2017 Archive
Honorary Bailiff Joe who sadly passed away recently is to be cremated at Enfield Cemetery on Friday 15th December at 2.30pm, with a wake afterwards. Chairman Dave Jarvis will be attending and will be organising a flower arrangement from the club.
Fur & Feather Despite excellent sport recently, the fishing was slow to start with. Fish were well spread out, with winner Harry Fox catching a 4-12-0 fish which moved between him and Mike Heritage on the West bank of No4, while second-placed John O’Regan bagged up on the Houses Bank of No5, later joined by Kevin Blackwell, John Ferguson and third-placed Vince King who landed a 4-11-0 fish with 15 minutes to go. Results and more pics>>
Autumn Newsletters These should be with you shortly. In our editorial we look at the problem of inadequate signage, and visitors going where they shouldn’t. Myland says that more durable, replacement signs have been ordered. In the meantime he is making regular patrols in the van to make sure that dogs aren’t brought onto the site, and that joggers only use the main central cycle route.
Autumn Series Our sixth and final match in this series saw colder conditions appear to drive fish deeper. With neither Frank Daley nor John Ferguson keeping fish, and Jim Dillon not weighing in, Andrew Green’s two fish gave him the 10 points, making him level for the overall winner with Jim. On checking both their total weights, Andrew was found to be one ounce more than Jim, so took the shield by the narrowest of margins Results>>
River Test Grayling Day We were lucky with the weather on our Wherwell trip as light winds and bright conditions replaced the drizzle of the previous day. This encouraged good hatches of Olives, so as well as catching on the Duo and French Leader, we were also able to take some decent 35cms+ grayling on dries, always a pleasant way to catch these lovely fish. As usual, Hugh’s breakfast fry-up and beef stew lunch was very much appreciated. Highlight of the day - an 8lb pike taken by our friend Zhongxiang Zhu on pike fly and 20lb fluorocarbon - a nice piece of opportunism.
River Competitions: Several club members took part in the Broadlands Grayling Classic, now run as a pairs event over three sessions. Despite high winds in the second afternoon session, Tony & Harry Fox did well, as did Hector Rodriguez who followed his win last year with a second place, with partner Cameron Craigs. In the Lower Itchen Rivers Qualifier, Mike Heritage won the morning session, and the overall top spot, with Andrew Green winning the afternoon. Tony Fox came 6th overall, with Harry 9th and Jim Dillon 10th. Despite low water conditions, the river switched on after a cold start, with fish active in the afternoon.
Walthamstow Wetlands celebrated its recent opening with an official launch event in the brand new visitor centre in the Engine House. (Right) Waltham Forest councillor Clare Coghill addresses the gathering, which included representatives from Waltham Forest Council, the Heritage Lottery Fund, Thames Water, the London Wildlife Trust, along with the construction, architect and design companies involved.
Car Parking A new space has been opened up as a temporary area, just left of the front gate. Apparently, we will be able to use this for a few months, until more permanent facilities are available.
Walthamstow Wetlands As you’ll have seen, the Marine Engine House is close to completion. The redesigned website here>> announced that that the site would be open to the general public from Friday 20th October, with an official launch event early next month.
Competition News John O’Regan, once again our Walthamstow representative in the Troutmasters Final at Draycote (for the first time) put in another good performance, coming 9th.
Farmoor Club Trip Despite overcast conditions, Farmoor appeared not to have cooled down enough yet for the fish to be consistently patrolling the banks. Even in the SE Corner of No1, where some of us started, sport was relatively slow, although some good fish were landed. It was a different matter on the boats, where Vinnie had over a dozen on a variety of methods, with another boat doing well on Daddies. Looking for the colder water on the downwind side may help, but it’ll take a few more weeks before Farmoor hits top form. Look out for their Fur & Feather on Sunday 10th December.
Autumn Home Loch-style international Like Harry did last year, Tony Fox put in a great performance for England in the Loch-style Home International on the Lake of Menteith, getting the third best performance in the team and helping England to a convincing 1st place with 101 fish, in front of Wales with 65, Ireland with 64 and Scotland with 63. After catching four on dries, he got another six on a Pink-arsed Fab - Cruncher combination. Here he is with the rest of the England team. You can find the full results here>>
WaterAid charity match:
An improved attendance for this event in aid of the water industry’s charity. Windy, overcast conditions, plus rain, were uncomfortable at times, but meant there were often fish moving. Tony Fox made it three years on the trot with his single Cul picking out four nice fish. Others, like Billy Bridgeworth, put back a string of fish in the search for something bigger, but were caught out as takes slowed in the afternoon. In the end we raised £380, which Thames Water have promised to match. Our thanks to Thames for waiving the ticket fee on the day, as well as paying for our burger & chips from the Ferry Boat at lunchtime More pics>>
Loch-style National: Tony Fox, Harry Fox and Andrew Green faced changeable conditions over the two days at Rutland. Light winds and blue skies on the Saturday gave way to a 14mph South Easterly on the Sunday with heavy cloud. To make one of the two 2018 England teams you had to finish in the top 28 overall, and while they avoided a blank, they didn’t catch enough on the Saturday to put themselves in the running on the Sunday. Andrew got a 19th place on second day, but only finished at 40th overall. (Right) AT TEFF official Peter Hartley gives the briefing.
