10-12-09 Paul Little Flytying Demonstration

This quiet spoken and unassuming gentleman’s obvious skill and ability commanded the rapt attention of the members and guests from the off.

Paul started off with a dry Grannom,

Followed by an Adams

Then a Dark Watchet

All the while, discussing the various tying techniques and the logic behind their use.

We were also give the opportunity to see a sample of Paul’s magnificent cased Salmon Flies.

He then tied a Silver Wilkinson  (variant) salmon fly.

The ease with which he constructed a married wing from 6 different wing materials was a revelation.

 Paul then tied a realistic beatis nymph with a woven body of green mono over yellow olive thread.

Magic.

During the mid evening break Anne thought, seen as its Christmas,  we would have a  buffet for a change. Not only arranged by Anne but actually prepared by her own fair hand. It made a nice change from the usual pies and peas.

Thanks Paul. We look forward to your next visit and thanks to Anne for the excellent grub.

And a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Tight lines for 2010

08-11-09 Sharpley Springs

As the weather improved and the chilly NW wind diminished, a midge hatch stimulated Sharpleys rainbows to feed just subsurface on the ascending nymphs.

Intense consentration from Kevin

Jim seems happy

A nice Sharpley Rainbow

On a size 18 PTN

05-06-09 Durham FF won the Annual Friendly with Tunstall FF. Kevin Moses was top rod with 11 fish, fishing for DFF. Thanks to Tunstall FF for their excellent hospitality and a good days fishing in wonderfull surroundings.

My appologies to Kevin for calling him Ken                                         (John Hartland) 

Roy Christie Demonstrating 26-02-09

It was good to see "one of our own members” doing a presentation.

Roy has made several presentations to the DFF but for many of our members this was the first time.

 Google Roy Christie and you will find him all over the internet.

Most of his, often unique, patterns have been around for some time, but to have Roy explain the logic that lead to their development in his own inimitable style, resulted in a very informative and entertaining evening.

 Here is a selection of some of his patterns:-

Liam Larkin Presentation 27-11-08

Liam Larkins comment about not having a great deal of experience of doing demonstrations proved difficult to accept.

His enthusiasm, together with his in depth knowledge of fly fishing for a broad range of species including Pike from the upper end of the northern hemisphere, to tropical saltwater fishing for Permit, captured everyone’s attention from the word go. He has even does a bit of Seatrout fishing on the Wear at Durham.

Here are some of the flies he tied.

For Pike, a Zonker

A Gotcha, for Bone fish

Black and Silver

Crab, for Permit

On carbon hooks so they rust out if he loses one in a fish

Craft fur, baitfish

Pike popper

One of his fly boxes. I could not feature all of them, not enough space on the web site.

A very enjoyable evening. Look out for his new web site (North East Tackle - N.E.T.S.

Thanks Liam

Pat Mulholland Presentation 30-10-08

Pat started by tying some traditional patterns that he uses on the big Irish lochs.

Claret Bumble

Golden Olive Bumble

Gold Dabbler

Klinkhammer

Mayfly Dun

A lot of jaws dropped when Pat tied this one. He produced two wonderwing style wings from one feather. Totally new to everyone. Do it again Pat.

Spent Mayfly

And so he did. This time spent style. Dead versatile. He does them with CDC as well.

That was clever.

Thanks Pat for a cracking evening and thanks to Anne for introducing him.

Grayling Day on the Swale 25-10-08

We met at Witherspoons as planned. Their Farmhouse breakfast is Awsome. The weather and river was kind and Stuarts tuition on bugging must have been pretty good as we caught some fish. Thanks Stuart.

Sorry, no pictures. Forgot the camera.

But we put our new found skills in to practice the next weekend on the Tees.

0.4 meters up and steady

Might have been a fish

Thats what they look like

Teviot 10/11 October 2008

 We met as planned at 4 pm Friday 10 October in Kelso Town Square. Trouble was the Tweed thought it would muscle in as well. It rose 6 feet to greet us.

Stuart being the excellent guide that he is showed us where the best spots were to get a good pint, where to get the best meals and where the best tackle shops were located.

