07oz - 3lb- 06.5oz - 3lb- 02oz - - 14oz 13oz 2lb- 00oz 15oz 10oz 1lb12oz 120z 12oz 4lb- 01oz 11oz 11oz 7th 9th 10th 6th 5th 1 st equal 1 st equal A final note needs to be added, towards the end of the day Roy managed to immerse himself in the lake, he was 3 times lucky. He didn t hurt himself, he didn t break his rod and most importantly it wasn t the middle of winter. At the weigh in he seemed none the worse for his adventure. The results of a very enjoyable day are as the table below:- Name 1 2 3 Total Comments Peter Winder 15oz 12oz 14oz 09oz 3rd Peter Buss 12oz - 3lb- 04oz 8th Janice D - - - Returned a BT 2lb- Nathan Winter 09oz 15oz 12oz 04oz 4th 4
Bill Black Chairman s Chat Providing facilities for the upstream migration of fish is only half the battle. The other half of the cycle is of course the subsequent downstream migration of smolts and kelts of Atlantic salmon. Pacific salmon do not survive spawning, hence no kelts. 5 Taking smolts as an example, massive losses occur due to predation by birds and fish. Obstructions cause further losses. In particular hydropower sites (not Archimedean Screws) where losses are typically 15%. The turbines kill by damage
and the stilling bay downstream of turbines may become super saturated with nitrogen. Given that many rivers in the USA (and Scotland) may have many hydropower sites in a length of river, the overall impact of such structures can be considerable. So how can these problems be mitigated? In the UK adult Atlantic salmon and sea trout are intercepted in the pools just above the saline limit and electro fished out, spawned on site (when ripe) and the eggs taken to the hatchery. Unripe fish are retained for spawning later. The adults are returned to the river alive and the smolts are released in due course to their natural river. A further benefit of this system is that hatchery reared smolts do not suffer bird and fish predation. This technique used to be carried out on the Adur and Ouse but has subsequently been discontinued. I suppose our friends at the EA considered it unnatural. In the USA they adopt much more radical solutions. Firstly on some rivers they collect literally billions of smolts and transport them downriver by barge past the hydro sites for release. They also fit travelling smolt screens in front of the turbines. In addition they replace the estimated 15% turbine losses by raising adults in fish farms. If that was not enough, they fit their turbines with blades which have a minimal impact on smolts. This choice of impeller is not carried out in the UK to my knowledge. Sometime adverts say it for themselves! This shows adults being raised in the hatchery at Bonneville Dam. Some of the fish reach a large size, but not the 4.5m long sturgeon which are kept for visitor interest. I hope that I am not the only angler who finds this interesting. Tony W 6
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED To Help With the ifish Fly Fair ifish is on Saturday 22nd November at Clair Hall, Haywards Heath. About 20 volunteers are needed for many jobs on the day. Each volunteer is required for only 3 hours work. Volunteers get free entry to the show (worth 5). e-mail Paul Bond to offer your assistance paul.bond13@btinternet.com Published by the Sussex Branch of the Flydressers Guild Chairman: Tony Woolnough 01273 483833 Secretary: Paul Bond 01273 420410 Treasurer: Roy Gurney 01273 581519 Editor: Andy Steer, Flat 6 Southdown House, 2 Silverdale Road, Eastbourne, East Sussex BN20 7AL Phone: 01323 439688 E-mail: a.v.steer@talk21.com Visit our web site Sussexflydressers.org.uk 7
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