VOLUME 32, ISSUE 10. May 2026

In the last edition I mentioned that I hoped to get away for a couple of days to Barrington Tops. I didn’t quite get there but I got out to the Fish River at Tarana a couple of weeks ago for some much needed R&R.

A lot has happened over the last month and there is a lot on the horizon.

If anyone is interested in attending the Women’s Recreational Fishing League Stillwater residential weekend (which Sydney Fly Rodders is sponsoring) at Dunmore Trout Waters (between Guyra and Glen Innes) over the 7-9 August as either a casting instructor, fly tying instructor or lake fishing instructor (or a combination) please let me know. Accommodation and meals will be provided.

I represented the club at Mike Chapmans Ashes Internment on 1 May. It was great to have Radge, Dave Wilson and John Vacaro there as well and for Dave to recount a couple of stories.

Due to the uncertainty regarding fuel supplies in rural Victoria the committee made the decision to suspend the Big River trip. Unfortunately, most activities for the foreseeable future will be planned on with the caveat that individuals will have to make their own risk assessment regarding fuel availability.

Many thanks to all those who participated in the recent survey regarding the Christmas Party. We will take heed of your responses when planning this year’s event.

We just had the Sunday morning saltwater social event on 3 May; Gavin - thanks for organising this and later in May we are running our late-season Tumut trip. Both great activities!

A hearty congratulations to Jared Klein who, to the best of my knowledge is the first club member to represent Australia on the international arena. Well done Jared!

Finally, I was really pleased to see the following comment on our WhatsApp page ‘This is what I always hoped being a member of the SFRC community would be like. Quality intel from the likes of Jared and Peachy with recommended flies AND vids on how to tie them, reports from Brassil and Dunlop et al, great questions from the likes of Dario and marriage harmony at TCD with the Shorts’. We are a community!

Looking forward to seeing you at a meeting or activity soon.

Tight lines

David

President

My happy place - the Fish River, Tarana

From the Editor

Fellow Flyrodders,

There’s a mix of stories in this month’s newsletter which capture the variety of fishing escapades our members enjoy through the year.

Christopher Williams gives an excellent and informative account of a recent trout fishing trip to Chile and Argentina; Nick Careless recounts an enjoyable father and son trip fishing for barramundi, mangrove jacks, trevally and queenfish; and closer to home, Ben Sainsbury covers our well attended Sunday Saltwater Social which resulted in a decent luderick and what may prove to be a new Australian record for a fly-caught garfish.

Aside from that, David Caddies shares his wisdom on creating new muscle memories to eradicate bad habits, and Dave Wilson gives a teaser about the fly under the microscope at this month’s fly tying evening. It’s the Pheasant Tail Nymph – one of my favourites.

I hope you enjoy reading this issue (and please keep those trip reports coming).

Jason Hemens
Editor

Trip Report: Fly Fishing in Chile and Argentina

By Christopher Williams

A plan developed in early 2025 saw Sydney Fly Rodders Brian Willett, Harry Wubben, Glenn Rowland-North and Christopher Williams embark on a fly fishing trip to Chile and Argentina in March 2026.

Harry, Glenn and Christopher had fished in Argentina in November 2023, early in the season with strong river flows. An amazing and very successful trip, but another story!

This year, Chile was on the agenda to provide a different experience, and Argentina was included if the transfers between the two countries were practical.

Chile

Coyhaquie (Patagonia), southern Chile is regarded as the prime fly fishing base in Chile with several fly fishing lodges in and around the region. A regional capital with a population of around 60,000, Coyhaquie is a traditional, remote Chilean town with character, good supermarkets and plenty of restaurants. It’s a two-hour flight from Santiago to Balmaceda airport, and then a one-hour shuttle transfer to Coyhaquie.

We opted for Airbnb accommodation and chose to be guided by Alex Prior, the owner of Southern Exposure Fly Fishing. With 35 years of experience, Alex is credited with being the pioneer of the region.

The Fishing

For the first time in many years there was very little or no snow on the Andes which clearly impacted the water flows and river and stream levels. Numerous rivers, streams and lakes provide plenty of fishing opportunities; we fished in areas quite close to the fjords.