River Competition News:
In a Rivers National which saw Yorkshire’s River Ure come up on the first day, Tony Fox put in a good performance on the second day to finish 11th overall, with Andrew Green and Harry Fox ending up 27th and 30th. Harry, though, helped the England Red team get 2nd place in the recent Five Nations Championship against teams from France, Ireland and Scotland. As a hard-working reserve he also played a large part in England’s 2nd place in the Home International on the River Ebbw in Wales, and has been invited to join AT Team England FF’s new Elite Performance Programme.
Our final Wednesday
Evening Series match saw good overcast conditions with fish moving sporadically here and there, although at times they were difficult to tempt. Frank caught four to 4lbs but sportingly returned them, as Tony had already secured the overall series and the Ken Gunn shield, with three 1st places, a 2nd and a 3rd Results >>
A size 14 Diawl Bach took this impressive 8lb rainbow. Membership Secretary Vince King was on hand to witness Ray Taylor’s capture taken while he was fishing in No4 off the Causeway last Friday in nice conditions of overcast skies and light winds. We’ve seen some good ones moving during the Wednesday Evening Series, which shows that some of the better fish made it through the low water levels. Now that the grille is in place, these fish will be staying put in No4 & No5, instead of heading for the exit.
The Haven House Charity event enjoyed excellent fishing with trout being taken on a whole variety of methods, including nymphs on the floater, Snakes on the intermediate, and Boobies on the DI8. It looks as though the reservoirs have recovered well after their period of low water, with great clarity and fish feeding well on buzzers, daphnia and fry. The best fish was a 5-8-8 specimen to Dave Garry, with the top bag of 13-14-0 to Andrew Green, just two ounces ahead of last year’s winner Barry Shedden Results & more pics >>
Harry Fox did well to come 4th in a tough qualifier on the River Ure at Wensley, which saw reduced numbers of fish caught from a low river. He goes through to the Rivers National on the same venue in August, along with Tony Fox (5th in this event), Hector Rodriguez, Mike Heritage and Andrew Green, who all qualified on the Lower Itchen last November.
The Farmoor Club trip saw a packed mini-bus head for Thames Water’s flagship fly fishery. True to form, we were greeted by gin-clear water and fish moving all day long, despite a chilly start. Floaters and intermediates brought fish to 5lbs, which presented tricky surface fishing on dries and the washing-line. Small buzzers and black gnats appeared to be on the menu, along with daphnia, with 12-14 Black Diawl Bachs and Green Buzzers effective, plus the usual Tadpoles and Snakes. We are looking at arranging another trip in the Autumn, details to follow.
Right: Barry and Billy on the North bank More pics >>
Troutmasters fish-off Billy Bridgeworth, John Ferguson and John O’Regan contested this event on the newly re-opened 4 and 5 reservoirs.
A couple of fish being landed before the start gave everyone encouragement as they lined up on the Causeway, despite the coloured water. Billy was the first to catch but couldn’t keep them coming, while John F had just the one pull all day. But it was John O’Regan who stole the show and secured his second Troutmasters Final place in two years with five fish including a 5-5-0 specimen, all on Boobies a few feet down.
Nos 4 & 5 re-opened After temporary use of the East Warwick, the levels are back to normal on Nos 4 and 5. With 2,000 fish stocked, fly fishing is once again available on these reservoirs for day and season ticket holders. Better still, an effective grille has now been installed between No4 and the High Maynard, with all finishing work completed, to prevent escape of stock. The club would like to thank everyone for their patience during this essential engineering draw-down.
Loch-style Qualifiers Harry Fox did well on a tough day at Bewl to top a field of 28 to win the AT TEFF Loch-style qualifier there with a 21lb bag which included fish to 4-6-0. Andrew Green was 2nd with Tony Fox 4th. It would have been a clean Walthamstow FFC sweep but Mike Heritage had a frustrating day, getting lots of takes but not connecting properly. He did get the best fish of the match, though, at 5-7-0. Qualifiers go through to the National Final at Rutland in September.
Start Fly Fishing Our club instructor, Andy Hathaway, reports on some great teaching days, especially a recent one on the East Warwick, where a few fish were caught (and released). Here’s just one of our happy customers with a fish she landed under Andy’s expert guidance. Remember, our Start Fly Fishing courses continue throughout the season. As soon as we have more confirmed dates for these we will post them in our ‘Events’ section.
Typo on the Membership Application Form slip that was recently sent out with your Newsletter. Please note that
the A/c number for the Club’s bank account is 91020587,
not as shown on the slip.
2,000 fish have now been stocked into the East Warwick as part of a temporary arrangement to provide fishing for day and season tickets holders while work is being done on Nos 4 & 5. The following rules will apply: Anglers will be allowed to kill two fish, providing that these are under 3lbs. All fishing is to be with barbless hooks, with no Boobies allowed, and all other fish are to be returned under the normal East Warwick Catch & Release rules.
