Greenwells Fly Fishing Club

Welcome to 2017.
Hope all members and family had a great Christmas celebration and I wish everyone a safe and happy new year.

Our meeting this month will have a presentation on a proposal for consideration. I look forward to a large attendance on 1st February. Remember that as daylight saving is still with us, we will have a BBQ and casting practice as usual before the meeting. This will begin about 6:15 to 6:30pm.

Whilst the weather has been rather hot, the northeast streams have been fishing quite well, particularly the Snowy and Lightning creeks. The Mitta has been OK but rather cloudy.

I would like to remind members of our Fly course beginning Fri-day, February 17th at 7:00pm, continuing Wednesday 22nd at 6:00pm and the weekend on Feb. 25th & 26th on the Mitta Mitta river at Boulder Lane. Please indicate your intention to assist at this month’s meeting when asked.

Russell Hook

Initially I would like to thank Des and John for presiding over the July meetings and keeping the wheels turning during my absence. I would also like to acknowledge Stafford’s efforts in doing most of the organisation for our Annual Dinner.

In July we have been continuing with our usual win-ter Friday night fly tying sessions. It is great to see the numbers attending the beginners fly tying course being run by Les Hawkins and Steve McGrath. They all seem to be very keen and having an enjoyable time, thanks to the excellent guidance from our tutors. It is also great to see other members taking advantage of this time to catch up and chat, even though they are not participating in the fly tying.

We have our AGM coming up on the 3rd August, so I encourage all members to attend to ensure that we have a quorum and to enjoy the spread being prepared by Chicky.

Our Annual Dinner for this year is to be held on Sat-urday 20th August at the Cactus Cantina, Siesta Quality Resort, Wagga Road, Lavington. This is the Club’s prem-ier social event of the year with the presentation of awards, great food and a raffle that is one of the Club’s major fund raisers. As previously advised our guest speaker should be Ross Brown from Brown Brothers Win-ery, who will give a presentation on his fly fishing experiences around the world. I encourage all members and partners to attend to make this a fantastic and successful night.

Coming up in September we look forward to the beginning of another fishing season with the opening of the Victorian Trout Season on the 3rd.

Firm Strikes
Jeff Baldock

Firstly, I apologise for my absence at the July meetings as I will be away enjoying my grand-parent duties. I have two granddaughters’ first birthdays, one in late June and the other in early July and another granddaughter’s third birthday in mid July. I have left Des in charge to chair the meetings in my absence, as John will also be away.

We have been having a good roll-up at our Friday night fly tying sessions with some new members participating in the beginning fly tying course conducted by Les Hawking, some -replenishing their fly boxes, whilst others are enjoying the cosy atmosphere and catching up on the latest gossip. The starting time for these fly tying sessions is 7:00pm and they will continue throughout July and into early August.

We had a very successful Casserole Night on Saturday 18 June with 24 members and partners attending. My thanks go to all the cooks for supplying the very tasty casseroles, Bryan and Des for the bread and sweets, Hooky for the brain teaser, Hawky for his Christmas Island presentation and all who attended to help make it a most enjoyable night.

At the July meeting there will be a presentation by Bob Norris on his and John’s recent exciting trip to fish for bonefish at Christ-mas Island in the Pacific Ocean. Although their days were long the fishing was very rewarding with many bonefish and other various species being caught.

Coming up in August we have our Annual General Meeting on Wednesday 3 August at the Clubrooms commencing at 7.30pm. Please consider submit-ting nominations for executive and committee positions so the Club continues to progress suc-cessfully.

Also in August, we have our Annual Din-ner on Saturday 20th. The venue is the same as last year, the Cactus Cantina at the Fiesta Resort in Lavington. Our guest speaker is Ross Brown from Brown Brothers Winery. Ross’s wife Judy will also be attending the dinner with Ross, as both are keen fly fishers.

I hope you all are enjoying the winter season and I look forward to hearing of all your fish-ing exploits at the July meeting.

Firm Strikes
Jeff Baldock

At the end of April we had our Broken Sage competition at Khancoban. Nine members made up the three teams that contested for the Broken Sage Trophy.

