VOLUME 33, ISSUE 1. July 2026
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Thompsons Creek Dam - Dream Maker, Heart Breaker |
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Casting Practice
12 July 2026 l 9:00 AM l Timbrell Park, Henley Marine Drive, Five Dock
Monthly Meeting
13 July 2026 l 7:00 PM l Freeway Hotel, 115 Reserve Road, Artarmon
Sunday Morning Saltwater Social
19 July 2026 l 9:00 AM l Swallow Rock Reserve, Grays Point
Fly Tying
20 July 2026 l 6:30 PM l Freeway Hotel, 115 Reserve Road, Artarmon Tie In: Skills Improvement Workshop
15 August 2026 l 10:00 AM l Freeway Hotel, 115 Reserve Road, Artarmon
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"Every time I cast my line, I connect with the heart of nature." Linda Greenlaw
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Dear {Contact_First_Name},
Firstly, and I think I can speak on behalf of the club membership, when I wish Steve Peach all the best of luck as he heads over to Norway as a member of the Australian team competing in the World Masters competition. I have no doubt that we will get a comprehensive debrief from Steve at a club meeting later this year.
A couple of months ago club member Radge Diakiw gave me a box which contained a lot of very old editions of the Fly Rodder but also a copy of the original document that was presented at the first club meeting in June 1994 with his hand written notes. The document lists five objectives that I think are still relevant and we continue to achieve:
1. Foster all forms of fly fishing
2. Promote fly fishing through the broader recreational fishing community
3. Preserve the fishing environment
4. Not have a competitive ‘win at all costs’ mentality
5. Members should be willing to learn
Just a reminder that Membership renewals for the 26/27 financial year are due. Thanks to all those who have renewed their membership. If you haven’t renewed you are unable to register for club activities.
Our next saltwater activity is on 19 July at Gray’s Point. There are still places left so if you are interested, please register on the website. I want to acknowledge the work of Gavin van der Wagen who is organising this activity.
This month’s guest speaker is Justin Duggan who will be talking about winter fishing opportunities in Sydney. This should be an excellent presentation by one of the true experts in the field and I look forward to seeing you there.
Tight lines
David President |
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Fellow Flyrodders,
There’s been some chat recently on our WhatsApp Group about Thompsons Creek Dam. An enigma of a place, in my experience. I've walked around that dam in wind and rain without spotting a fish. But I've also seen what this watery contradiction can offer. I was fortunate enough to experience a winter of excellent fishing a few years ago. The shallows were full of sizeable cruisers that gave you whiplash walking the banks. Most, of course, were time vampires. They’d sink their fangs into you and extract hours of your life for no result.
But a few did take a fly that year. We had a run of luck that inspired my fishing buddy Dave and I to make the long journey from Sydney regularly that winter. At the height of the season, we ran out of egg flies and started making our own with a glue gun. The fever had well and truly taken us. |
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Dave during happier times |
After a string of successful dates, this suitor thought a permanent relationship with TCD was on the cards. I had a car and was prepared to drive. An occasional trout was all I asked for in return. Low maintenance, really.
And just like that, I was unceremoniously dumped.
Over the ensuing years I returned many times, hoping for a hint of recognition that never came. All of this made worse by trout charming scoundrels like Phil and Ray who catch regularly throughout the year. Being rejected hurt, but seeing others welcomed with open arms was a special kind of pain.
And yet I had further to fall.
Salt was rubbed into the wound by a fellow Flyrodder and TCD novice who had no right to see a fish on his first visit, let alone catch one. Andrew, who has since become a regular fishing buddy, caught a solid rainbow on his fourth cast. |
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Hooked up to a decent fish |
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Call Lithgow Police Station - there's been a robbery |
What's the point of this depressing backstory? To let you know, from someone who has lived through the highs and lows of this place, that the fishing has been encouraging this winter. On a recent trip with Leigh, another fishing buddy from our club, we saw serious numbers of cruisers and managed to tempt a few to the net. |
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Admittedly, good fishing at TCD one day can descend into a blank the next, but on average I think it is fair to say a decent number of fish have been caught in recent months. So I encourage those who can to give it a crack.
The tips that have worked for me this winter, courtesy of more accomplished anglers, are to use small black nymphs, unweighted or lightly weighted. Concentrate on areas where trout are pairing up. Don’t disturb these fish, but cast out a little deeper, where feeders are likely to cruise in and investigate the activity.
I hope those that venture to TCD this winter are rewarded with a fish or two. There are certainly some trophy trout in those waters. But go in with your eyes wide open – TCD is at once the best and worst of places. Perhaps that’s the appeal. |
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Club Event: Sunday Saltwater Social |
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A reminder that we have an upcoming saltwater club event on 19 July 2026. Down South of Sydney this time at Shallow Rock Reserve. There is plenty of parking and easy access to the flats for fishing. There are also toilets at this reserve. It’s a great event for new members to meet other members, as we are all willing to share our knowledge. Beginners are encouraged to attend. There's also a chance of hooking a few fish - recent reccies of the location resulted in catches of trevally, salmon, whiting, flathead and bream. And if that fails there's always the BBQ which is a guaranteed feed!
Please register on the website and come along.
If you have any questions please email Gavin van der Wagen |
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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 13 July. Members will arrive from around 6pm so feel free to come early and enjoy a drink and some dinner with fellow members.
This months guest speaker will be Justin Duggan from Sydney Flyfishing Tours. Justin will be sharing his wealth of knowledge gained from many years of fly fishing on Sydney Harbour and surrounds.
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: |
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By David Caddies
Commiserations to those few members who turned up without rain gear and either got wet or went home. After 7+ years of monthly casting practice on Sundays without once being seriously rained upon, your unpreparedness is understandable. Next time, when the forecast indicates rain ……………..?
