Last Sunday, seven of us went down to Chalk Springs, Arundel for the annual match between Surrey and Sussex Fly Dressers Guilds. I arrived at about 8am, two of the others were already there as were some of the Sussex team. All the others arrived over the next half hour. The weather for the day was not good for fishing, it turned out bright, sunny and very warm by lunchtime. We were all given a fishing schedule of when and where to fish. The fishery has four lakes and they were split into three groups, East Lake, South Lake, West Lake and North Pool (these to be fished as one). Each hour a whistle was blown and we would all move in a clockwise direction to the next lake. Franco and myself started on East Lake moving on to South Lake then to West and North. There was a break for lunch and a very good bar-b-que put on by one of the Sussex members.

The one thing about chalk springs is that the water is crystal clear and you can see right to the bottom, even when it is twenty feet deep. The frustrating part is that you can also see the fish, and even worse you can see the fish come up and look at your fly and even taste it, turning away at the last minute. My first fish was caught in South lake using an Olive Rambo. I had walked around the back of the lake as there were several people fishing the 'easy side', there are trees and bushes quite close the the back of the lake. I only got caught up twice and that was not behind but from trees next to me.

Franco was at the bottom end of the lake and indicated that there were fish there and quite big ones. I had tried several flies up until I tried the Rambo, with no luck. Shortly after catching my first and largest fish about 3¼Lbs, the whistle blew and we moved on to the West and North Lakes. No luck at either of these lakes. It seemed that the fish in North Pool had no interest in anything apart from moving out of the way of our flies.

The East Lake was our last before lunch. Eventually here I tried my Hairy Mary after a few casts I had my second fish on the bank. I gave one of them to Franco, I saw that his retrieval was very fast and I said to slow it down and sure enough you could see the fish starting to follow. But you could see them turn away at the last moment. The whistle was blown again and it was time for lunch.

The bar-b-que was put on by Chris from Sussex and I can only assume that he had a lot of help. It was a excellent spread that they put on burgers, sausages, salads, puddings and drink were all on offer. After it all we were back to fishing, back to South Lake for the next stretch.

Franco and I went back to the bottom end of the lake which is also the deepest part of the whole complex. There were some enormous fish here, just cruising about. Even just letting the fly sink down to them soon had the rushing off, they were so very elusive. Maybe that's not the word as we could easily see them. Franco noticed that they were they were taking something that appeared to be orange. He changed his fly to an orange one a soon had a fish on. I had one of my Blue Flash Damsels on. I cast over the where he was still fighting his fish and low and behold my last fish was hooked.

For the rest of the day everything avoided my flies. At 4:15 the final whistle was blown and it was time for the weigh in. Mine came in at 7Lb 12ozs. The totals were 70Lbs for Sussex and 43Lbs for Surrey. Then there were some calculations as Sussex had more members than Surrey. Surrey lost. As a day's fishing everybody agreed it was very hard.

I was invited by John Sawtell, on Thursday evening, to fish at his syndicate water in Effingham. I met him close to Effingham Junction Station, then followed him to the fishery. It is very secluded and quite, well off the beaten track.

There are four lakes, some quarter of a mile from the parking. We fished the first lake, which is also the smallest, we came to. It has an island in the centre and the fish were feeding just below the surface but not on the surface. They were cruising about with their dorsal fins just breaking the surface. I fished with one of John's test flies, bit like a mayfly. I did have one take on it but it did not hook. John, on the other hand, hooked a fish but only lightly and he did not managed to land it. I had one or two problems with the trees behind but did nor lose anything.

We both moved on round to the other side of the lake. Here I had problems with the the undergrowth in front of me and kept on getting tangled up in it. John hooked another fish but as before it was only lightly hooked and it wiggled off. He changed his fly to a weighted Invicta he had made. He hooked a fish quite quickly and landed it. It weighed in at 1 ¾LBs.

He asked me if I wanted to fish at the same spot and I did. I had put on a new leader but no fly. I suggested one which which I had made which had a foam body and should float quite well. First cast I caught the tree and lost it. I put on a new leader and John suggested a weighted fly but the only one I had was a Black Flash Damsel, not my own make. My first cast was a little short of the pod of fish on the surface, my second was right on and I hooked a fish. It weighed in at about the same as John's one.

