As this year comes to an end I think it appropriate to give you an update on our club’s
progress, direction and the year that has passed.
This year saw numerous General meeting presentations that ranged from overseas fishing
trips to World fly-fishing contests. We remembered Muzz Wilson and revelled in what the
Czech Republic and Alaska had to offer, with cricket score numbers of fish caught; as well
as images of amazingly coloured salmon on their final journey. We were told “trout food
does not attack it’s nemesis” as a reminder of fly presentation. Again we revelled at fantastic
photography of fly-fishing for other species; we were then taken through the exploits that
resulted in these captures and photos.
We saw how Italian casting could be applied to our
small waters and had the chance to watch a video or two while getting to know our fellow
club members.
Our fly-casting was again under the spotlight with casting tutoring on Wednesday nights
during daylight saving; this shifted to Saturday mornings during winter. I saw members cast
tight loops and improve their casting beyond my expectations – truly remarkable
improvements.
We tied flies that catch fish, flies that are now being used by many of our members
worldwide. We tied flies on enormous hooks and then tied others on even bigger hooks for
our native fish species. We used a small pinch of material for some and what seemed like
whole tying kits on just the one fly.
We fished in big rivers, in tiny ones as well, in lakes and in salt water on an island. Some
had success with their first fly caught fish, while others improved their fly fishing skills on this
continuous learning journey we call fly-fishing. Truly great memories were formed this year
and I hope you enjoyed what the club had to offer.
We held a come and try fly-fishing open day in November. This was well publicised in
newspapers, local shopping centres and was an outstanding success. I was chair bound but
did not spend a minute not talking to a person enquiring about our club or fly-fishing in
general. Most of the members there were doing the same; it was very special to see three
generations from one family having a go at fly fishing on the same day.
All of this does not just happen, there is a group of dedicated committee members behind
every event we hold and I am truly grateful and thankful for their help during the year. It is
their great work that has seen our membership more than double this year. A recent
membership questionnaire has shown that members are happy with what we do with no
negative feedback and some suggestions for the future.
Club direction
The committee has been busily planning the club’s future on top of organising GMs and fly
fishing trips. These projects are on our agenda for next year:
• Finding a permanent location that caters for our needs and allows us to store our
equipment.
• Better focus on grants so that we can improve club equipment and fishing in this
area.
• Improve our fundraising, this will go towards equipment and club rooms.
• Understand how/what we can do for the environment.
• Focus on introducing kids to fly-fishing.
• See how we can achieve better fish-stocking to the area, both on public and private
waters
It is for this reason that we ask members to either join the committee or just to donate some
of their time to one or more of these projects or events. Members may have expertise or
experience in some of these projects that our current committee members may lack. So,
please put your hand up if you can help in some way and volunteer at our next Annual
General Meeting on the 27th January 2016.
2016 General Meeting
As per previous years, we will need to vote a new committee in for the year to come. The
meeting will be opened and will be addressed by our treasurer, secretary and myself. We
will then resign from our positions and all positions will become vacant.
By law, four positions must be voted in for the club to maintain its identity, President, Vice
President, Treasurer and Secretary. We also have positions for other regular committee
members such as Casting coach, Fly-tying coach, Webmaster and General positions for any
of the above projects.
The intent for the New Year is to separate our projects amongst project groups within the
committee. The project groups would then report to the committee in the second hour of our
two hourly monthly committee meeting. This will allow the committee to focus on GM’s,
events and fishing trips. We believe the individual workload should be less by working in this
way.
I hope to see you all in the New Year and wish you and your families the very best for the
festive season and the New Year.
Ben Le Vagueresse
CFFA President