Sat am 11 October

Big an muddy

Pity, its a cracking day

Just to prove we actually were in Scotland

Stuart even knows where to get the best tea cakes.

If only it was a bit lower

Seriously, Stuart made the best of it and took us on a tour of all of the access points for his favorite stretches of the Tweed and the Teviot and showed us his various leader set ups for different conditions and the flies that he has the most success with.

 Thanks Stuart, it was an excellent trip. I am sure we will be going back.

Durham Flyfishers versus Tunstall Flyfishers annual competition 08-06-08

Oh for a ripple

Whats the hold up

Thats a good cuppa

TFF won the day with 48 fish to DFF's 46, mainly due to Lawrence Hawleys 22 fish bag caught on slow fished blobs on a slow intermediate from the dam end around the 2 bouys.

Ian Malpass weighed in the largest fish with a fish of 2.5lbs.

A good result considering the conditions. Winds varied from light to non existant with long spells of sunshine.

Thanks to TFF for their hospitality and a excellent days fishing.

08-03-08 Casting with Carl Hutchinson

The wind varied from severe gusts to gale force. Maybe a good day to learn to cast properly.

If we could cast under these conditions it should be a doddle in normal weather.

“Forget what you have read in the Text Books” said Carl. Gasps from some members.

“Forget what you have ever learned about casting” Sighs of relief from others.

 Carl Hutchinson has a totally different philosophy about learning to cast, and it works.

Minimise the power, get the technique right, get the timing right and casting competently becomes a whole new experience. From straight forward casting, roll casting to double hauling. Can you imagine learning to double haul using a rod with a squash ball attached to the end of the line! What’s more Carl puts it over in such a way that it’s easy to remember and if your arm forgets how to do it, there are simple basic exercises to get you back on track.

Theory

Demo

Right, what next?

When is the coffee break?

Practice

More Practice

We also learned how to make a Singapore Leader and a better dropper knot.

 If you need to learn more make a booking or visit the web site.

16-02-08 Dave Downie Presentation

What a nice chap.

That was one of the initial comments heard shortly after Dave started his presentation. A comment which was heard repeatedly during the course of the day.

 Dave started by tying a Cats Whisker Booby demonstrating his own method of attaching the booby eyes and using soft chenille, yes chenille not fritz, for the body.

 This was followed by a selection of Stillwater flies, generally for competition fishing, using some of Dave’s own branded materials, his reasons for using them and how to fish the resulting flies.

Booby Cats Whisker

Black Buzzer

Yellow Headed Cruncher

As well as being a longstanding top international Stillwater angler, in recent years Dave has been successful on the international rivers scene.

He also offers guiding services including European destinations.

Here is a sample of the flies he uses.

One of Daves River Fly Boxes

Dave uses this fly on the top dropper (New Zealand Style) with weighted nymphs below, usually small PTN's with 2.3mm Tungsten bead heads.

Pink Klinkhamer Sighter

He also uses Czec nymphs quite extensively

Hares Ear Czec Nymph

Olive Czec Nymph

Pink Shrimp

On the whole it was an interesting and stimulating presentation with the day finishing with quite a number of empty pockets. The materials Dave markets are superb. His Marabou is the best I have seen. His died materials are excellent and Dave does not sell anything he would not use himself. His online shop is well worth a visit. http://www.flyfishingworld.eu/

10-01-08

Alan Bithel’s refreshing, innovative, “keep it simple” approach to fly tying results in flies that have fish appeal, but are so quick & easy to tie that we don’t have to worry about losing them in the bank side vegetation. They are great for those fish that lurk under bushes?

The following pictures were taken during his Tips & Tricks presentation on 10 Jan. where Alan demonstrated several patterns that have been featured recently in various angling magazines and he also gave a demonstration of manufacturing a furled tapered leader from tying thread.

(As featured on his web site http://www.progressiveflytying.com  )

Furling a leader from tying thread

Grub up !

Incidentally, The British Legion Club also provide a generous plate of pies & mushy peas, when we pre- book.