The blue ribbon river - The Simpson - was blown out by a huge storm on the border of Argentina two days before we arrived. The Simpson is a big river and has plenty of drifting and varied wading opportunities. Its non-availability only marginally affected our fishing experience.

We fished seven days straight:

Rio Aysén (drifting)
Rio Mojte (wading), a remote area and a great place to fish
Rio El Blanco (wading), another remote area resulting in good numbers
Rio Emprador Guillermo (wading), a river and spring creek in the Simpson valley
Lago Chanelito (near Manihualis), loch style
Lago Portales
Rio Nirehuao (wading), a spring creek on the Pampa near the Argentinian border offering wonderful scenery. The spring creek was very low but there were enough deep pools to catch good fish.
Rio Coyhaquie (wading), 15 kms from the town centre

In total, fish numbers were quite good; we had a few standout days and the usual challenging days that still produced good fish. There were several very good browns and rainbows for the group across the week, the majority of fish landed were in the 14 to 16-inch range.

The scenery in The Coyhaquie region comprises many beautiful valleys and deep gorges, with good fishing access through private property (permission based) and a permanent backdrop of craggy mountains. Fishing in the area was a delight and of the seven days, the remote Rio Mojte and El Blanco were highlights; the Rio Aysen drift was very successful, as was Lagoon Chanelito.

Whilst the fishing conditions were mildly disappointing because of the water levels, the total package was excellent. The wading opportunities in remote areas was a standout feature and Alex Prior was a fantastic guide, providing great service (and lunches!) with admirable attention to detail.

Rio Aysen

Rio El Blanco

Argentina

On our previous trip in November 2023, we had been hosted and guided by Patagonia River Guides and one of the senior guides was Mauricio Techera. At that time he had been with PRG for 23 years, then in early 2024 he set out on his own as an independent guide, establishing Patagonia Steppe Outfitters.

He is an FFI instructor and hosts individual clients, handles select lodge/outfitter contracts and now offers a glamping component with many options, including short term camping and two, three, five and seven-day options mixed with Airbnb accommodation.

The Patagonia Steppe is a vast arid/semi arid area mostly within the general Patagonian region. Generally cold and windy, it extends over 570,000 square kilometres encompassing eight major river systems, many spring creeks and a large number of fishable lakes. There was also little or no snow on the Argentinian side of the Andes this season.

A flamingo mid-flight

Our Experience

Mauricio agreed to meet three of us in Coyhaquie and transfer us to the base camp on the Rio Chubut. The base camp is about 85 kilometres from Esquel, a town which has direct flights to Buenos Airies. Our transfer was a spectacular two day, 840km drive through magnificent scenery from Coyhaquie.

The base camp is located in a secluded area on the Chubut River, within the boundaries of a 3000 hectare estancia (ranch) that offers several kilometres of frontage to the Chubut River. A very small estancia by Argentinian standards, the owner also owns five larger ones in the region!

The original plan was to fish four different rivers with a mixture of float and walk/wading/ float/wade. However, the very low water levels meant a significant change to the original plan was needed. So we stayed at the base camp for five nights and included fishing in two additional rivers during the two-day road trip from Coyhaquie.

The Fishing

En route we fished the Rio Senguer, about 180 kms from Coyhaquie. This is a big river with large brook trout, rainbows and browns. Also en route, and about three hours from the base camp we fished the Rio Tecka, a river that meanders through a large plain with steppe mesa and mountains as a backdrop. There were several very good browns and pretty good rainbows here, with a few brook trout. These two very good rivers would not be part of any trip where Esquel is the start point.

From the base camp we completed three 10-12km drifts over three days on different sections of the large Chubut River. The three of us landed over 100 substantial rainbows and more than a dozen hefty perch. The rainbows fought hard and there were good browns as well. Both dry and dry dropper were successful and yes, casting to rising fish did happen.

The balance of our time was spent wading the Chubut River within the boundaries of the estancia. Fish were caught in front of the camp and in good pools less than 500m from camp. Generally, very good fish. We also fished the Rio Gualjaina which at that time was not very productive as it was very low and skinny.

