Been an interesting start to the year, with more rain than we’ve seen in a while. So much so that Claude took the big step of cancelling the Tantangara trip – well, he thought he had whereas two of the club decided to go up anyway. Claude did reply to a message with photo of fish “I thought you’d go up :-)”. Report inside of a successful though short trip.

On the admin front, news about our affiliation with ANSA, along with what that actually means in respect to benefits which can accrue. We’ll see how this relationship evolves. Also from the committee, a call for trip and other activity organisers to step forward to identify themselves along with ideas for our program – get your thinking caps on folks.

I want to thank Tristan for words and photos here. He’s a relatively new member but is clearly getting well engaged in the club.

Plenty of fishing reports from far and wide inside (look at the photo of the month folks) and an informative TV report that folk will find interesting. A few of us were involved in stocking of fingerlings down on the lower Monaro – but a highlight was seeing some of the tiger trout that Gaden are breeding.

A strong level of interest in Greg W’s Goodradigbee trip has meant it was filled quite early, though a late withdrawal created a chance opportunity two weeks out. Anyway, we look forward to the report next issue.

So, the club has recommenced meetings with a great ZOOM talk by Neil Nelson from Illawarra FlyFishers on his adventures in New Zealand’s Hawke’s Bay area – hitting some spectacular rivers. Fly tying has recommenced with two new instructors coming forward with Claude and Lyall being unavailable – well done guys. Finally our first club event in an age down to Jindabyne – a perennial well received event staying at CSIRO Ski Club lodge. Many thanks have been passed to the club from ours.

Also, people have been getting out on their own. Some reported here, others only via the grapevine. Don’t forget folks, reports on your successes are always welcome for the newsletter.

BJ has done it again with a cracking brown achieving cover pic status.

Don’t forget that Claude is running the Tantangara trip in just a few weeks. He would like people to RSVP by Fri 25 Feb. More information is here.

Well I hope you all had an enjoyable Christmas and New Year celebrations – seems some people even managed to get out fishing. Well done to Al, big walk turned out to be quite successful as folk will read here. I’ve heard whispers about others using midge pupas but can’t confirm. The rivers seemed to be blown out to a significant extent, so it is fortunate that I get some good reports about the Snowy Lakes.

The Carp Day was to be a relaxed affair, but it seems to condition of rivers has deterred anglers – maybe some folk went into the spirit of the affair chasing the fish on local lakes – meantime, recall that our carp trophy is not linked to a specific event. Report in your catches to the Secretary (and for info Burley Line Editor) for inclusion in consideration.

Reminder about the need to register interest in the Jindabyne trip – has always been a most enjoyable trip and hopefully the change in date will get us onto some good dry fly opportunities. Jason M was good enough to head down to East Jindy and provided a brief recce report on the accommodation.

Speaking about Jasons – JQ reported in about the latest arrival in his family.

I’ve included a very interesting article, previously published elsewhere, analysing rainfall and temperatures in the Kydra/Kybeyan – many thanks to Freddy von Reibnitz for this work.

Also here are some other interesting snippets and, as usual, pointers to items that have been posted on-line in our News blog and Facebook page.

BJ’s joy shows the local trout fishing can rival other more famous locations – congratulations mate and thanks for the notes, even if the specific site remains super secret.

As always, Jason has stood up and helped with some interesting content, and thanks also to Randy (stuck down the coast and I’m aware a recent injury is preventing access to the water).

Claude continues to make space in his busy work schedule to run the Zoom fly tying – a pretty simple but effective variant of a well-known fly was November’s topic.  His flies certainly look the part.  Thanks for some notes here Claude.

Also here, some important news from our associates in MAS and NSWCFA – great work being done there.

Following on from the ‘photo of the month’, we’ve got a story about trout season opening on the Cotter from Luke and Nathan – just missed getting in last month, thanks guys.  Seems you’ve been up there with success again since that report – shame I can’t emulate unlike my guru Peter – story and photo here.  With the relaxation of restrictions on us traveling into the ‘border bubble’, I’m hoping to get more stories from all of you arriving on my desk for next Burley Line.

Held over from last month, we have the segment taking a bit of a “Retrospective” of CAA for the past 17 years.  Thanks JM for this suggestion.