Congratulations to the Hearts team made up by Des Walters, Jeremy Conlan and Nick Maguire for their winning catch of two trout, both caught by Des at Geehi. The two other teams were equal runners up with one trout each, thanks to Alan Bond and John “Stormy” Tempest. Although not many fish were caught, a great social weekend was had by all with Fri-day night’s dinner at the Golf Club and a BBQ at the house on the Saturday night.

On 28th and 29th May we have our annual combined trip with the Wangaratta Flyfishers to Talbingo. There will be four representatives from Greenwells and 10 from Wangaratta, thus the odds will be against us for bragging rights at the Saturday night BBQ. We expect a full re-port at the June meeting.

On Friday 3 June we have Jim Baumgurtel visiting our club with his fly fishing and fly tying gear. The Flyfinz catalogue and a list of “What’s New” from Jim, has been distributed by Bryan so you can check out what you need before the night. The night will commence at 6.30pm.

Please note that the NSW and VIC Trout Seasons close on 13 June for trout streams although most pondages remain open so it is time to hone your lake fishing skills. It is also a good time to do some fly tying and replenish your fly boxes. Thus Friday night fly tying sessions will com-mence on 17th June.

Coming up on Saturday 18 June we have our annual Casserole Night. This is a family social event, so please invite your wives and partners. The night will commence at 6.30pm and for a cost of $15 per person you get to sample a variety of casseroles and finish off with some special sweets. Make sure you put this date down in your diaries so you don’t miss out on a special night.

I look forward to catch-ing up and hearing all of your fishing exploits at the June GM.

Firm Strikes
Jeff Baldock

President’s Report
Firstly, I would like to thank Luke Pearce for his enjoyable and impressive presentation on the plight of the Southern Pigmy Perch and the Macquarie Perch in NSW inland waters, at our April Meeting. Luke has been studying these threatened native species for NSW Fisheries and re-cording the impact that carp and redfin have had on these fish. Carp by removing native vege-tation and degrading habitat and redfin by their predacious appetite for smaller fishes, includ-ing pigmy perch and young Macs.

Our thanks also to Andrew Summers from Mayfly Tackle for visiting our Clubrooms on Friday 8th. Andrew brought along some fly rods made by Kanak and Innovator with some Scientific Angler fly lines for us to trial whilst there was still sufficient light. He then gave us an in-formative presentation on the features of the fly fishing products distributed by Mayfly Tackle including the Scientific Anglers fly lines, Korkers wading boots and Ross reels. Andrew also do-nated a Scientific Angler fly line to the Club for raffling off at our Beef and Reef night. It was a great night and we should look at inviting Andrew up more regularly or at least annually. On the following Saturday morning I took Andrew fishing up the Mitta River and was joined by Mauro. Andrew then proceeded to impress us with his european style nymphing technique by catching and releasing about ten trout, using one of the Kanak fly rods. Mauro also did well by catching about five trout using the traditional across and down method and I made a showing by catching two. Not bad, about seventeen fish, for a few hours fishing.

On Saturday 9th we had our Beef and Reef social night at the Clubrooms with 24 members/partners attending. The night began with a delicious smoked trout pate and biscuits, thanks to Kay Bennetts. We then had a prawn entree followed by a scrumptious steak, cooked to perfec-tion by Russell Hook, with a garden salad and chatt potatoes as a main course, and finished off with cheesecake for sweets. There was a frustrating brain teasing quiz won by John Hawkins’s table and the main prize in the raffle was won by Ben Nieuwerth. Our thanks go to Bryan Clyde, John Hawkins, Russell Hook and everyone that helped to make it a very enjoyable and entertaining night.

As this is going to print before our Broken Sage trip at Khancoban, I can only comment on what has been planned and look forward to hearing all the results at the May meeting. Currently, we have nine names down for the competition with seven staying in the house at Khancoban. From recent reports it should be a great weekend with excellent fishing in the lake and in the Swampy at Geehi.

Coming up we have a Combined Trip with the Wangaratta Fly fishers to Talbingo on the week-end of the 28th and 29th May. Accommodation will be at the Kinder Cottage at a cost of $20 per person per night. This is generally a great trip and gives us an opportunity to catch up and share our fishing with the Wangaratta club. Although there is no competition, there will be bragging rights at the BBQ on Saturday night. Please ensure your names are up on the board at the meeting to make sure you do not miss-out.

I look forward to catching up, and hearing all of your fishing exploits at the May GM.

