East Midlands Trout Fishers Association

News Letters 2010

E M T F A SPRING PAIRS MATCH

GRAFHAM WATER

SUNDAY 16^th MAY 2010

Once again another excellent turnout for a club match thanks to the persistence of Pat Sweeney and his telephone saw 28 anglers turning out for this popular competition. Prospects were looking good and expectations were high as Grafham had again been fishing its head off the previous week. With good bags being taken all week and amazing bags of fish caught in the Trout Master Final Held on Monday where there was no limit and bags of 23 fish being taken.

It was off to a casual 9-00 start and fishing to the rules of the water, saw most of the boats heading for the west bank. With the promise of rain later that day which did not appear thankfully, the conditions were ideal sunny intervals and cloud with a cooling breeze that meant you needed to keep a fleece on. With most of the boats distributed along the West Bank and in Savages. The majority of the boats were anchored approximately 75 yards of the bank and were soon in to fish. But the drifting boats were also catching but anchoring seemed to have the edge. The methods appeared to be fishing static Black or Olive buzzers with either a bung or straight lining. The morning passed quickly with good hatches of large buzzers appearing. 1-00 o’clock was approaching and the smell of fried onions and burgers were whiffing across the reservoir meant it was time to head back to the lodge for an EMTFA B. B. Q.

After a sociable B.B.Q. Lunch, refreshments and raffle. There was a presentation of trophies to members who could not attend annual dinner/presentation. It emerged during lunch that some boats had had a good morning and were finished and others almost there although a few appeared to be struggling and had felt they were fishing different water as are often the case. Anyway back onto the water at 2-00 saw again almost all the boats head back to the West Bank and anchor up for the afternoon session, again doing much the same as in the morning. However the afternoon was not as obliging as the morning with pulls and fish not so forthcoming which is usually the way.

6-00 o’clock arrived and all would revealed at the weigh in, with bulging bass bags it was obvious some anglers had a good day an some good fish had been caught. The result of way weigh in was as follows.

1^st Place John Sears & Mick White Total Boat Weight  50lb-13oz.

2^nd Place Bob Forsythe & Roger Woodhams Total Boat Weight 47lb-2oz.

3^rd Place Danny Peet & Rick Varley Total Boat Weight 41lb-6oz.

Biggest fish John Sears 7lb-10oz.

Best bag of fish also went to John Sears who had a incredible 8 fish limit of  29lb-5oz. John was fishing with his regular partner Mick White and caught their fish drifting off Rainbow Point on the West Bank. John’s method was a sinking line with his own buzzer variant believed to be approximately 2inches long and has fur in it! Match that hatch. Congratulations to John & Mick the 2010 Spring Boat Pairs winner.

A Total of 177 fish were caught saw a catch return rate of 6. 32 The  total combined weight was 438lb - 3oz.  giving an average fish weight of 2.47lb. with many over the 4lb mark.

That’s another match over. Our next match in our calendar is the Rose Bowl competition on Sunday 13^th June 2010 at Pitsford. Same format as Spring Pairs match with B.B.Q. lunch. Please remember to book with Pat Sweeney as early as possible as there are not as many boats available at Pitsford and we would not like to disappoint anyone especially after the success and turn out for our first 2 competitions.

Pat can be contacted on the following Tel No. 07957 751668 or his email address is

   sweeneyp1@sky.com

Finally we would like to express our thanks and appreciation to Anglia Waters John Mees, Paul and Andrew for their help, assistance and co operation for ensuring successful day and quality fishing.

Also special thanks to Pat Sweeney and his wife Celia in doing all the shopping and preparation for the B.B.Q.

January 2010

I am sure we are all looking forward to the start of the new season and hopefully some warmer weather. To help you plan for the next season please make a note of the following important EMTFA dates.

Club Fishing Days

Sunday 11th April Bank Match, Pitsford. Meet at the Lodge. 8.00am   

Sunday 16^th MAY, Grafham, Spring Boat Pairs, BBQ Lunch. Meet at the Lodge 8.00am fish 9.00am -6pm               

Sunday 13^th June, Rose Bowl Boat Match Pitsford, BBQ Lunch

Meet at the Lodge 8.00am fish 9.00am -6pm

Sunday 19^th September, Autumn Boat Pairs, Graham, BBQ Lunch

Meet at the Lodge 8.00am fish 9.00am -6pm

Wednesday 22^nd September, Interclub Match, Pitsford.