However, one stalwart member stayed on practising coatless, got wet, but went home happy to have completed his roll cast for the Bronze on his first attempt. Five other members also did their first roll cast to Bronze standard on the day as well, having learnt and practised that day. These were a selection of members who, broadly speaking, had either never roll cast at all or had never been able to do it until then.
These achievements are made easier by the number of members able and willing to assist in instruction. In June we had 4 doing the instructing and the results were very pleasing for all. In addition to those who already help, I’m hopeful we’ll have a number of new Gold level casters before too long and that should have a real snowball effect on members’ skill levels as they spread their love for casting. I say ‘love’ because it is my observation that once you get to, or past, the Gold level, it’s hard to stop the enthusiasm for casting. What once might have been a chore to practice, becomes a bit of a pleasant compulsion – you too will want to chuck fluff for the sheer pleasure of casting. I’ve even noticed this trait among George’s Silver group. The Gold beckons!
Speaking of practice being sometimes a chore, I mentioned to the group at the practice day that practising a physical movement skill produces a brain-related change we refer to as ‘muscle memory’. If you are skilled at a particular movement (eg your golf swing), you repeat the same moves in practice (and whenever you do it). This ‘cements’ the memory ever more strongly. Not unexpectedly, the same ‘cementing’ thing happens even if you are not skilled and are doing the moves non-optimally. The crunch comes when you decide to perform the skill in a different way. Eg if somebody shows you a different, better method of movement. The job then is to ‘overlay’ the old memory with a memory of the new moves. The battle begins, because the old memory will never be truly gone - it’s on your ‘hard drive’ and will always be able to pop up. It often does, while you are in the new learning phase. The objective is to repeat the new move (correctly, of course, every time) so often that your new muscle memory becomes predominant and suppresses (‘smothers’) the old memory (which, to repeat, is still lurking). Ie the new move becomes the desired default.
Here’s the competency trap: You do the new moves successfully at casting practice day (for example). You remember all the steps so you don’t practice it any further, thinking you will pick it up again next practice day or next time on the water. You turn up expecting to do it the new way and, guess what, you are unable to do it at all. Reason: you haven’t yet done it enough times correctly to ‘smother’ the old memory and, after about 30 days of not doing a newly-learnt move at all, it’s gone. Repeat, gone. All you can do now is try consciously to remember how you did it and work it out again. Groundhog alert!
(1) Reinforcement. Practice any new physical skill you are trying to learn as much as possible within, at most, 30 days of first trying it. Preferably much sooner.
(2) Improvise. Effective casting practice does not always require water, a fly line or even a rod. Use a rod butt, a wooden spoon or just your hand with forefinger extended. None of that available or possible? Just visualise yourself doing the cast, with the recipe in mind as you mentally do the moves. This is a seriously powerful technique and opportunities occur when involved in restrictive, mindless activities such as riding on a bus or a golf cart.
(3) Focus. Be clear about exactly what you are trying to do and do it with full concentration. Even 30 seconds of practice counts if you do it intensively.
See you in the park
David
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Tim Ford being put through the Roll Cast
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Dave Webster rolling the line - theme of the day
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Rick Jones up at the plate
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Club Monthly Casting Practice - Details and Event Schedule. |
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SFRC MONTHLY CASTING PRACTICE 9am Sunday 12 July 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
12 July I 9 August I 13 September I 11 October I 8 November I 13 December |
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By Dave Wilson
At the July fly tying night, in keeping with mid-winter midging, we will be focussing on Midges ( Chironomids). Pupa from the stomachs of Wainui Bay (Lake Eucumbene) trout came in various colours from reddish / olive to brown/black, 6 to 7 mm in length (about a size 18 hook).
Occasionally adult midges ball up forming dense colonies that roll along the surface of the water - best imitated by a Griffiths Gnat (Midge Ball). A good standard rig is a Griffiths Gnat suspending a pupa imitation. As midge rises are usually haphazard all over the place, the Gnat is seen more easily by both fish and fisher.
We will include some size 18 hooks on the night for those who are game.
So come along to learn these skills at the next fly tying night on 20 July 2026 at 6:30 PM at the Freeway Hotel. |
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Tie In - Skills Improvement Workshop |
By Dave Wilson
This one-day event on Saturday 15 August is perfect for
anyone wanting to try fly tying for the first time, as well as for experienced
tiers looking to review and sharpen their skills. Whether you’re simply curious
about fly tying or eager to improve your technique, this is a day for you!
Our theme this year the Mayfly Life Cycle. We will tie the
fly’s trout target throughout the cycle - Nymph, Pre-Emerger (Floating Nymph),
Emerger , (Possum Emerger) Dun and Spent Spinner. |
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We will concentrate on the fundamental skills and techniques needed to tie any pattern. There will also be the opportunity to troubleshoot and workshop any challenges you may encounter.
Bring your tools and lamp. We will provide material kits. No tools? No worries – we will provide everything you need.
You will order your own a-la-carte pub lunch at your expense. Morning tea will be catered for along with continual coffee, tea & biscuits.
We are restricted to 15 attendees and so it will be “first in best dressed” when booking.
The $25 fee remains a steal with a Morning Tea start at 10am. (While the Freeway Hotel closes at 3am, sleeping bags will not be provided!)
Please visit our website to register. Look forward to seeing you there.
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Patagonia Fly Fishing Trips |
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New Members
We extend a warm welcome to new members Tim Barling, James Lowry, Mark Lu, Forrest Moebes, Tommy Nguyen, Grant Stewart, David Underwood, Monica Wangmann, Geoff Warn and Ray Waughman.
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. |
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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 |
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Sydney Flyrodders Instagram Page |
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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. |
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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 |
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Piste Haus Ski Lodge - Jindabyne |
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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
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