John McGuane, one of the best fly fishing writers of our time, said, "AK Best’s flies make me shiver". Best has been pejoratively described as John Gierach’s sidekick, which is ironic as Gierach learnt much from Best, a professional fly tier. Best these days now enjoys recognition in his own right (See April 2005 Fly Rod & Reel) and to be fair to Gierach, he has always been effusive in his praise of Best and his flies, particularly the quill body – AK Best’s signature fly.

I’m a big AK fan too. But his flies don’t get much of a run in Australia, which is strange because they are crisp, lean, and simple.

Perhaps they are seen as too specific to American insect species, however, many American flies are accepted here and AK’s flies often are derivations of well established patterns (see the Red Quill below) and are more about techniques that can be tweaked to our conditions. Last Easter I was casting to a fish rising on a glassy pool. It ignored every standard dry fly in the box. Not a single take. I eventually saw mayflies on the surface and realised the quill bodies were a pretty close imitation. The olive quill (pictured) was taken on the first cast. So there.

On the downside AK’s quill bodies require materials not entirely easy to procure, particularly the dyed quill bodies and hen hackle for mayfly wings. The quill bodies need to be stripped and dyed, which is way too much trouble for most people. Strangely, dun hen hackle is rather hard to get. Note: you can get high quality hen hackle, but they are no good for winging. You need standard pullet hackle. Once you have the materials, quill bodies are great.

The Henryville Special was a fly I tied ten years ago as a likely caddis pattern. Never worked. Until this year when there were caddis drifting across a small lake. The only thing they would take was the Henryville or something close to it.

Two months ago there was a photo in this newsletter of the author landing a nice brown. That was on the New England Yabby pattern (pictured). The pattern is in Leuver’s "Fur and Feather". I have replaced the lead eyes with something a bit more up market. I also like to dye the palmered hackle tan as the badger shows up too light (I think).

The pictured fly is called a "hollow fly". This is not a pattern but a technique. The technique is to reverse tie the bucktail (or other material) so the tips point towards the eye. When tied in, you bring the thread in front of the tie in point, push the tips back past the bend of the hook then build up a thread dam that eventually points the tips backwards. The hair sticks out from the shank and flows back in an arc. Two or three bunches are tied in. The effect, as the name suggests, is to create a fly that has "body" because it is hollow inside. It is said to have remarkable swimming qualities, but I am yet to use mine.

Beware: the technique is easy to describe but getting the quantity and the length of bucktail, and the push-back tension right so that the fly tapers properly is difficult in practice. A number of tiers people on the net have noted that it is more trouble than it is worth.

This fly was tied by wunderkind Katherine Flint, aged 3. The head material is something called "soft body", which in fact dries hard and is really impressive. It is less expensive than epoxy, very easy to work with, doesn’t yellow. I have started using it a lot on saltwater flies, but it would work just as well with streamers in freshwater. It is affordable ($10.00-$11.00 or so), so if any club member is interested I can order it in.

The Commonwealth government is conducting a major review of salmonids (trout and salmon) in Australia.

The purpose of the review is to produce an updated and broadened version of the 1996 report Overview of the Impacts of Introduced Salmonids on Australian Native Fauna by P.L. Cadwallader. DEH will publish the report so that it will be available to scientific research staff, key interest groups, conservation and fisheries agencies and the general community.

Agriculture Victoria Services Pty Ltd which is part of the Victorian Department of Primary Industries. The project is being led by Wayne Fulton, Victorian Statewide Leader Aquaculture & Freshwater Systems.

The panel has since been selected and members are:

The project started in May 2005. The consultants had to establish the review panel within three months of starting the project. This has been done (see above). A draft report is due within twelve months of starting the project and a final report within 18 months.

The CFA was invited to comment on the draft tender specifications, and did so in January 2005. The CFA generally queried the intention to devote NHT funds to this issue when a much greater benefit might be gained from researching matters such as habitat restoration, environmental flows, carp management, fishways, etc.

At this stage it is not known whether there will be a public consultation process but we believe there are ongoing discussions about this.

