admin March 19th, 2011
Current SE Qld Certified Casting Instructors Shaun Ash, Paul Goodey and I were fortunate to be invited to join a Master Casting Instructors Workshop held in March at Jindabyne. The Master Casting Instructors qualification is offered by the Federation of Fly Fishers – there are currently six master casting instructors in Australia none of whom are based in Queensland.
The course was facilitated by current Master Casting Instructors Brian Henderson and Tony Loader – beyond their formal qualifications both are extremely well regarded in the fly casting field. To the best of my knowledge this course was the first formal course to be held in Australia to this end.
We were joined on the course by Certified Casting Instructors and fellow Queenslander Ward Nicholas (from Townsville), George Forster from Victoria, Rory Graham and Paul Regan from Sydney. Current CCI candidate and accomplished Townsville caster Richard Wallace made up the numbers on the course – an invaluable experience for Richard.
The course was extremely intensive being held over four days, in some instances commencing at 8 am and continuing with lectures and discussions extending to late in the evening. In fact there was barely time for candidiates to enjoy a late afternoon visit to Eucumbene for a quick fish.
Much was learnt by all candidates. The MCI performance test is not a walk in the park, consisting of twenty specified casting tasks and any number of questions raised by the examiners. The content of the course can be viewed on the Federation of Fly Fishers web site, as may the content of the CCI performance test.
The current course was largely based on the first five tasks of the performance test. Shaun, Paul and I had spent much time on preparation for these tasks already, yet were still surprised by what was left to add to both our practical casting abilities and theoretical knowledge of these tasks.
A great thanks to both Brian and Tony for their extremely valuable input – both clearly spent an enormous amount of time preparing for the course, and it certainly showed.
admin December 3rd, 2010
The first trial for the Queensland representative fly fishing team to attend the 2011 Australian Fly Fishing Championships was held on 6 November 2010 at Uncle Billy’s in northern New South Wales.
Results were as follows:
1 Alex Meynink
2 Jon Burgess
3 Ezvin Sarvan
The 2010 Australian championships are to be held on the weekend of 26 – 28 November.
admin December 3rd, 2010
You will note that several new Casting Instructirs have been added to the web site. Well known fly tier Shaun Ash passed the exam a few months ago in Melbourne and more recently Paul Goodey, Michael Kan and Duncan O’Connell qualified in Brisbane. Also passing in the Brisbane / Sunshine Coast area were George Forster from north east Victoria and Ward Nicholas from Townsville.
Congratulations to all.
The MCI examiners in the South East Queensland testing were Brian Henderson and Peter Morse. It is a compliment to the south east Queensland casting community that both commented on how well prepared the candidates were.
admin June 25th, 2010
The 30th FIPS-Mouche World Fly Fishing Championships were held from 14 – 21 June 2010 in Lesko-Polanczyk, Poland.
The team event was won by Czech Republic and the individual section headed by Paul Chyba, also of Czech Republic. Australia finished in ninth place in the team event and top placing Australian in the individuals was Jonathon Stagg in 12th position.
Top team placings were as follows:
1 Czech Republic
2 France
3 Slovakia
4 Poland
5 South Africa
8 New Zealand
9 Australia
Leading individual results were as follows:
1 Pavel Chyba – Czech Republic
2 Adam Tomas – Czech Republic
3 John Horsey – England
4 Julien Daguillanes – France
5 Sandro Soldarini – Italy
12 Jonathon Stagg – Australia
admin June 24th, 2010
2010 Australian Fly-Casting Championships
12-13 June 2010-06-14 Yarrambat Park
Results
FAD
1 JOHN WATERS 175.52
2 DANNY SPELIC 168.75
3 TED WHITTAM 165.40
SHD
1 JACKSON MARRS 56.39
2 NICK CULBERT 56.02
3 JOHN WATERS 55.12
DHD
1 JOHN WATERS 69.07
2 DANNY SPELIC 64.06
3 JOHN KRUSKA 63.68
DRY
1 MARK CUTHBERT 48
2 KEN LUCAS 45
3 JOHN KRUSKA 43
ICF
Eq 1 JOHN WATERS & ANDY SCOTT 95
2 PETER WILSON 92
3 KEN LUCAS 87
WET
1 WAYNE REDDAWAY 43
2 JOHN WATERS 40
Eq 3 PETER WILSON, BRUCE RATCLIFFE & GEOFF NEWMAN 33
Champion of Champions
1 JOHN WATERS 467.75
2 DANNY SPELIC 417.41
3 JOHN KRUSKA 410.65
4 MARK CUTHBERT 395.47
5 BRUCE RATCLIFFE 394.57
6 PETER WILSON 388.33
7 ANDY SCOTT 386.18
8 RON HEATH 383.55