Firm Strikes
Jeff Baldock

Firstly, I would like to thank John Hawkins for running last month’s meeting during my absence. Thanks also to Des Walters for his presentation on Czech nymphing, from all reports it was well received with plenty of interest from the members.

Andrew Briggs from the NECMA was also at the meeting and provided a presentation and update on the Little Snowy Creek Rehabilitation Project. We are currently arranging a site visit with Andrew to select a reach for the Club to adopt for further improvement.

The reason for my absence from the meeting was that I was on my annual pilgrimage to fish the central highland waters of Tasmania around Miena with Bryan Clyde. It was a very successful trip thanks to hospitality and generosity provided to us by Doug and Liz Lang and Peter Hill. Whilst there we caught up with Charles Peck and he has generously agreed to provide the Club with a few of his best flies for displaying in the Clubrooms. He is going to give them to Doug Lang for bringing over to the Club when they are ready. There was also a Club trip to the Snowy Creek on Saturday 20th. Sorry, I could not attend this trip, but I hope you all had a successful day and we are all looking forward to your reports at the March GM.

It was disappointing that the scheduled Wine and Cheese event had to be cancelled due to insufficient numbers. Maybe we can change the timing or format for this event next year to create more interest, as it was a very successful event last year.

It was also very generous of Les Hawkins to donate a dozen of his best flies for displaying at the Clubrooms. Thanks Les and we all wish you the best and a speedy recovery following your operation earlier this month. We also wish Kath Humphris all the best and a speedy recovery, and look forward to see both of you out fishing again soon.

Coming up in March we have a scheduled trip to Geehi on the 5th/6th and we have our annual Fly Fishing Course on 11th, 14th and 19th & 20th. We will need to decide if the Geehi trip is proceeding and on a Trip Captain at the March meeting if there is sufficient interest. The Fly Fishing Course is one of the Club’s major fundraisers so we will need all hands on deck to ensure
its success. There will be some assistance required on Monday 14th for the practical fly casting session but the main assistance will be required at the course weekend on the 19th and 20th at Bowlers Lane on the Mitta Mitta River. Please make yourselves available at these sessions to help spread the workload. More details will be advised at the March GM.

In April we have a scheduled Beef & Reef social night on Saturday 9th and our Broken Sage competition at Khancoban on Saturday 30th. Accommodation for the weekend has been booked for the Friday and Saturday nights at an approximate cost of $25/person/night. Please put your names down for these events as we need to know numbers for catering purposes. I have also tentatively arrange for Andrew from Mayfly Tackle to visit our Club during April.

I look forward to catch up and hearing of your all your fishing exploits at the March GM.

Firm Strikes
Jeff Baldock

Well, another season is looming with the opening of the 2015/16 trout season in Victoria on Saturday 5th September. We all hope that the rivers and streams are not flowing too high and make for excellent fishing.

We had our Club’s Annual Dinner on Saturday 22nd August at the Siesta Resort in Lavington with over thirty attending. It was a splendid night with excellent food, a great atmosphere, an impressive and entertaining guest speaker and plenty of raffle prizes to share around. I would like to thank Stafford for his efforts in arranging the venue, Russell Hook for being the MC, John Hawkins for supplying the smoked trout, the remainder of the Committee for helping set up the room and Chris, Ray and Gary from the Wangaratta Fly Fishing Club who attended and supported this event. Thanks also to our guest speaker David Anderson for his enlightening presentation on photography and how he endeavours to make every photograph tell a story. David’s portfolio is very impressive with his photos of many national and international celebrities from his involvement with WHO and other magazine. I would also like to congratulate Steve and his staff at the Siesta Resort for their help in making our Annual Dinner a successful night.

Club Award winners on the night were as follows:-

• Des Walters won the President’s Trophy for advanced fly tiers;
• Russell Hook won the Arthur Smith Fly-Tying Trophy for novice fly tiers;
• Des Walters also won the Les Chick Memorial Trophy for excellence in presentation of fly fishing equipment or accessories with his excellent presentation of self tied salmon flies;
• Kay Bennetts won the Alan Semmler Memorial Photography Award;
• Russell Hook was awarded the Tony Butler Award for his continuing help and support to the Club throughout the year.
• The Norm Crago Memorial Trophy was not awarded this year.