Rio Chubut

Base Camp was an extremely good set up on a cleared river frontage area, with two inflatable twin-share tents, an eating and relaxing tent, as well as a kitchen tent and toilet/shower tent. A Starlink internet service was also available.

Base Camp on Rio Chubut

Mauri’s crew comprised a second guide, a boat assistant/support guide and two cooks. The catering experience was excellent: plenty of Argentinian BBQs supported by entrees and desserts. And, of course, Malbec.

In Summary

The contrast with Coyhaquie was dramatic and certainly contributed to the total trip experience. The Steppe landscape was stark, and very different to the Trevelin area that two of us had fished in 2023.

Chile-Argentina Border Region

The drift component on the Rio Chubut was almost a once in lifetime experience, and the Rios Senguer and Tecka were in great locations and very productive - the Rio Tecka holding very large browns and rainbows. We had to battle heavy downstream winds a few times which was on occasion very tough and at the same time amusing.

A very important point to make here is that the Patagonian Steppe provides a wide range of great fishing opportunities. It is not limited to the Chubut and the other rivers that we fished. The area is so large that drives of around 75 to 100 kms are sometimes required depending on where a base is established, which is why Mauri and his team can create many different scenarios.

End Note

A trip planned so far in advance cannot always achieve the imagined outcomes. March was the most suitable time for all of us, but obviously early season November and December would be prime time because of much higher water levels. That was the experience in Trevelin in November 2023.

End of season is mid April and is generally a good time given normal snow run off.

Whilst it was not to be this time, it was still a really good fishing trip and putting both Coyhaquie and the Argentinian Steppe into the same tour resulted in a highly successful and very memorable experience thanks to our guides, Alex and Mauri.

Links

www.flyfishingcoyhaquie.com

mauritec@gmail.com

A small collection of scenic pics and just a few fish pics:

Trip Report: The Weipa Trip that Wasn't

Barra on fly

By Nick Careless

A trip to Weipa had long been on the bucket list, with my son’s 18th being the justification to get it booked for April this year.

Plenty of fly’s were tied with Weipa guide Kurt Rowland’s advice to bring: clousers, white and lot of them. And the shift from trout dry fly rods to 8 and 10 weights was aided by plenty of patient tuition from David and the crew at the club’s regular casting practice days. That combined with my son’s spin gear, meant we were ready.

A couple of days before flying out, I received a call from Weipa politely enquiring if we had been watching the weather forecast? … er not really, Cyclone Narelle had passed through in March without too much impact, so bags packed, all good was my response. Turns out Narelle had a sister Maila that was forecast to move from the Solomon Islands straight at Weipa.

Weipa cyclone

We flew to Cairns, but the Weipa trip was cancelled. Some quick googling and some phone calls later meant we had a tinnie in Cairns followed by a day’s guided fishing further South on the Johnstone River at Innisfail.

The scenery was fantastic, with plenty of crocs, but the fishing was hard – the fish seemed to know bad weather was coming. Success was had catching Mangrove Jacks and small GTs amongst the snags.

A solid Mangrove Jack extracted from the snags

After our couple of days in Cairns, we headed south to Hinchinbrook for a hastily arranged stay with Clinton Isaac and family at his Australian Flyfishing Lodge in Cardwell. Our guide for the next 3 days was John who had travelled up from JC’s Guided Sportsfishing. We had an awesome time searching the mangroves, catching mangrove jacks, barramundi, trevally and queenfish. Being in the right place at the right time was essential, with the afternoon runout tide being the magic hour. John looked at my arsenal of white clousers and said “haven’t you got anything dark? That’s what works best around here”.

This fly-caught queenfish has to be worth more than the next capture below...

What a fish! (even if it was caught on a lure)

Matthew, my son out-fished his dad hands-down on his spin gear. At one point, the decent sized GT he was wrestling with took off like a train to the horizon as it was engulfed by a huge queenfish, then swam as fast as it could towards the boat after the queenie spat him out.

A great father son trip, with Weipa waiting for another day.