9 COREY HEATH 372.21
10 KEVIN LAUGHTON 368.41
B Grade
1 LEFF ANDROPOF 135
2 ANDREW CONNELL 130
3 BRIAN COCKS 124
C Grade
1 BROOKE TANNER 101
2 NORM TANNER 45
D Grade
Eq 1 MATTHEW CHAPMAN & ASITHA BALACHANDRA (AJ) 113
2 BOYD WILSON 95
3 JOHN SMITH 87
Accuracy Champion
JOHN WATERS 170
ACF Award
GAVAN DAVIS 300.41
Southern Cross 5 weight Fly Distance Challenge
1 M. HOWELL 108′ 1″
2 J. MARRS 106′ 11″
3 B. RATCLIFFE 102′ 10″
4 D. WALLIS 96′ 3″
5 J. KRUSKA 95′ 8″
6 P. EMILAN 95′ 3″
7 B. AHERNE 93′ 9″
8 P. WILSON 92′ 9″
9 C. HEATH 92′ 0″
10 B. WILSON 88′ 5″
11 A. CONNELL 84′ 0″
12 A. BEER 79′ 10″
13 P. MENEELY 78′ 3″
admin June 24th, 2010
A fairly well attended outing by the Southeast Qld Flyfishers Club, with four boats and a small group of “beach based” flyfishermen on the spit on the north end of South Stradbroke Island.
the wetaher for once co-operated and despite a chill in the early morning the sun shona and the wind barely breathed on the Broadwater.
Almost all those present caught fish. Species included were taylor, trevally, bream, whiting, dart and the ever present flathead.
As always the event finished witha group of club members gathered around the barby kindly tended by Brian Ware.
admin June 24th, 2010
Eight member of Souteast Qld Flyfishers Club made the annual trip to Ebor this year. The visit being in late autumn was, for several members, a first visit to the area athis time of year.
Fishing was challenging and not many fish were caught. However the visit added new waters to those previously fished by club members and a thank you to the local farmers who obliged by allowing club members to fish their waters must be noted.
The outing was much enjoyed by all.
admin May 10th, 2010
Despite an apparent lack of interest from many potential attendees, resulting in an initial cancellation of this event, the convention was held at Boornhoffen in mid March 2010. While the number of participants was well down on previous years, and in fact consisted almost entirely of invitees from those who had expressed interest on its initial posting.
Keynote speakers were Peter Morse and Juan Del Carmen, fly tiers present were Muz Wilson and Jonno Makim and casting instructors present included Master Caster Peter Morse and site certified instructors Nial Logan and Jon Burgess. Duncan and Janelle from Fishead were kind enough to relocate a good portion of their flyfishing showroom and stock to the convention and this was much appreciated by all.
The reduced numbers present ensured that all were passionately interested in their craft, and also that all were personally involved in all the various activities and certainly stimulated much enthusiastic discussion at all the various forums.
Thanks go to all the organisers for ensuring that this event continued despite criticism from quarters. Without exception this event is a “must do” for all fly fishermen in striking distance of the venue and also those who would travel from afar.
admin July 4th, 2009
An inter club challenge between South East Queensland and Sunshine Coast Fly Fishing Clubs was held over the weekend of 21 / 21 June 2009.
The results were rather one sided with Sunshine Coast easily taking the magnificent trophy (created by Nat Bromhead) to hang in Tie “n” Fly Outfitters for the next year.
As the writer was late for the prizegiving I can only say that I think Bruce Nitskie, Pete Swanson, Dazz and Nat Bromhead were the leading anglers, with each catching several species at unspecified venues.
A great weekend was had by all, with possible highlights being a crab dinner (thanks Alf) and a midnight casting competition held in dreadful conditions by dreadfully conditioned competitors. This was won by Jackson (Jacko) Marr with the only serious competition coming from Chris Adams. Jacko certainly throws a long line and must be viewed as a contestant in future australian distance casting events.
Tom Boylan, el presidente of SE Qld, immediately laid down the gauntlet with a promise of a rematch at a venue more familiar to his club.
admin June 3rd, 2009
For those lucky enough to have attended it the Rise Fly Fishing Film Festival visited SE Qld recently with shows on the Gold and Sunshine Coasts and in Brisbane.
The Festival featured stunning movies from global destinations including Tasmania, India and Russia, with Gin-Clear Medias “The Source – Tasmania” being the featured movie.
It was also a pleasure to meet the Tasmanian Guides who were present at each of the showings, and were happy to pass on helpful advice to those considering a trip to Tasmania.
