Congratulations to
Joshua Wong
0n Attaining the
FDG Silver Award
Dates for your Diary
OCTOBER
9th Afternoon Workshop 14:oo
Lunch at Lady Grey 12:oo
15th Fishing Trip to Farmoor (Contact Mark Robson)
17th Beginners and Improvers Workshop
with John Poote
DECEMBER 19th Christmas Special with Lee Hooper
Meal at Crosskeys details will follow
JANUARY 16th Joshua Wong Tying and Fishing
Sea Trout Flies
Date to be Confirmed Steve Cullen Flies and Fishing at Farmoor
Keith and Geoff at Wimbleball
22nd to 24th July 2024
We wanted to fish this scenic reservoir for sometime and Geoff did some investigation and came up with a small hotel in Dulverton, approx. 15 minute drive to the reservoir. The Lion Hotel was the hostelry and it was akin to Fawlty Towers. If one enjoyed pizzas and curries this was the place to stay. Luckily we both did and they were delicious.
It was a long drive but well worthwhile. Mark the bailiff on Wimbleball was very helpful and the outboard motor was excellent. The lake and the area were not busy. On our first day there were only 4 boats out. The weather was cloudy with approx. 10mph breeze and the odd sunny spell . Temp approx. 20 degrees. All in all good conditions.
We both went with floating lines, one fishing washing line with tequila fab on point, black and red Diawl Bach and Muskin. Geoff fishing 3 nymphs, with GRHE on point ,Diawl Bach and cruncher.
Having had a good briefing from Mark we headed south towards the dam. Our destination was the Upton Arm which is approx. a mile long. We fished down the left bank, hoping for some wild brownies. I changed to straight lining with Black Pennell on point, plus the other flies as mentioned above. This long drift brought 3 fish to the net all on the Muskins, all rainbows , two being approx. 2 to 3 lb the other a very small half pound fish.
During this drift I managed to lose my drogue as getting too near the bank I reversed the boat out, the drogue must have hooked around a submerged tree stump, of which there are many on this drift. On reflection we should have not bothered with the drogue. Hindsight is a great thing!
After lunch we went back up the north end and fished Bessom’s Bay. We only saw two fish rise
The next day we decided to go to The Dam and fish deep down and dirty, using d15 and di 7 lines. The dam has a rope running across it which denotes no fishing one side. However you are allowed to hook the rope over the rowlock. The first cast of the day with a silver Humungus we had a fish approx. 3lb. This bodes well we thought. One hour later with not a pull to be had , Geoff put on a 10 ft sink tip and had one on the point fly, a GRHE. We decided to drift back via Arthur’s Bay with lures back drifting. We didn’t see a fish or touch one. With a long drive home we packed in 2 pm.
The fishing overall was not easy and on the Tuesday I think only 5 fish were caught on the boats, we had caught 3 of them. However on the Wednesday we did see several fish being caught over the boils on the dam. All these were being caught by fast stripped lures
To conclude it would be worth another visit, but not in July and also one needs to have more days as the drive is at least 4 to 5 hours.
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Keith Allison
Ravensthorpe
28th June 2024
We had 7 Club members and one guest attend the above event. They were Keith Allison, Peter Aldridge, John Goldie , Bob Sharp, John Poote plus guest John , Mark Robson and Steve Harding.
The weather on the few days before had been very hot. Today it was 16 or 17 degrees with a decent breeze. John P took the temperature of the water and it was 20 degrees , so warmer than the ambient temperature. This was not good news as the fish did not play ball .It was a bit like watching England play football!
By lunch time , Bob had hooked and lost one on a daddy long legs very early on. The rest of us had not had a touch except for John P who had one on a di7 near the dam on a sunburst blob. At lunch we discussed more tactics , but to no avail , except John P’s guest had one and John G had one almighty pull on his line with nothing to show.
The highlight on Keith and Mark’s boat was Mark getting a double hook up of 2 perch . Also when pulling the anchor up a length of braided line was pulled in and it had a crayfish attached ( see photo)!
We had tried floater, intermediates, di 3 , di 5 , di 7 , fast glass , sink tips and had 2 fish between us. Even the locals went home lunch time fishless.
We adjourned to the pub for a pint and a meal and blamed it on the weather , as all good fisherman do. Let’s hope for a cold spell now and sometight lines on our next trip.
Keith Allison
One of our new members Joshua Wong had a day on the water fishing for Trout and Grayling.
An unexpected Bonus! Well done Josh
CLUB ANNUAL AWAY DAYS
LLYN CLYWEDOG
AND THE BLUE BELL INN
Our annual Club week was well attended this year. The following Members made the journey: Keith Allison; Kelvin Briton (Guest); Geoff Darby; Alison Fenn; Stuart Foulds; John Gamon; John Goldie; Steve Harding; Steve Orton; John Poote; Peter Proctor; Mark Robson; Mark Worthington.
Whilst the weather was a tad on the cold side we all managed to catch fish. The average temperature was 12 or 13 degrees with sunny spells. The last day however was the most challenging with 9 or 10 degrees, swirling winds and some serious rain showers!
The fish however did play ball and we caught 182 fish over the three days. This was a split as 80 first day, 34 the second and 68 on the last. The fish came to black half hogs, boobys, Belgian crunchers, blue and red diawl bachs , small black and green lures and would you believe squirmy wormys under the bung!
The styles of fishing were using floating lines, sink tips and intermediates. I don’t think anyone went on the real dark side using di7, however a snake was used in desperation on the last day! We all hooked and lost fish as is the way of fishing.
John Poote and partner were unfortunate in that their engine failed and had to be towed back to base by one of the Rangers no air sea rescue required!
The Blue Bell Inn yet again gave full value for money and the Butty Bach beer proved popular. A big thank you must go to Mark Robson for all his organisational skills in making this an enjoyable week.
We all look forward to our next extravaganza. One of these days we may actually get good weather for all three days and who knows how many fish we may hook.
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Keith Allison
Thursday 23rd November Excellent Workshop Led by John Poote
Theme Beginners and Improvers: but we all leant something new during the course of the evening. Very social occasion with Tea/Coffee and chocolate biscuits by Bob and Tony thank you.