Sunday Saltwater Social

The author trying his luck

By Ben Sainsbury

The Sydney Fly Rodders descended on the peaceful waters of Banjo Paterson Reserve for what turned out to be a Sunday of character-building rather than fish-filling.

The fish, it seems, had received advance notice of our arrival. Conditions were glorious, warm sun, a light breeze, and not a cloud in sight.

Perfect conditions

Trevor Sweeney soaking up the sun

Yet the underwater residents remained unimpressed and largely invisible. A handful of small garfish made an appearance, presumably out of curiosity rather than any serious commitment to being caught. The standout of the day belonged to Craig Somerville, who landed a fine blackfish on a self-tied weed fly.

Craig playing the fish into the net

Fish of the day!

For me, the morning began with a minor navigation error. Finding myself on the small pier among a cluster of anglers, a quick look at the gear revealed spinners. I realised I wasn't amongst kin. A quick look to the right I spied a gaggle of fly rodders further along, already deep in the serious business of burleying with the posh multigrain bread. It's seems even the burley costs more when fly fishing.

Two flies sacrificed to hungry oysters in the space of two minutes was, admittedly, not the strongest opening. Thankfully, a generous soul stepped in with a stout bread fly that proved considerably more oyster-resistant and went the distance without complaint. My only brush with the wildlife came from a local dog who cocked his leg against my bag.

The morning wound down with most eventually drifting to the bench for a snag and a cold beer, while a committed few carried on at the water’s edge. As for this writer, the rod was packed away with a full stomach and an empty net, but richer for the company and the tuition freely offered throughout the day. It turns out there really is more than one way to tie a knot.

David Webster with his prize garfish that stripped off 50 metres of line on the first run

From small things, big things grow

Vorn Sweeney and David Caddies

The gent who makes it all happen - Gavin van der Wagen

Paul Gibson on onion duty

Treasurer James Weber calculating the per unit cost of sausages

Denis Hill and Craig Symonds

Last Monthly Club Meeting

While the guest speaker for the April monthly meeting cancelled at short notice, members still turned up and chatted about various fishing experiences.

David Caddies presenting Dave Webster with the FFI Bronze Level Casting Certificate.

Next Monthly Club Meeting

Our next Monthly Meeting will be held at our regular venue, The Freeway Hotel (15 Reserve Road, Artarmon) commencing at 7:00pm on Monday 11 May.

Members will arrive from around 6pm so feel free to come early and enjoy a drink and some dinner with friends.

For those members who are on the WhatsApp chat you will know that Jared Klein has recently competed in the Oceania Fly Fishing Championship in New Zealand. Freshly returned from his trip Jared will be sharing his experience and learnings from the competion where he placed 5th overall!

So come along and enjoy another great night out with fellow members.

For those that cannot attend we will upload a video recording of the meeting to our YouTube channel, which members can access via the menu option below:

Casting Practice Report

By David Caddies

The intent of this Sunday morning session was to provide opportunities for members to continue to hone their skills towards casting tasks in the Flycasting Skills Development program. We also involved some members in a special session on double-hauling.

With 24 or so members present, we were fortunate to have David Bracks on deck helping out. So, while Gavin was kept more than busy guiding and assessing both Siver and Bronze contenders, David stepped in to take some very fresh starting casters and set them on the path to forming good loops. One or two were more experienced and at least one of those succeeded in a couple of the Bronze level casts. At Gavin’s end of the park, another couple of members finalised their Silver levels.

I did take a group through some basic instruction in double-hauling and I have to say this was a rewarding time spent. Most members do pull the line with the line hand as they cast backwards and forwards trying to get a bit more power into the stroke and that is the right idea. But there is a reason to pull an equal length of line each time and at the right time in the casting cycle. Wrong timing and unequal haul strokes quickly show up in poor loop shapes and can destabilise what might otherwise be a nice casting sequence. We lose the gain we were looking for by hauling in the first place.

Like a lot of casting habits, we do things unconsciously by the time we’ve been fishing for a few years. Our basic style is set. If the unconscious moves we do are helpful, that is good. If not efficient or optimal, such moves can be a problem because we tend to continue with them because we don’t even know we are doing them and therefore keep fishing with inefficient moves.