The guest speaker for our September General Meeting is Cameron McGregor. Cameron has a B. Environmental Management and Ecology (La Trobe University), is a PFIGA Fishing Guide and an Ex-Club member. He provides a variety of nature-based tours and education opportunities which showcase the natural beauty of the Victorian High Country and surrounding areas. Cameron will be delivering a presentation on fly fishing for cod and other freshwater native fish in our area.

The suggested up and coming events for September are:- a day trip to the Nariel River on Saturday 12th; and another day trip to the Kiewa Rivers on Saturday 26th. These events are tentative and the actual location, date and time will need to be confirmed at the September GM.

The suggested events for October are:- an overnight trip to Talbingo on the Weekend 10th & 11th; this coincides with an overnight trip to Lake Fyans (Western Vic) for the Fyans Fly-In hosted by the Sunshine Fly Casting Club from Friday 9th to Sunday 11th; an overnight trip to Creswick (central Vic) for the Wastrel Trophy hosted by the Ballarat Fly Fishers Club on the Weekend 17th & 18th; and, a day trip to the Mitta River and/or the Snowy Creek on Saturday 24th. These events are also tentative and open to members input before being confirmed at the September GM.

I look forward to seeing you all on Wednesday night.

Firm Strikes, Jeff Baldock

Firstly, I apologise for not being available at the May meetings but I have left you in John’s capable hands so our Club’s business will be continued as usual.

In April we had the Broken Sage Competition at Khancoban. Although being a very wet weekend (in more ways than one) there were 10 members contesting for bragging rights. I am please to announce that it was won by the Diamonds team this year, made up of Bob Melville, John (Stormy) Tempest, Kath Humphris and Alan Bond. Congratulations to all for a great weekend.

It was pleasing to see a good turnout of Greenwells’ members to support Kath at her son’s memorial service in Corryong. It was a very moving service that commemorated Gareth’s life and showed he was a very kind hearted man with many friends in Australia and around the world.

May will be a big month commencing with a presentation by Russell Mason, at our May General Meeting, about his tours to the northern parts of Australia. Our Beef & Reef  Night is now scheduled for Saturday 9 May commencing at 6.30pm, this is usually a great social night for members and partners.

We have Jim Baumgurtel visiting on Friday 15 May to display and sell his fly fishing / fly  tying goods. This is a great opportunity to obtain the latest gear at reasonable prices. I  have also invited members from the Wangaratta Club along to this night to catch up with Jim and see what he has on offer.

Our Combined Greenwells / Wangaratta trip to Talbingo and Tumut is scheduled for  the weekend of 23-24 May. Russ Davies’ house in Talbingo (Kinder Cottage) has been booked for Greenwells members with the Wangaratta Club members most probably staying at the Tumut Caravan Park. There will be a BBQ dinner together on the Saturday night with each Club catering for their own members. This is a great opportunity to fish this area, observe the spawning run (if the timing is right) and to catch up with other members.

Please put your names up on the board if you are going to participate in any of these events to assist with catering.

Firm strikes
Jeff Baldock

President’s Report
Firstly, I would like to welcome Sam Reynolds, Kieran Baverstock, Karl Drager, and Nick Carnovale as new members to our Club. Please let yourself be known to them and make them feel at home.

Next, it is good to hear that John Spagne is on the steady road to recovery.

On a sadder note, I would to advise all that there will be a memorial service for Gareth Humphris in Corryong at 11.00am on Saturday 11th April. Gareth passed away recently in China and is the son of Kath Humphris. Please try and make it to this memorial service to help Kath through these hard times.

It also should be noted that the Club now has a new drinks fridge, with the old fridge being sold through the efforts of Russell Hook and Des Walters. This new fridge is more efficient and more economical to run so should reduce our electricity costs.

We had two activities scheduled for March. The first being a trip to Geehi which was cancelled due to insufficient numbers. The other was our annual fly fishing course. We have 15 participants including two Club members. This turned out to be an overwhelming success with some of the students successfully catching fish at the Bowler Lane weekend. Thanks to all that helped with tuition, casting, cooking, etc, especially John Hawkins for organising and running the successful course. We may even gain a few new members for the Club.

With Autumn now upon us, stream flows should be reducing and the fishing improving but this may not be the case for the Mitta Mitta River as flows have recently been increased due to a new release of water from the Dartmouth Dam.