With my Membership Officer hat on – yet another reminder that fees are due – go to ‘join us’ to update your contact details via the webform or simply email me.  Please note our new bank account numbers (these were changed last year), they are given on the “join us” page.  So far 30 of you have signed up including one new member (welcome Travis) – means 17 from last year remain to renew.  Amongst other benefits, CAA has again acquired a Public Liability Insurance policy.  This will support financial members in the event of a member of the public seeking compensation due to an incident during an official CAA club event.  This coverage commences in November before our first event for the season.  Life Members are covered automatically even without payment of fees.

When drafting this I was going to start with “there’s precious little fishing going on at the moment” but right before publication time Claude, BJ, Al and Shaun provided some opening weekend copy – many thanks guys.  The other major contribution came from Stefan – he of the traveling A-Van – reporting on his returning to a childhood haunt in Queensland.  As ever, Stefan’s words are thoughtful and his photos enticing. In anticipation of a small issue, I prepared a segment taking a bit of a “Retrospective”.  Thanks JM for this suggestion.  It was a lot of fun looking back through the archives.  Jaime is gracing the front page – Eucumbene late season 2020 but I’ll hold back the article itself  till next issue.

Other items are a report on the flytying 22 Sep – welcoming back Evan via Zoom from Victoria, plus Claude helping me out with notes from the 8 Sep talk by Mickey “Finn” – some really useful hints on fishing the Tumut and other matters.  Meanwhile there’s been lots happening on social media and members have been actively hunting items for inclusion here – many thanks folks.

The current lockdown has put paid to our traditional casting for the public days – a real shame to have been impacted in that manner after so many years.  I understand the Committee are closely watching the rules and intending that it be a postponement rather than a cancellation – fingers crossed folks.  The uncertainties and the proposed future rules have also cause postponement of our annual Lyle Knowles trophy – see the Committee Notes inside here.

I ran across two lure spinfishers on Lake G and they reported a 50cm yellowbelly for their efforts … I may need to break out my gear and get down there.

With my Membership Officer hat on – another reminder that fees are due – go to ‘join us’ to update your contact details via the webform or simply email me.  Please note our new bank account numbers (these were changed last year), they are given in this newsletter.  So far 28 members have signed up again (welcome home Greg W!) – means 19 from last year remain to renew, plus hopefully some new members – spread the word folks.  Given the postponement of the casting days, new members may be thin on the ground for a while if we don’t do some word of mouth.

Our AGM was conducted on 11 August.  Lots of smiling faces with the awarding of trophies.  We await advice on possible changes to how fish can be reported for trophy purposes … all a bit academic until our lockdown is relaxed.

With my Membership Officer hat on – reminder that fees are due – go to ‘join us’ to update your contact details via the webform or simply email me.  Please note our new bank account numbers (these were changed last year), they are given in this newsletter.  So far 24 members have signed up again – means 22 from last year remain to renew, plus hopefully some new members – spread the word folks.

Our traditional casting for the public days were to be on 12, 19 and 26 Sep – of course these dates were always dependent on progress in respect to the COVID lockdown.  Given the uncertainty with both ACT and NSW regional lockdown, the Committee has made the hard decision to postpone the event.

Though we are in lockdown, readers are lucky enough to be able to read here about some fishing going on before the current lockdown was started.  Others of us have had to live vicariously through videos on the Internet –a number of these have been provided by the Manic Tackle Project and notified on our News Blog … thank goodness for our bro’s “across the dutch”.  Peter spotted the promotions and I’ll try to provide advice each time they come up via the News Blog and CAA’s Facebook page.

My dedicated helpers have come up with more funnies and interesting snippets from the web … keep it up guys.

http://canberra-anglers.asn.au/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/0171.pdf

With our winter shutdown of events, fishing reports are a bit thin … thank you Jason M for coming up with some news from the end of the stream season!!  Also, your notes that missed the deadline for last month’s newsletter which provides additional input to the June Chill trip report.  Plus, get a load of Rod’s fish on our front cover! though he might have graced the cover if I’d received Mike’s in advance … still, Mike has promised me some more and a report so he’ll get his turn.

Lots of other stuff, especially for those who don’t follow us on Facebook or have not subscribed for email notifications of new items on our news blog.  (To subscribe for the latter use the form on the right of the news blog page.)

Our AGM is coming soon (11 Aug), pop it into your diary.  Make some serious consideration of putting your hand up to become a committee member – either on the Executive, or as a less onerous Council member.  With the AGM will come the need to renew your membership/pay the fees.  Note that the annual fee is actually endorsed at the AGM, it makes sense then to hold off paying fees until the AGM has confirmed continuation of the current fee or a change (don’t make it harder for the Treasurer folks).