The Spring Newsletter should be sent out to members next week. At the time of writing the editorial, there had been a delay in putting the extra stock in the East Warwick, so we’re glad to see that this has now been rectified. We’re also pleased that Thames Water manager Will Barnard did express interest in a Walthamstow Fly Fishing Facebook page. This would make it a lot easier to communicate the latest news, like this stocking, than the present word-of-mouth system.
The London Fly Fishing Fair was a great success for us, so we’re pleased to hear that the organisers are already committed to a repeat event at the same time next year, which should only get bigger and better as the word gets round. We found this glass-roofed venue, with its light and airy atmosphere, very impressive, and the water-filled casting pool was inspired. It was great signing up so many new members, and chatting to old friends, plus a lot of very enthusiastic fly fishers, who were all surprised that such good quality trout fishing was available just 40 minutes from the middle of London. Here’s chairman Dave Jarvis at our stand on the morning of the first day, before the rush started.
Temporary arrangements on East Warwick: Following our meeting with Will Barnard (see below) and further discussion with ranger Myland Monery, it has been agreed that Thames will stock 2,000 fish into the East Warwick, and allow fishing on this reservoir to day and season ticket anglers - as a temporary measure - until the levels on Nos 4 & 5 reservoirs return to normal. Anglers will be allowed to kill two fish, providing that these are under 3lbs. All fishing is to be with barbless hooks, with no Boobies allowed, and all other fish are to be returned under the normal East Warwick Catch & Release rules. The club recognises that such a compromise not only offers Thames Water a practical solution until the engineering inspection is over, but should also give our club reservoir a healthy injection of fish at a time when temperatures are ideal for stocking. We look forward to when fishing on Nos 4 & 5 is back to normal, with a bonus 1,500 stockfish, and a working grille to make those surplus fish stay where we want them.
By the way, journalist Joe Shute of the Daily Telegraph recently visited the East Warwick with Fergus Kelley, joint organiser of next week’s London Fly Fishing Fair (see our Events page). Although they weren’t lucky enough to catch, it looks as though they had a pleasant morning, and it’s a good write-up, especially if you’re one of those hipster urban fly fishers out there>>
The AGM & Auction was once again held in Walthamstow Cricket Club where Chairman Dave Jarvis presented members with a report from our last meeting with Will Barnard, Fisheries and Angling Development Manager for Thames Water. Levels on Nos 4 & 5 reservoirs had fallen to such an extent that fly fishing had become increasingly difficult, affecting the take-up of season tickets. Although Thames were looking to stock a surplus of 3,500 fish, low levels would make it even easier for predation by cormorants. The good news was that work had already started on consolidating the foundations for the grille. It was estimated that it could be at least six weeks before the levels would be raised again, so in the meantime a solution allowing day and season ticket holders onto the East Warwick (see above) as a temporary measure was looked at. Preparations for our presence at the forthcoming London Fly Fishing Fair were also outlined. Following the meeting, Kevin Blackwell did his usual excellent job as MC at our Auction, which saw some enthusiastic bidding.
Harry Fox has been called up to be part of the England Red team in the Five Nations, with captain Simon Kidd, and fellow team members Carl Nixon, and Tom Bird. The other England team in this FIPS-Mouche rules competition will be England Blue, captained by Tony Baldwin, with Mark Withyman, Tom Gott and Tom Speak. Teams from Scotland, Ireland, Wales, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Belgium have also been invited to participate, and the event will be held on Stocks reservoir and the River Ribble. Manager Paul Davison thinks this is “A great blend of experienced and up and coming anglers” and will be going “all out to win the event”.
The Final Fling saw large sheets of ice still persisting on both No4 and No5 reservoirs, but some light early rain, along with a steady SW wind, helped to clear this, so that at the end of the day, both waters were ice-free. During a slow morning, Harry Fox got in one of the swims at the top of the West bank of No5, while there was still just a narrow gap to fish in, to be be rewarded with a 3-8-0 rainbow, the best of the day. Here he is (right) with last year’s holder, Billy Bridgeworth. Results and Report>>
The Fly-tying Evening once again enjoyed the superb facilities of the Angling Academy building which ranger Myland Monery kindly made available to us. Techniques for tying Snake-type Rabbit wing Zonkers were demonstrated, as well as the more traditional Dabbler patterns. One way to tie in the typical ‘cloak’ wing of Bronze Mallard is to position these fibres beforehand, pointing forward over the eye of the hook. When the fly is completed, these fibres can be drawn back behind a small neat head. Frazzle Fritz with UV is a good material for the bodies, in Black or Claret (see right).
Low levels on Nos 4 & 5: Levels on both No4 and No5 reservoirs have now been lowered to below the edge of the concrete facing. We were told this would happen, for operational inspection, and hope this will give the engineers a chance to check the foundations for the grille between No4 and the High Maynard, so that work can continue on installing this. Because the exposed concrete can be slippery, we recommend the use of those rubber non-slip ice grabbers which fit over your boots. Portwest make them in L and XL and they sell for around £6-8. In the past, fishing has been good with the levels down and in any case, once the inspection has been done, they are usually very quick to bring the water back up again.