We decided to go on to the second lake. As we started to walk round it started to rain. As we got round the corner it chucked it down. I just had a quick look at the second lake before turning back to the cars. The rain got harder and never stopped.

Apart from the weather, although short, we had a very good evening.

Sunday 10th (a late write up) was the Annual Bar-B-Que of the Surrey Fly Dressers Guild held at Frensham Trout Fishery. People started to arrive at about 8:30am and I got there at 9:15. We were fishing until about 3:00pm when the food was served. About 19 turned up to fish and a few more for the food in the afternoon.

I fished the day entirely on home made flies. The fish were close to the surface and there were hatches of several types of insects including hawthorn fly and sedge fly, as well as a few mayfly, coming off of the water. Most people tried dry flies and only a few had success. The fish were investigating the flies but that was all, I found. Although a couple of times I did get a break on the surface but none of them took the flies.

Starting on the big lake, I tried several flies and moved position a couple of times, did I get any response It was not until I put on a copper wire sunk spinner, did I get a single tug and that was it. I then changed to the small lake next to the Lodge. Again using the sunk spinner, I tried, but nothing. Then I swapped to a dry fly, again nothing. I finally went to a tatty blue flash damsel (I think this was one of my early attempts at fly tying). None of the colours were quite correct, instead of a flowing tails of marabou feature it had fibres from a stiff feature, it had a hackle of the wrong size, it had blue flash as a rib and to top it all the gold head was on the wrong way round.

As I drew the line, I was coming up to the leader a fish was following the fly. I could not draw more line in because I would have the leader through the rod rings and so I started to move the rod to my left. Jerking the rod a little to give the fly a twitching movement, as I watched the fish followed the change of direction. Suddenly it darted forward, the last few inches and grabbed the fly. It gave a good fight and then I realised that my net was not to hand. I called for one of the others to fetch it for me and Franco kindly responded. He landed a 3Lb rainbow for me.

I then decided to fish the top lake, here I tried my Hairy Mary, but no luck. I have to say though I have caught fish before in this lake but I think mainly I have used white flies here. I tried the cloudy lake next to it but managed to hook the trees twice so I moved on. I moved to the smallest of all the lakes which is just to the left of the top end of the large lake. After a few casts, still using the Hairy Mary I got a tug, I cast again and got a take which snapped the leader a few inches from the braided loop. I fitted a new leader and another Hairy Mary but nothing else.

I moved on to the top of the large lake and started using the same fly. Casting slowly, moving in an arc, back and forth, from my stand, after a while I noticed a fish following. This again was close in and the fish was zig zagging around the fly as it was twitched in. I thought that it had taken and struck but it hadn't. But I managed to cast (just about a leader length) to it's right, about 6" to12", as it swum away and it saw it and again followed and as before it started zig zagging around it again, but this time it did take the fly. This one was quite a strong fish and it took me a little while to get it close to my net, but as it saw it off it went again. Eventually I landed a rainbow of about 5Lbs.

It was then about 3:00pm, time for the Bar-B-Que. What a fabulous spread the club put on, burgers, sausages, chicken, a big array of potatoes and salads. Afterwards puddings of fruit salad, trifles and cheesecake. As well as wines, beers and a variety of soft drinks.

Several of us continued fishing after the Bar-B-Que. I eventually gave up when I had just put on a new leader, hooked into a fish and lost fish, fly and complete leader. I obviously, being a bit tired, had not tied the leader on properly.

I went off to Frensham Trout Fishery in the afternoon. I started fishing in the large lake. The picture is all the flies I tried (all home made), everything above the rule produced no response whatsoever. The flies in the centre are bloodworms and I was hoping that these would have produced some sort of response but absolutely nothing whatsoever (trout are meant to adore these). These were the first three flies I tried.