Meet at the Lodge 8.00am fish 9.00am -6pm

Sunday 17^th October, Hinkley Shield Bank Match, Rutland.

Book your place with Mick Facey. michaelfacey@btinternet.com

Tel 01234 351861 (Evenings Only)

 To Book places please contact Pat Sweeney

Mobile 07 9577 1668.

Home 01525 405243

e-mail sweeneyp1@sky.com

If you book a place by e-mail please ensure that you have had a confirmation from Pat or Mick to ensure that they have received your e mail.

Association Major Fly Fishing Clubs Dates.

The association of major fly fishing clubs league is a series of inter club competitions fished at a variety of waters. Taking part in this competition is great way to meet fellow anglers; the matches are fished in good spirit and are conclude by a post match meal. If you are interested in taking part in the competition please contact Graham Bodsworth who will be pleased to give you more information. Each angler can fish a maximum of four times.

EMTFA Team Manager, Graham Bodsworth.

Tel 01525 873638  E-mail grahamb80@hotmail.co.uk

Association of major Fly Fishing Clubs dates and venues.

AMFFC Post match Dinner

Friday 23 April. Grafham. Team of four

Saturday 22^nd May, Bewl. Team of six

Friday 11^th June. Eyebrook. Team of six

Saturday 31^st August. Pitsford. Team of six

Wednesday 8^th September, Grafham. Team of six

Saturday 2^nd October, Bewl. Team of four.

EMTFA Pre season Dinner

Another successful annual dinner and prize giving. Many thanks to Chris and Anne our guests of honour

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Winter Newsletter - November 2009

Hinkley Shield 18^th October Rutland Water

Mick Facey continued his great season by winning the Hinckley Shield with a fine individual performance with 8 fish for 21lb !

The Team prize went to the England Youth Fly Fishing Team under the expert leadership of Robert Edmunds.

Kieran Bonus of the England Youth Team has also hit a rich vain of form; he followed on from his excellent performance in the recent home international on LLandeghfedd where he was top “English Rod” with this fine 6lb 8oz Rutland Rainbow, a personal best for him from the water.

Whilst practicing for the Hinckley Shield bank match; Kieran was bank fishing over a weed bed at Spud Bay (on the peninsular) and targeted a fish crashing into the vast shoals of fry.  He hooked the fish just 5 yards from the bank on a size 12 floating fry pattern fished static. The fish immediately took off on 2 long runs; taking him down to the backing and tested him and his tackle to the limit; but after a long hard fight he eventually banked the fish by tiring it in the open water then guiding it through a small clearing in the dense weed bed, which was his only chance of actually netting the fish !

Association of Major Fly Fishing Clubs League

East Midland congratulates the GWFFA team who won the final round of the AMFFC match at Chew in conditions that were terrible. Notwithstanding the awful fishing Chris Bobby and his team managed to catch 6 fish which was a truly remarkable feat. Well done GWFFA and good luck in group 3 next year.

EMTFA had a great season; we went into the last round on level points with GWFFA which is a credit to everyone who took part and the organisational skills of our captain Graham Bodsworth.

The club thanks Melvyn Parrot, Daniel Sefton, Ian Peberdy and Sam Blackwood for travelling to Chew and enduring the worst fishing in the Associations History. It is fair to say that we are browned off with Chew in more ways than one.

Group Four Final Results

EMTFA Baseball caps.

Our People in China are busy making these as I write. They will be available to members free of charge when they pay next seasons Subs. which will only be £12.00.

Autumn Boat Pairs Grafham September 13^th

Another excellent turnout for this match fuelled by a messers Sweeney and Telling BBQ. The food at these BBQ’s is so good and plentiful that it is has been suggested that EMTFA should consider entering a Sumo wrestling team! It was great to see so many members and guests at this very popular event. The Match was won by Danny Peat and Rick Varley who caught 16 fish for 43lbs 9ozs off the west bank using diawl bachs.

This match was blessed with excellent conditions

That produced plenty of fish. Llod Chantrell and Robert Edmunds were runners up with a total catch of 41lb 10oz

Inter Club Match Tuesday 29th September

Pat Sweeney concluded one of the clubs best ever seasons which has seen membership and attendance grow significantly, by organising the excellent Inter Club Match. 27 anglers took part on a blustery day at Pitsford. A much needed hot lunch was provided by Gordon from the Chequers at Ravensthorpe at which a Raffle was held to raise funds for the England Youth Fly Fishing Team. Thanks are sent to everyone who donated raffle prizes which were both numerous and of a very high quality. (I  know because I won one!).