So, the thing to do was to raise awareness in each caster of how he was moving the line when hauling and how it measured up to what would be the best way. Let me just say that amongst the group there were a lot of lightbulb moments when focus became conscious. In fact, people who were getting it right were just as surprised as those who didn’t when they were invited to actually look at what their hands were doing. It must be nice to get it right without ever having thought about the detail! Most casters could not even tell you with any accuracy what their line hand is doing when they cast. I suppose the lesson is that being unconsciously correct is the aim. Generally it does take somebody else watching and knowing what to look for to see what you are doing and tell you. That’s because the observers bring their ‘conscious’ brain to observation and can afford to focus without the distraction of having to be doing the practical skill.

To learn any motor skill successfully, you have to lift yourself into full awareness as you practice the correct moves many times. Then, depending on how complex it is, you may have to repeat it a few hundred times to make it your ‘default’ mode. Hopefully, not having to do it a few thousand times to completely overwrite any previous faulty moves and overlay them with correct moves. Thinking “muscle-memory” here. Strange but true – the original muscle memory never goes away: if you want to change how you do a move, you have to create new memory strong enough to displace the original. Until the old way is so ‘buried’ that it no longer pops up when you are in unconscious mode. Consider that when you next set out to practise anything!

One of the interesting things for us fisherman to ponder is how come some poor flycasters (technique-wise) are nevertheless good fishermen, or at least catch fish? And enjoy themselves doing it. What would they be like if they improved their casting? Should they bother to?

Anyway, one of the nice payoffs about learning to do a complex physical skill is that not only do we end up learning the skill, but we also get better at learning any related skill. There really is a ghost in the works. So, stir up that ghost and I’ll ……

See you in the park.

David

Club Monthly Casting Practice - Details and Event Schedule.

SFRC MONTHLY CASTING PRACTICE 9am Sunday 17 May 2026

Reminder: Leave your 9 – 10’ trout leader with the 5X tippet at home. Bring one which is 8’ – 8’6” and terminating in 8 or 10 lb tippet. This session will suit DT or WF floating lines, for the single-handers. Two-handers, bring what you got.

Start time is 9am:

HOWEVER: If you wish to have a go at being evaluated for any one or more of the casts in the Bronze Skills Development Program and you would like to come earlier than 9, send me a text message to that effect on 0434 671 085 and I’ll be there to set it up, from 8am. Coaching and demonstrations will be going on after 9, but with not much opportunity for individual evaluations. Early notice would be appreciated, but don’t let that stop you from a late practice on Saturday to see if you’re ready!

All members are welcome to join in the club’s usual monthly practice session. If you want to know everything about the club’s casting practice sessions, read the whole blurb in the Flyrodder magazine.

WHERE: Timbrell Park, Henley Marine Drive, Five Dock. Go to the western end of Henley Marine Drive, past the cricket pitches, baseball nets and just past LIvvi’s coffee kiosk and kids’ playground area. There is an open area opposite where Ingham Avenue intersects with Henley Marine Drive which we usually use. It is not part of the sports fields. If conditions there are not suitable on the day, we will be just opposite, across the canal, or anywhere within sight that I can find.

So come and give it a try, as there is so much to be gained by attending these sessions. And they are Free!!!

If you can’t make it this time and want some good practical instruction to guide you, check out this site: https://www.flyfishersinternational.org/Learn/Learning-Center-Resources/Fly-Casting/Casting-Instruction

I don’t know if that link works for you. Google FFI flyfishing and delve around. Most stuff is open to non-members.

2026 dates for fly casting practice

17 May I 14 June I 12 July I 9 August I 13 September I 11 October

I 8 November I 13 December

Next Fly Tying Night

By Dave Wilson

A TWO MATERIAL FLY!

The original Sawyers Pheasant Tail Nymph (PTN) uses just two materials –

pheasant tail and copper wire. Fine wire is key.

No thread! (The American version sports the addition of peacock herl hackle and

thread)

The PTN is a very simple but effective fly hiding a few core skills. Having the right

materials is one thing - using the right skills is another!