The Wodonga Wine Makers Guild will be our guests at our April General Meeting on Wednesday 1st April. The Guild will be giving a presentation on making various wines from flowers, fruits, berries, vegetables and herbs. They will also be bringing along some samples for tasting and it will be up to our Club to supply some smoked trout and smoked
trout pate, with cheese and biscuits, to go with the wines. It should be a great educational and fun night for all.

Our next event in April will be our Beef and Reef Night on Saturday 11th. This is usually a great social night with prawns as entree, roast beef as the main and followed by some sweets. We will need to know numbers to organise the catering for this event, so please put your names down on the board or let us know by contacting either John Hawkins on
0418 267 805 or myself on 0401 219 986.

We also have our Broken Sage Competition Trip to Khancoban on 18-19 April. Accommodation has been arranged in a house at Khancoban for the weekend but you will need to bring your own bedding, towel, toiletries and self cater for food and drink. More information will be provided by Bob Chick, the trip captain, at our April GM. The Broken
Sage Competition is a random draw teams event, with the team catching the most number of trout being the winners.
This is usually a catch and release fun event based on the anglers honesty. For a fish to be counted it must be over 250mm long and the angler needs to at least touch the fish. Don’t forget to put your name down on the board so you won’t miss out.

Coming up in May we have:
Russell Mason as our guest speaker at the General Meeting on the 6th, talking on his  top-end fishing trips and fishing.
Jim Baumgurtel visiting on Friday night 15th May, displaying and selling his fly fishing gear.
The joint Wangaratta Greenwells Trip on 23-24 May, staying at Russ Davie’s Kinder Cottage in Talbingo, and hopefully fishing the Eucumbene River spawning run.

We have also organised David Anderson as our guest speaker for this year’s Annual Dinner. David is an accomplished and published photographer and will give a presentation on how to capture your favourite fishing moments for prosperity.

Firm strikes, Jeff Baldock.

Well we are finally back at it after the holiday break. I hope the Christmas and New Year was a happy and relaxed time for you and your family and that Santi was good to you. Mind you a heap of new fishing gear probably would not have improved your catch rate over the last couple of months, as the reports I am getting are very poor indeed. Our club trip to the King River was very well attended and all had a most enjoyable day however not one fish was caught. I actually got a couple of days off before Christmas and I fished the Ovens River twice with the same result as the club trip. That is the first time I have fished the Ovens with no result. Disgusted I tried the top of the Buffalo River and managed two very small browns. Never mind our Tasmanian trip is only two days away.
Regardless of how you are fishing there is still plenty of activities to keep you on the go. There is an Eildon day trip scheduled for 22nd February captained by Sean Bowyer, a Kiewa, Falls Creek and Blue Duck weekend planned for 1st and 2nd March captained by Mick Porter, The Fly Life Forum at Khancoban for 8th, 9th and 10th of March and our Beginners fly fishing course culminating on 22nd and 23rd March at Bowlers
Lane. Meantime we have our normal general meeting on Wednesday 5th February when we have a special
guest speaker, Clinton from OZ N Beyond Sport Fishing. Clinton will talk about salt-water sight flyfishing
for some of our most iconic species and at the end of his talk he will tie a couple of his favorite salt water
flies. You really don’t want to miss this one.
In April, when the weather has cooled a little, we intend to have another working bee. This is just an
advanced warning to get you all thinking about it. We want to install a concrete mowing strip around the
outside of the club rooms and the steelwork on the front verandah needs repainting. Definitely all welcome.
The committee has been investigating alternative venues for our annual dinner. It was put forward that the
relatively small turnout at our last dinner may have been partly due to member dissatisfaction with the meal
or the cost (or both). Phil and Tony have checked out alternative venues and they believe the Lavington
Sports Club may be good alternative. We would like you to give this some thought and at the next meeting
Phil or Tony will present the details they have established and you will be asked to vote on staying at the
Commercial club or shifting to the Lavington Sports Club for this year’s annual dinner.
Seven of our members will be missing at the next meeting as we will be fishing in Tasmania so no we will
not give you another thought unless we happen to hook a few then of course it will be brag time.
That’s it from me for now. More when I get that big one in Tassi.

Jan Feb 2014