Greenwells Fly Fishing Club

Welcome to the change of seasons.

We also welcome new members, Paul and Sharyn. Paul is a past member and its great to see him back.

The Committee has been busy and with Michael’s assistance, we have purchased a new digital projector.
This will be a valuable asset for presentations etc. Other modifications to the clubrooms will be the installation of a socket for the use of a light for the BBQ area with a switch inside the store room for safety.

With regard to the return of bottles and cans for the 10-cent per unit refund, the Club will register with Billabong Recycling Pty Ltd Group under the umbrella of The NSW government Return and Earn scheme. Once registered they will come to us and collect our recyclables and we get the full 10 cent per unit refund deposited to our account.

The fly-fishing course for has been set for Sunday 26th March. Details to be discussed at the General Meeting.

Quotations were invited from selected suppliers for the Club Angling Shirts. The scope of the RFQ included the supply of 24 shirts made up of a mixture of sizes. The shirts were to be light weight, long sleeved, vented and have a sun protection rating of UPF 50+. It is anticipated that the ordering of the shirts will be early April
and the delivery within four weeks of ordering. Details will be available at the General Meeting.At the last Club meeting we mentioned the plight of the Mayfly worldwide. Below is a link to the article in the Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/2022/09/19/mayfly-decline/

One of the three tunnel-boring machines working on Australia’s biggest renewable energy project, Snowy 2.0, is stuck. Tunnel-Boring Machine (TBM) Florence hit soft ground in Kosciuszko National Park in New South Wales in December and ground to a halt. The incident caused a hole to appear above the machine, measuring approximately
10 metres across and 4 metres deep. The activity for this General meeting will be reports from our roaming fly fishers. Reports from New Zealand,Tasmania and locally the Snowy Creek.

Upcoming trips include the Kiewa River trip on the weekend of 1 and 2 April, and the Tumut River over the weekend 29 and 30 April.

The mid-week fly tying will be on Thursday 16th March from 10am to 1.00pm. Remember, you do not have to tie a fly – just come along to talk fishy and have a cuppa.

Stay well.
Bryan Clyde

President’s Report

Now the trout season has closed there has been a bit more movement around the fly tying tables, starting with Rob Bailey’s fly tying classes and then it was Jim Baumgurtel magic fly fishing shop which appeared in the clubhouse with many dollars changed hands on the latest fly tying materials and gear.

We are getting closer to our annual dinner on the 17th August there are fliers around the club and in the newsletter, so if you are coming see Des with your money to confirm your spot. As normal there will be great food & wine plus good company, if everyone can chase up a prize or two we will also have another fantastic raffle table.

On a sad note, Ken McLean funeral was held last week with a number of Greenwell’s members attending his funeral; hope the fishing is good up there Ken.

The clubs AGM is not far away and I would ask anyone interested in serving on the committee to put your hand up, it is not a hard task and you are putting something back to the club. This year we have been down one committee member down and it just makes it that little bit harder on the others, so please think about it after all it is your club.

The RISE film festival is on again at the Good’s Shed Wodonga, Thursday 15th Au-gust starting at 7.30pm if anyone is interested in going.

The activity at this week’s meeting will be a talk on life jackets, why and where and their testing procedures.

Hope to see you at the meeting in front of the fire.

John

Welcome to June and the close of the season just around the corner, the club has a few things happening this month with the start of the fly tying with Rob Bailey on the 16th and a visit from Jim Baumgurtel from FlyFinz on Friday the 21st to get you stocked with tying materials.

Last month we had a very interesting guest speaker Pablo Pescador and if his talk didn’t get you thinking about a fishing trip to Patagonia, well, I don’t know what would.
The committee had an update from Fisheries about the Gravel Pit and our plans for development of this fishery, signs and approvals are just about complete and things should start rolling out over the next few months. This site will provide a great opportunity for the club and our future activities and if policed hard by Fisheries a great fishery for years to come.