Am still wondering if there are any budding assistant editors out there … maybe Greg W on his return from UK? 🙂  COVID has slowed down my international travel, but surely it can’t last forever and some help here would be most appreciated.  Don’t worry, I can handle the technical stuff of uploading wherever I am in the world, but typing up the newsletter itself (on my phone) is a bit much to ask.  We have a fancy template (built by big Luke a while ago) so all you need is Microsoft Word and a little time – advice will be provided.

CRFA closure … after a lingering period of no activity, but still no formal de-incorporation, the President of the Capital Region Fishing Alliance (our very own Jason M) has advised me that we can consider it to be closed.  A shame really that we don’t have a formal forum for local clubs to band together and provide greater clout in dealings with ACT Government on angling matters.

NSW Council of Freshwater Anglers AGM (and quarterly OGM) is on Sat 21 Aug at 10 AM via Zoom.  You don’t need to be a formally identified Delegate to attend (you just can’t vote unless you are a Delegate – CAA is entitled to two voting people).  Latest word is that our prime point of contact in DPI (Mr Jim Harnwell) is due to speak – should be interesting.  ‘Come along’ and hear what the Council has been doing for us.

Trout season is closed and there’ll be no more events till next year … get your ideas/volunteer to run an event in the 21-22 program to our hardworking Secretary – so far I’ve heard: no doubts Oct for Lyle Knowles, Dec coast trip, Feb Jindabyne, Apr Brindabellas.  Step forward to volunteer ideas and willingness to organise.  I wonder if someone might champion CAA involvement in the NSW Council of Freshwater Anglers Interclub in May.

June Chill report and some photos here.

I should have reported on a short trip to Vanity’s that Peter and I undertook, but since the only fish were some mini-fish below the crossing there was little to report, except to say it was fun to hook the tackers and give them a free ride into the upper section of the river rather than fighting their way up the fish ladder.

Nathan Miles, the head researcher for our trout research program, gave a Zoom talk on Wed 2 June arranged by NSWCFA.  This was the second such talk and was well attended.  One hopes that future talks will be as interesting.  NSWCFA is hoping to upload a video of the talk, meantime, I’d suggest much of the slide material came from the DPI Fisheries Research website.  Nathan put that up on the chat.  While I wasn’t able to capture it, but I’m pretty sure it is this one ….

https://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/fishing/recreational/fresh-rec-fish-research

NSWCFA subsequently had a Zoom meeting with DPI’s Jim Harnwell and Mr Bryan vanderWalt on the troubled Anglers Access website.  Both Jim and Bryan are committed to energising this project and putting it onto a formal standing.  NSWCFA is creating a small group to represent angler’s expectations of the site.  The current version (I’ve seen at least three so far) is available on the page referred to above.  If you have any comments, please pass them through Jason M (CAA delegate to NSWCFA) or me.

The date for the Kid’s fishing workshop at Jindabyne had been published, but is no now showing as ‘to be advised’… withdrawn after discussions with the hatchery manager.  I’ve been advised that it is likely that next January there will be fishing workshops at Gaden.

Lots of stuff has gone up on the News Blog this month… don’t forget you can subscribe to get an automatic email notification, rather than have to wait for the monthly newsletter.  Also there’s been some action on our Facebook page … remember you don’t need to be a Facebook subscriber to look.

In other matters here, some very interesting fly patterns from Mike.  Also a report from our new gipsy Stefan and the old gipsy Ian.

The Tumut trip report that missed the schedule for May Burley Line has arrived – wow! Some excellent photos – don’t you love the bokeh (selective focus on the fish and not the angler :-).  Seemed quite a success despite the high flows and will be a must-do event next year.

Was very exciting to have JQ down here from Cairns and available within his busy schedule to get out for one day chasing our speckled friends up in the Brindies.  This was a recce for a planned club trip next year being championed by our man in London (soon to be back home) Greg W.

I’ve put some thoughts to the committee on trips that I’d like to conduct next season.  Put your hand up folks – the program is in development and all the trips ought not have to fall upon the ‘usual suspects’.

Similarly, the stories here are a bit thin – aren’t you fishing?  We’d all love to hear what you’ve been up to with the close of stream season almost upon us.