The winners were Rob Edmunds and Pat Sweeney who caught an amazing double limit of 52lbs by doing short drifts on to the windward shore at the top end of the reservoir fishing large boobies on Di3 and Fast Glass lines.

Autumn Bank Match 11^th October

14 anglers took part in this competition at Pitsford. The winner with 6 fish was Mick White who weighed in 14lb 9oz.

Second spot went to John Sears with 3 fish for 8lb 2oz. Dick Kenniwell had 2 fish for third place weighing 5lb 13oz. Best fish on the day, weighing 3lb 6oz. went to Mick White.

Best Wishes for the Winter

Finally I and the committee wish you the very best for what remains of the season. The  fishing during November and December can be very, very good.

Mel Parrott and recently I had a wonderful day at Grafham catching 7 fish each on dry flies over weed beds, it really was Grafham at its absolute best. The Fry feeders can be great sport so there is still some great fishing to be had.

We hope you support our winter programme, we have chosen to only have one meeting each month and to share a speaker with GWFFA on Tuesday 8^th December.

Best Wishes

John Duffield

Match Results

Hinckley Shield - Rutland Water

18th October 2009

A comment from the winning team captain Rob Edmunds:

We had a cracking weekend at Rutland...loads of fish in the 3-4lb class

Mick Facey continued his great season by winning the Hinckley Shield with a fine individual performance with 8 fish for 21lb !

Whilst the junior team managed to reclaim the team prize !

Kieran Bonus of the England Youth Team has also hit a rich vain of form; he followed on from his excellent performance in the recent home international on LLandeghfedd where he was top “English Rod” with this fine 6lb 8oz Rutland Rainbow, a personal best for him from the water.

Whilst practicing for the Hinckley Shield bank match; Kieran was bank fishing over a weed bed at Spud Bay (on the peninsular) and targeted a fish crashing into the vast shoals of fry.  He hooked the fish just 5 yards from the bank on a size 12 floating fry pattern fished static. The fish immediately took off on 2 long runs; taking him down to the backing and tested him and his tackle to the limit; but after a long hard fight he eventually banked the fish by tiring it in the open water then guiding it through a small clearing in the dense weed bed, which was his only chance of actually netting the fish !

Keiran with a magnificent 6lb 8oz Rutland rainbow                Lovely conditions with the fish & boats tight in

Autumn Bank  Competition – Pitsford  11^th October 2009

Match Result

                  Micks winning bag                                           Mick with his prizes for the best bag & heaviest fish

             Even if you didn't win it was a lovely day to go fishing with great company .............

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Inter Club  Competition – Pitsford  29^th September 2009

Match Results

Some lovely conditions, plenty of fish and a lunch time meal contributed to a great day out

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Autumn Pairs – Grafham Water 13^th September 2009

Match Results

Autumn Pair Winners Rick Varley & Danny Peat            Lovely conditions produced plenty of fish

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Autumn Newsletter

Angling Trust.

EMTFA are now members of the Angling Trust, the new angling organisation to represent all game, coarse and sea anglers in England. We felt it was important to support the Angling Trust and to encourage our members to join as individual members. For more information visit about the Angling Trust visit their web site at www.anglingtrust.net

Rose Bowl pairs competition Pistford Sunday 14.06.09

This competition was a terrific success with 35 members and guests taking part.

The weather was bright sunshine with a gentle breeze blowing in a south westerly direction. Fishing was challenging but not impossible, the cooler water on the downwind side of the boils proved to be holding some fish. Danny Peat had an excellent limit bag in this area fishing Diawl Bachs on a floating line.

The winners on the day were Robert Edmunds and Lloyd Chantrel who both had limit bags, they were fishing short drifts on to the windward shore using sinking lines.

The highlight of the day was the excellent BBQ cooked for us by Pat Sweeney and Paul Telling.

At our last committee meeting Paul and Pat were formally thanked for all their hard work which has played such a significant part in making our  fishing days so popular with member and guests.

It is particularly pleasing to see so many lady and junior anglers taking part in our events this year.

I have been asked by several members to ask anglers to wait for the announcement of the results before leaving; it makes a nice end to the days fishing. We are aware that after a long day anglers often need to get away as quickly as possible so we will always try to announce the results without delay to avoid unnecessary hanging about.  