Just a quick fishing report on the Club’s trip to Eucumbene on the 10th and 11th May, we arrived at Denison to find no-one fishing, which is not a good sign and it was to prove correct, the river was low and not many fish had started their run. On Saturday we went to the Portal to find more fisherman but the same result, not many fish about and the lake was the same with no boats on the water, another bad sign. Water levels in the river where better here because of water coming from Tantangara outfall, It is now June and thing may have changed so good luck.

John

Welcome to April the year seems to be flying, soon we will be talking about spawning runs and closed seasons. The club trip to Mitta Mitta was very well attended with 13 members camping or day tripping, the weather was fantastic and the fishing was OK you just had to put a bit of work to get a fish. Nymphing was the best method and as for dry well the Mitta did it again with a great hatch on Friday night but no fish rising to them.

Just a reminder daylight saving finishes on April 7th so there will be no BBQ’s before meetings until it starts again in October there for Wednesday will be your last opportunity to come along and have a cast on the oval before the meeting starts and those gourmet sausages roll out about 6.30pm.

Our guest speaker for next month (May) will be Pablo Pessacq, he is here working at La Trobe university until May and is a fly fishing guide in Patagonia, entomologist and keen fly fisherman, he has kindly offered to talk the club and inspire a trip to Argentina – Patagonia (how do I get a leave pass from the boss?) Pablo called in to the club on Friday night and was welcomed by members, he stayed for Rob’s Fly tying lesson and swapped some interesting facts on flies and tactics so his talk next month should be an interesting one.

The club has a trip planned for Pretty Valley and Rocky Valley on the 6th and 7th April so there will be more information at the meeting and taking of names, the next trip will be Eucumbene in May around the 10th.
Look forward to seeing you
John

Well March is here and still no sign of a break in this hot weather, in fact the weather made us change our annual fly-fishing course run last weekend. A quick drive the week before found the Mitta still running dangerously high for beginners, and most of the other streams around Albury Wodonga very low. Corryong was decided as the location and a big thanks must go to Rob Bailey for running the course -he did a great job passing on his knowledge and skill to the students, plus the top line chefs for the weekend, Nick, Ike and Jeremy plus all the other members who put in a huge effort to make the course work.

Council is pushing ahead with the development of Greenfield Park as per the plans shown to the club months ago, the netball courts and new carparks are being done now, so we will try and keep on top of any actions that may affect the clubrooms and let you know.
Don’t forget the BBQ starts at 6pm on Wednesday night and casting practice on the oval, if you are having any problems with casting, set ups or the like this is a great time to sort out your problems.

The club saltwater trip is not moving that well so we may move it to a lake like Eildon, we will discuss it at the next meeting, while on the next meeting Les P will be give a talk on his experiences in USA so I look forward to seeing you at the meeting.

John

Welcome back for a new year, as you know we have had weeks with the temperature around 40°C or higher which it makes it a hard to choose between going fishing or sit under the air conditioner and the higher temperatures have seen fish kills in Western rivers.

It is pleasing to report good numbers turning up for the Friday night get together and I hope it will be the same for the first club activity planned for the February meeting. The activity will be a Back to Basic fly casting night run by Rob B, this will be a great opportunity to refresh and re-start your casting. We all cast a line but this simple training could identify some of those little bad habits that have crept into our casting over the years. Club-rooms will be opened around 6pm.

Rob is also in final stages of the new fly tying course due to start on Sunday 16th June, the day will start around 9am and finishing with a BBQ lunch, more details as we get closer to the dates.

The fly course is not looking good, if you know of anyone interested in doing the course please get them to contact Stafford ASAP or we will need to cancel for this year.

On a sad note, our thoughts are with all the people in and around Miena, Tasmania, the bush fires have been making their lives pretty tough and we hope they all get through this dangerous time.

Just a quick reminder for all the members who have not paid their memberships they are well and truly overdue.

For those who ordered new Club shirts and caps will be available at the club-rooms on Wednesday night, there are a few spares for members who missed the order so first in.

Happy Fishing
John