Neither the CFA nor any other freshwater recreational fishing organisation has representation on the review panel. Some recreational anglers have pointed out that apart from Rick Keam the review panel includes only scientific representatives, even though one of the groups most likely to be affected by any outcomes of the report will be recreational anglers and despite the fact that the RFT specified that the review panel "must be recognised for their expertise in the issues addressed by the draft report" and "represent key stakeholders".

While some anglers are reportedly concerned that the review will possibly be used to develop an anti-trout agenda, there seems to be a fair balance of viewpoints on the review panel.

DPI has released a comprehensive new guide to inland fishing in NSW. ‘A Guide to Stocked Lakes and Dams in NSW’ was jointly produced by the Department of Primary Industries and the Australian Fishing Network (AFN).

The guide details the inland waterways which have benefited from the State Government’s fish stocking program. It covers 93 water bodies across the state and provides details on local facilities, the size of each water body, accommodation, stocking history, fish species and fishing and boating information. It has also been designed as an educational tool with information on pest species, size and bag limits, and general fishing rules.

Damian McRae of DEH has contacted us with comments regarding our summary in the last Freshwater Fisher of the DEH project "An updated overview of the impacts of introduced salmonids in Australia".

The comments are aimed at clarifying the role of the review panel and to advise of a change made to the project to better enable stakeholder views to be considered in this process. Damian has made the following points:

a) collectively has the ability to provide a broad range of backgrounds relevant to salmonid fisheries, including a scientific, angling, historical, and socio-economic expertise; and

b) deliberately does not seek to represent specific interests (or organisations) so that the review panel can provide the perspectives noted above in an objective way.

It is Freshwater Fisher’s understanding that DEH has also provided the following responses to the questions concerning 'why revisit Cadwallader's 1996 report?' and 'why trout?':

Another Eucumbene tragedy was narrowly averted on 9 July when two anglers fell from their boat on Lake Eucumbene at Yen's Bay. The two men had been fishing when rough weather came up. They both stood up at the same time to retrieve their lines and upset their boat. Both men were able to make it to the shore and one walked to the roadside where he waved down a passing motorist. The motorist raised the alarm with police who were then able to find the second man huddled against a tree on the bank, with his oilskin jacket frozen through. He was subsequently treated at Cooma Hospital for severe hypothermia and eventually recovered. According to the local police he probably wouldn’t have lasted another 15 minutes in the cold and snow.

The recent fuss about commercial fishing buyouts doesn’t just affect salt water anglers—it could reflect badly on the recreational fishing licence concept that we have always strongly advocated.

All the licence moneys received from both freshwater and saltwater anglers are pooled into one fund which is then divided up (with 28% currently going to freshwater fisheries). The rest of the money is used for saltwater fisheries, including the buyout of commercial fishermen’s licences, which was meant to remove around 250 commercial fishing operations from the industry and protect estuary fish stocks. It seems that between 20% and 30% of the commercial fishers that have been accepting large sums from DPI to buy them out of their licences, have simply turned around and bought unwanted or under-utilised licences from semi-retired or inactive commercial fishers, often at a bargain price.

The price of licence buyouts was calculated on the last three years of catches. Ironically this means that the bigger and most successful commercial fishers were paid large sums to buy them out, but there was nothing stopping them from then buying out the licences of smaller operators, and of course nothing to stop them from using their considerable experience and expertise to turn those marginal licences into prosperous operations.

The net result is that in many cases the licence money is being used to line the pockets of large commercial fishers, and the smaller, less successful fishers are being removed from the industry.

The commercial fishers aren’t doing anything wrong: they aren’t breaking any laws, and you can’t blame them for wanting to make a buck—but those are OUR bucks that we paid for our recreational licences. Some changes to the buyout system are obviously needed.

John Flakelar of the NSW Rod Fishers' Society produced a report and submitted it to the NSW Coroner to assist in the coming coronial enquiry into the accidental drowning of CFA executive members, Eddie Collett and Robert Moss, whilst fishing from a boat in Lake Eucumbene in 2004. The report covers many aspects of the dangers and precautions to be taken when fishing from a boat in high mountain impoundments and is a ‘must read’ for those who engage in these activities.

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