I then tried the Klinkhammer, the top fly on the left, this is a dry fly but the hook is subsurface. It is a good visible fly for the angler, then I tried the fly top right. I moved to the small lake and tried it again with Klinkhammer. I then changed to the dry fly bottom left, this was the first fly to get a response. The fish unfortunately did not take it, this happened several times. I then swapped to the fly second from the left. This one is made purely from natural CDC feathers. These are from the around the oil glands of a duck and are very resistant to water, the flies produced from these float extremely well. This fly produced an immediate response but again it was not taken, the fish just rolled on it. This happened several more times. Then no more.

I moved to the bottom lake,. The dry CDC was not even looked at here. I tried the two flies on the right, above the rule. Again no response. I decided to move back to the large lake, I still had the nymph on (bottom one of the three on the right), again nothing.

As it was getting late, I decided as a last resort to try the Hairy Mary, on the right below the rule, a salmon fly. A response, what a response, first cast a fish on, which fought very well, and took a little time to land. Once unhooked, I cast out again same fly, wow, another fish on. Two casts two fish, almost unheard of. This was a larger of the two. I tried again several times but nothing more. I was starting to get dark and so I packed up Total weight of fish caught was 6Lb 12ozs.

Last Saturday I went off to Vale End, Albury to finish my fish tickets as they ran out at the end of the month. There were only a couple of people when I arrived at about 8:45.

At the fly tying class on Tuesday we had been tying Salmon flies. I had tied some of them on single hooks, size 10, to try them out on trout. I also had tied some small Gold Ribbed Hare's Ear on size 16. The flies above the rule are the Salmon Flies and the ones below I tied on size 10 for Trout.

I started fishing with the Gold Ribbed Hare's Ear (GHRE) in the small lake but did not even have a touch. Then after I went to the large lake using again the GHRE, but still no luck. All the flies in the centre are Ally's Shrimp. I changed to the bottom fly in the centre and soon caught my first fish, but then nothing else. I changed to the bottom fly on the right, I believe this is called a Hairy Mary.

I got one tug on this one and it was quite deep down. I changed to a sink tip fly line because of this. Unfortunately, as the lake was not that deep, I kept on hooking weed on the bottom and I quickly went back to my double taper line. Still nothing, so I moved position on the lake, no luck. I moved again, nothing. This time I changed my fly to the second up in the middle, a slightly different Ally's Shrimp and was soon into my second fish. After that nothing.

I then moved back to the small lake, but not before making a cup of tea in the van. I fished at the end nearest the weir. I soon had a tug and then another. About ten minutes later I had my third fish on the bank. This was my limit, I went back and had another cup of tea and then it poured with rain for a few minutes and I went home.

Off I went quit late, about three, this afternoon. I decided to pop in to Albury Game Angling, to get some hooks. There were two people who recognised me, one from fly tying class this year and one from last years, as well as Peter Cockwill the owner.

After a chat, I went off for a dabble at Weston Lakes. One chap just leaving had caught three earlier, He said that they were near the top but suspected that they (the fish) had gone lower. He had caught on (from what he described) a Blue Flash Damsel.

I started on one of my Terry's Terror and my new sink tip line, no luck. I changed fly and to a floating double taper line. I tried flies slowly getting larger and larger. Onto a Blue Flash Damsel (one of my own), Then the Brown Minkie I had so much success with the last time. Then a White and Green Cats Whisker and finally a Black Bead Tailed Zonker.

Not a sausage, or even a little tug. My only luck was that the Gillie did not stop when he drove past to collect any money, or on his way back.

A group of us from the Surrey Fly Dressers Guild went to the Spring Fly Fishing Show, at Newark yesterday, leaving in a mini bus from Woking, at about 5:30am. The journey was quite uneventful apart from the 'two' stops for breakfast, the first was skipped as we would have to wait twenty minutes for it to open. By the time we reached our exit on the A1(M), there was quite a queue which lead to the showground, which added quite some time to the journey.

It turned out that the showground was also hosting The British Shooting Show as well and this is where most of the people were going. Initially the fishing show did not have a lot of people in it but after a bit it suddenly filled up. As people visiting either show could visit the other, I assume that the original influx to the gun show came across to the fishing show.