A go-to fly for many.

Want to tie your own flies?

You don’t have to tie to tie the Fly-of-the-Month! You are welcome to come and tie socially with your own materials. We are still able to offer advice and help with your own flies.

So come along to learn these skills at the next fly tying night on 18 May 2026 at 6:30 PM at the Freeway Hotel.

New Members

We extend a warm welcome to new members Tom Burrow, Justin Laurens, Geoffrey McCowage and Dwayne Ogle.

We encourage new members to join in on the many activities that we run as this is a good way to meet other club members and also to improve your fly fishing skills and most importantly to have a great time.

Looking forward to meeting you at our Monthly Members Meetings and at events throughout the coming year.

Sydney Fly Rodders Facebook Pages

We run two SFRC pages, one is our public page and it posts events and activities of the club. It also shares posts from other pages like CAS, DPI on things relevant to the places and areas that we fish.

I post some fly tying every now and then and share links to events I find that might be of interest to followers. This page is a little like our Web page, it showcases the club to attract members and provides details of club events. At last count it has more than one thousand followers.

We added another page. This is reserved for members only and cannot be seen by anyone outside of the group. You will need to send a request to join. Any member can post on this page and it is a great opportunity for members to put up a post or two about anything fly fishing. I would like to encourage members to use this page to post fishing reports or photos of flies that you tied. Being connected to other members you can ask for some casting or gear advice, or organise a short trip when you suddenly have some spare time.

There are also hundreds of other groups; bream on fly, carp on fly, bass, trout....areas like alpine trout, Sydney Kayak Fishing....fly tying groups, buy sell swap fly gear pages and individuals like Aussie Flyfisher, Sydney Flyfishing to check out.

Phil Burton
philipburton@bigpond.com

Sydney Flyrodders Instagram Page

The Sydney Fly Rodders are now on Instagram. Many thanks to our Member Maddie Chew Lee, who offered to set us up and apply her significant experience with marketing and communications in particular within the social media space.

Please follow the site and add your comments, and lets grow this platform for the club. It will also attract new members to the club.

Below is a snapshot of the site. We aim to sync (in particular look and feel) the Instagram account with our Facebook account and also our new Website, which I talk more about in the preceding section.

Sydney Fly Rodders WhatsApp Group

We have an Exclusive Group on WhatsApp for our Members, which is a great way to communicate informally and to share ideas, seek advice and also to plan and seek interest for impromptu/planned fishing trips.

I can highly recommend this to members. We have arranged a number of trips now from a weekends bass fishing through to a casual and social Sunday morning or afternoons fishing at Narrabeen Lake or Hen & Chickens Bay etc. And there could even be a BBQ thrown in for a social get together afterwards. This will happen on most if not all occasions.

Should you wish to be included in this group, then please email me to request your inclusion, quoting your mobile number which is required to link you into the Group. You will need to download the WhatsApp first if you haven't already done so.

Please contact me for inclusion.

Jason Hemens

Editor, Flyrodder

jasondh1972@gmail.com

Piste Haus Ski Lodge - Jindabyne

The Fly Rodders have access to the Piste Haus Ski lodge in Jindabyne during the off season at an affordable rate:

Positioned in Jindabyne village walking distance to Banjo Patterson Pub and short drive to shops/restaurants/etc.
8 bedrooms, mix of doubles, twins, triples and bunks
Sleeps 14 all up and 10 comfortably
$75/room/night
SFRC get access from October to end May (off-season for skiing)
Large open plan and well-appointed shared kitchen, dining and relaxation area with log stove
Bring your own linen, towels, pillow, sleeping bag, blanket
Parking for up to 4 or 5 cars on site and others on the street

The syndicate that owns Piste Haus has been very generous in allowing the Sydney Flyrodders access to this excellent facility at such a low price. Therefore, we encourage members to feel free to make use of this offer (either in groups or as individuals – it does not have to be an official club trip), as long as we always remember to follow the house rules and leave the place clean and tidy.

If you are interested in booking please reach out to James Webber (treasurer@sydneyflyrodders.com.au

https://pistehaus.com.au