Autumn Boat Pairs – Sunday September 13th   

Grafham Reservoir. Meet at Lodge at 8.30am. Come off the water at lunch time for a BBQ. Weigh-in at 6pm. Contact pat Sweeny to book places.

Autumn Match 29.9.09 Important change of Date

The autumn inter club match will now be fished at Pitsford on 29.9.09, please ensure that you make a note of this change, the match was originally due to be held on 23.9.09.

This competition is a highlight of our calendar; we invite anglers from our local clubs to take part in a great get-together at the end of the season. We anticipate that we will have a very good attendance so it is important to book your place with Pat Sweeney as soon as possible. You can contact Pat by e-mail sweeneyp1@sky.com

We will be having a hot lunch at the Lodge during which there will be plenty of time to catch up with your fishing pals and buy some raffle tickets top support the England Youth Fly Fishing Team.

England Youth Fly Fishing Team

Congratulations to Ryan Worker and Kieran Bonas who qualified to fish for England again next year. Their qualification is no surprise as they have worked extremely hard to develop their angling skills to such a high degree. Commiserations go Adam Worker who narrowly missed the cut this year but will be back next year competing to add to his growing number of England caps.

Adam and Ryans mother Bobbie should be specially thanked for the brilliant job she has done as Secretary of the EYFFA, she has worked extremely hard and played a significant role in developing the organisation.

We are particularly pleased that Ryan has agreed to join the EMTFA committee to represent Junior interests. His contributions are bound to be useful and should assist our present committee to spend less time talking about ailments and medications, not that we are old or anything!

It is great to see young people taking up Fly fishing and being prepared to put something back into the sport.

EMTFA congratulates the England Youth Fly Fishing Association for winning the 2009 International held at Llandegfedd and particularly Kieran Bonas for being the top English Rod with 9 fish caught on Dries. Well done boys and of course their team manager Robert Edmunds.

 See below for a full match report from Rob Edmunds:

Association of Major Fly Fishing Clubs League

EMTFA’s brilliant start to the league of two wins out of two was followed with a second place at Pitsford on 25^th June. Our close rivals Grafham managed to pip us into second place beating us by the narrow margin of only 5lbs.

The best fishing area was drifting into Stone Barn. Other areas of note were the pines and T buoy but these, I am told, went off as the day went on. Our second place result really opened up the competition and increased the friendly rivalry between ourselves  and GWFFA.

On 15^th July, round four took us to Grafham where we were beaten into third place by a strong Grafham coming first and Tunbridge Wells Fly fishers coming second.

The great thing about the AMFFC league is the friendships you make with anglers from other clubs. Tunbridge Wells have proved to be great bunch who we very much look forward to fishing with in the remaining rounds.

With the remaining two rounds at Rutland and Chew we are now one point behind Grafham so everything is set for close and exciting finale.

EMTFA Baseball caps.

Your ever generous committee has decided to give every paid up member an EMTFA baseball cap. These will be available at the Autumn match on 29.9.09. We will not be posting them to members. Members who are enjoying their first years membership free will receive their cap when they pay their subscription of £12.00 to join the club next season.

The reason for this generous gesture is that our costs have been reduced by primarily sending newsletters out by e-mail, we wished to ensure that our paid up members benefit as much as possible from their support to the association.  

Winter programme

We are beginning to think about activities for this season’s winter programme, if you have any suggestions we would be delighted to receive them. Please e mail me at duffieldjc@aol.com with your ideas.

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EMTFA fishing shirts

To meet the demand for EMTFA fishing shirts I am about to place the 2009 order.

The shirts are Snowbee long sleeved fishing shirts in a sage putty colour. East Midlands Trout Fishers Association and the anglers name embroidered in gold above the left hand breast pocket.

If you wish to buy an EMTFA fishing Shirt please fill in this order form and send it back to me. The cost of each shirt inclusive of embroidery is £30.00 which represents excellent value as the shirts usually retail for at least that amount without embroidery.

Please take very special care to spell your name correctly and order the right size as there will be no returns possible

To order a shirt please complete this form and return it to me by post including your cheque made payable to EMTFA for £30.00.

The closing date for orders is toe 31^st August 2009. Shirts will be distributed at the Autumn match on 29.9.09.

Name :  

 Address:

Telephone Number:

Size          Medium, Large, Extra large, Extra Extra Large.