There were many trade stands selling everything from feathers to expensive rods and reals. There were fly tying demonstrations, as well as many renowned fly tyers, demonstrations of casting and casting competitions.

Click here for Chris Reeves Web Site

I went and had two or three hours at Vale End, Albury yesterday afternoon. The banks of the small Lake are very muddy, as they have dredged the lake and the banks have been churned up my the heavy machinery and it only reopened on Wednesday. I had no luck on this one and went to the far end of the big lake, which is even bigger now as they have incorporated the very small lake at the far end into the main one. There was also a lot of ice on it and only at that far end was it clear.

I first tried a buzzer, I had tied, but nothing, then one one my Terry's Terrors, again nothing. But the moment I changed to Brown Minkie, first cast a tug and I struck too soon. I recast over the same spot and the fish was on. About 2½LBs. I flattened the barb and two more casts and I had another one in the net. I know it shouldn't be done here but it was released back. I cast out in the opposite direction and got a tug. A couple of casts later a third was on and in the net and that went back as well. I went back to the small lake with the Minkie and got a couple of tugs but no takes. I got one more later on but nothing else, by this time it was starting to become dusk and I left there about 6.

Classes started three weeks ago at Esher College, once again. This year we have a new lecturer Chris Reeves (www.fishingclass.co.uk). I have been looking at the Fly Dressers Guild website (http://www.the-fdg.org/) and found that there is a tying competition which I will enter as a novice.

One of the flies to be tied is a Terry's Terror. I played around last night and tied three, although the colours are not right the technique is there. Chris says that the body may need to a bit fatter but he will look up some references for it and look at them tonight.

My version of Terry's Terror, I think the bottom one is better because of the length of the tail. These are all tied on a size 12 hook.

A couple of weeks (23/11/08) ago the The Surrey Branch Fly Dressers Guild Held the annual competition 'The John Goddard Trophy', this year at Vale End Fishery in Albury. The day did not bode well, as when I let the dog out in the garden, there was a smattering of snow on the ground. By the time I had had breakfast and went out to load the van with my gear, the van was covered in snow. If it had not been a competition, I would have stopped right there. But off I went.

On the way the snow started to turn to sleet and by the time I got to Albury, that had turned to very light rain and arriving at the fishery, it had stopped. Off we went, I started with a slow sink line in the small lake and had also decided to fish with just my home made flies. I had one or two little nibbles but no positive takes and tried a couple of flies. So I moved to the big lake with exactly the same results and then decided to change to a floating lines, as I had see one or two fish on the surface. I went back to the van, threaded the floating line then pulled it down the tie the leader on and snapped about eight inches off the end of my rod! Fortunately I had taken my little rod and changed to using that one.

I went back to roughly the same place on the large lake and got my first positive tug on the second cast, on the third cast I hooked my first fish, a 2 ¾Lbs rainbow. After that it started to rain heavily and it stopped just in time for lunch. We all had our lunches in the hut on site. I had taken homemade Leak and Potato soup (by my own fair hand), bread, yogurt and a banana. Fishing resumed with some going off to Powdermills Fishery. As this is a 'big fish' lake it was agreed that any fish taken would count as two, for the bag count and that it would not be counted to the largest fish wager (everyone puts in £1.00, winner takes all).

I went back to fishing the small lake and after talking to Wendy (who had already caught her bag limit of four) about what she had used, I changed tactics and went for a commercial white and green Cats Whisker, which initially drew no luck. But then I stopped drawing in and suddenly got a take but it did not stay on very long at all. This continued at all most the same spot every other cast but only little tugs from then on. I then tried casting further out and more along the lake but passing the same area. And sure enough got another little tug and then a few casts on, the second fish was caught but this time only a tiddler of 2 ¼Lbs. After that nothing else for the rest of the afternoon, which by the way turned out to be sunny.

After the weigh-in the biggest bag was 11Lbs which went to Derek Peters and he also got the biggest fish but the rules say if this happens the biggest fish goes to the second largest caught. This went to Chris Billson. Eighteen people turned out on this day, miserable start or not.