Author Archives: bill

August 2024 Burley Line (Issue 203)

This has become quite a fulsome edition.

Young Ryan has been very active – a substantial part of this issue! 😊 I also have to apologise to him, back in March he sent me a report on fishing during a Victorian trip.  This had fallen between the cracks multiple times – finally here, along with his recent trip to the south coast.

Lyall provides some information coming out of his contacts in Mongolia.  He’s got the inside knowledge post multiple trips he’s done there.

Greg S has been focussing on ‘giant’ things recently and shares them with us.

Lachy has been experimenting with various ties using a recently purchased pheasant.  He reports here on some success.  Images from recent CAA fly tying also.

A bit of science on trout.

JQ enticing us to head north.

Fly Casting is just around the corner and our flyer has been released.

Fly Tying – 24 Jul 2024 – Saltwater Popper

John was the lead. His guidance:

The recipe for the saltwater popper – aka BNB (Bass N Brim) popper follows:
Hook: Tiemco TMC8089 #2-10
Thread: Danville Flat Waxed Nylon
Tail: Slinky Fibres
Legs: Sili-legs over a ball of Hareline UV Dubbing
Body: 10mm crystal chenille with 2mm two tone foam cut with a Chernobyl Ant cutter
Indicator: 2mm Two tone foam, vibrant colour to suit.

This fly was designed by Brett Clarke who founded BWC Flies in 2012 and was featured in FlyLife, Number 81, Spring 2015

Some examples from our night:

John:

Ryan glued his own twotone foam:

Keywords dryfly, emergerfly

Fly Tying 26 June 2024: Zonker Yabby

Ryan will be leading and has provided this ingredient list:

Size 4 streamer hook
Dumbbell eyes
Crystal flash
Sili legs
Orange poly yarn
Rabbit zonker strip
Crosscut rabbit strip

Colours are not too important, you can mix and match whatever you like.

He will take us through his pattern – I wonder if it is a similar process to this https://fishonfly.com.au/wp/steves-zonker-claw-yabby

Some examples from the night.

Ryan:

Claude:

keyword wetfly streamerfly

July 2024 Burley Line (Issue 202)

The streams are closed and our formal program has ended.  Already we are starting to look towards the AGM (thinking about joining the committee or council? – you’ll be most welcome), the ever enjoyable Bondi Forest trip (no smoking fireplace nowadays) and Casting for the Public – how quickly a season goes.

This issue is dominated by photos – this will bring a smile to one of our members who embraces the visual aspects of the newsletter.  Some excellent late season rainbows, overseas travel and images from our distant, northern, chapter – but gazumped for the photo of the month by Ryan’s stonker.

I’ve also made some changes to our fly tying information base – hopefully making it easier to use as a resource to inspire those fur and feathers folk.

Fly Tying Posts – Index and Searching

For those using our fly tying posts for ideas, I’ve started adding search keywords to the posts and have updated our fly index to explain how to use the index and the blog search function. Thanks Lachy for encouraging this change.

Flies are currently labelled with keywords to effectively create categories labelled wetfly, streamerfly, dryfly, emergerfly and nymphfly (have I missed something?). A fly pattern can have multiple keywords.

Amending all the posts is a work in progress 😀

https://canberra-anglers.asn.au/blog/fly-tying-index/

National Carp Control Plan

I got an email from a Canberra fishing acquaintance.

I viewed a Webinar back at the beginning of May titled ‘Webinar: the next phase for carp biocontrol’.

Not sure if you have viewed it, but thought I’d pass it on given the ongoing interest from NSWCFA et al re carp control.

Link to site where Webinar is accessible:

https://www.agriculture.gov.au/biosecurity-trade/pests-diseases-weeds/pest-animals-and-weeds/national-carp-control-plan


I note that identified priority actions include further research work to determine the susceptibility of non target species including Rainbow Trout, along with native species, and species in marine environments.

Cheers

Brett

June 2024 Burley Line (Issue 201)

Sponor’s – thanks Lyall

After a few weeks in Malaysia and Europe this cooler weather has come as a bit of a shock – not assisted by Lyall’s beautiful image above.

Reports here of our past two events – looked to be very successful and I’m as jealous as get go that I missed them. Well done Al for the dry fly show up in the Brindabellas.  Stefan has produced another of his thoughtful pieces, along with a new recipe.  A couple of superb late season fish from Paul

The club goes into a bit of a slow down from the perspective of events during this cooler weather, but surely there may be some of you have been up at the spawning run – share some news with the rest of the club. Also, if you have an idea for an event, eg Damien’s ‘Back to Buckenderra’ of years gone by, please come forward.

Truite Au Bleu

Hey Bill

I told you of the blue trout, I had always wanted to cook a fresh caught at Tumut.

Well I had made a “court bouillon” in preparation and took it with me to Tumut, or more correctly Meg had made it for me, but I did not plan the execution too well (no fish to cook while camping) and brought it back so…….

I just went to the markets and for $8.50 bought a trout (albeit dead ☹ ) and had it cooked for lunch. The taste even then was spectacular and makes me want to do it streamside even more sometime,

The following is a translation from a French wiki entry, and refers to the same process but with slight variance, uses wine and such

“Blue trout refers to a culinary preparation of trout drizzled with hot red wine or vinegar, then cooked in a court-bouillon composed of red wine or vinegar, onions, salt, lemon. The recipe is cited as early as the 17th century by Nicolas de Bonnefons, in Délices de la campagne [ 1 ] , and it applies to salmon, pike, carp and trout.

In order to best benefit from the subtleties of the original taste of this wild-caught product, the trout can be prepared “au bleu” .

When cooking, the vinegar turns the mucus from the trout scales , which will take on a bluish tint, hence the name of the recipe.

For example, it is served with a vegetable Bordeaux sauce, court broth, lemon and melted butter … “

The photo of the fish in the pot is mine, the other with garnish is a clip from the Internet.

En Guete/Bon appetit

Stefan