Name Exactly as you want it.

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 England Youth Fly Fishing Team

Adam Worker and Kieran Bonas holding the Bob Church Trophy for Winning Country at the recent Youth Home International at Llandegfedd Wales

EMTFA Youth members Adam Worker and Kieron Bonas  fished the home international  on Friday 7th August 2009 at Llandegfedd reservoir in Wales and the the England team won gold. This team comprised of 2 of our junior members fishing in the team Adam Worker and Kieron Bonas, Kieron was also the top english rod on the day with a bag of  9 fish. Ryan Worker was also reserve for the team.

England Youth Team Manager and EMTFA member Rob Edmunds takes up the story..........

The 2009 International was held at Llandegfedd, where the first challenge between England and Wales was held 25 years ago. England Youth Team Manager Rob Edmunds carries on the story...We arrived in Wales on Wednesday night, meaning that we had two full days of practice to find methods that suited our team. We then knew we had to adapt the methods to suit each angler in the team, as we have a varying range of ability.
The reservoir was divided into 4 quarters with boats being sent to each area, their brief was to try a variety of methods and cover all the water in the area; we reasoned that it was just as important to work out what methods didn't work, as finding those that did.
On arrival at Llandegfedd is was quite obvious that the fish were going to be high in the water...we were greeted with an almost flat calm and literally hundred's of rising fish!
Day one practice saw the team catch an a variety of methods, from pulling Orange Blobs on a Di-3, to Dries on a floater, however it soon became clear that best methods were Black and Claret Hoppers on a floating line, fished static for 10-15 seconds then slowly figure of eighted back subsurface, or small eyed Boobies on a intermediate, again fished with a slow figure of eight retrieve.
Day two practice saw the whole team try both methods for half a day, in an effort to build up confidence in both styles and to get a better feel of where the main concentrations of fish were holding.
On the evening before the match we had a quick debriefing session; we all agreed that there were two main methods, dries on the floater, or, Boobies on the intermediate, no area was very difficult, we had caught well over the entire reservoir. However, practice had shown us that with the fish being so high in the water they were easily spooked and became very wary of boats after one or two drifts through them. Therefore we reasoned that finding fresh water was essential. A evening of tying ensued ensuring that each angler had an identical selection of flies to those that we had been catching on.
Match day saw the boats start in two main areas, the Dam and the Cages, however, they soon started to disperse. My brief to the lads was simply to start on the method they felt most confident in, and, the area they thought best. Then as the match progressed change methods when they saw fit.
Weigh-in saw all our team with consistant bags of between four and six fish with no blanks, an excellent team performance in my opinion, regardless of the result. A quick count up revealed we had 73 fish (8 more than the Scottish team) who had also fished well.
Eventually the results were read out.....Wales 4th.....Ireland 3rd....Scotland 2nd.....England 1st.
As Team Manager I try to instill into the team that, although we had distinct methods and area's worked out, conditions change. This means that they must adapt to keep catching. It's for this reason that I don't insist they fish a particular method, I merely give recommendations, I have confidence in their ability and so should they.
‘Although it was the good ‘average‘ bags of four to six fish that secured us this memorable victory, there were also some fine individual performances.
Kireon Jenkins of Wales won the Brown Bowl (top individual in the match) with 17 fish, in his last year in the Welsh Youth Team (due to age), his performance, catching fish mostly with a small Cat's Whisker Booby on a Slow Glass line, was simply head and shoulders above the rest of the field, proving once again that he is going to be a serious contender at senior level and in my opinion a future world champion (remember where you heard it first!)
Kireon Bonas was the English top rod with 9 fish all caught by fishing Dries through the middle of the reservoir, an excellent performance especially when you consider that this was his first international. He was closely followed by Dom Sherette with 8 fish (also fishing his first International who also caught all his fish on Dries) and Matthew Holdroyd also with 8 fish.
These fine individual performances by some of our youngest anglers are very encouraging for the future and I feel that with continued practice over next season we should once again challenge for the top honours at the International at our home venue of Grafham Water in 2010.

Rob Edmunds
England Youth Team Manager

For more pictures and further news please visit http://www.fishypics.co.uk

Spring Boat Pairs Competition – Grafham  10^th May 2009

Match Results

Spring Bank Competition – Draycote Water 19^th April 2009

Match Results

 

Names	No of Fish	Total		Biggest Fish
		lbs	oz