2025

Invicta Fly Tying Group – March to June 2025

At the Annual Dinner, Roger and I were honoured to receive the Invicta Trophy on behalf of the fly tying group team. We really appreciate the recognition shown by all Committee members in awarding this to us. A huge thank you from us both.

Here is photo

New Lesson dates

10 March

Unfortunately Roger is unable to teach the lesson on 10 March due to a prior commitment

Colin and Richard will go ahead with their tables on 10 March as normal – anyone from Roger’s group who would like to come along are very welcome and their help would be much appreciated – they could assist those on Colin and Richard’s tables.

We will review last lesson’s flies and going forward will continue with the Buzzer theme.

So as not to clash with GWFFA bank clearance days, we have amended our dates and below are the new dates going forward for everyone until the summer break:

17 March

31 March

14 April

28 April

12 May

2 June

16 June

Venue: Grafham Harbour View Cafe

Time: 9.45 for 10 am prompt start

Here’s an update following our fly tying lesson on Monday – 18 people came to the lesson plus a much appreciated visit by Alan Briggs, committee member.

Roger’s table tied variations of the Mayfly – photo below

Richard’s table tied buzzers and variations – photo below

Colin’s table tied a Blob, a Fab and a Diawl Bach – photo below

All in all this was a very successful meeting from 9.30 am to 1.30 pm.

I have now been approached by a complete beginner wanting to learn the art of tying flies – he will be made most welcome at our next lesson.

Tight lines

Colin

Great news – Fly Tying sessions will resume at Grafham in September after the summer break and we hope you’ve had a chance to tie some flies and catch some fish!

This will be run using the same successful format as before with 2 separate tables for Beginners/Improvers led by Colin and Intermediate tyers led by Roger.

Dates for classes below:

Beginners/Improvers with Colin & Intermediate with Roger

Monday 24 February
Monday 10 March
Monday 24 March

All classes are held at Grafham Harbour View Cafe at 09:45 for 10:00 prompt start.

New Members– anyone at any level of fly tying, including beginners, is very welcome to join us and see what happens. Beginners can easily be brought up to speed using our tried and tested programme. Current group members have made huge progress from not being able to tie flies to catching fish on flies they tied – great achievement and satisfaction and our aim after all!

A vice, tools and materials can be provided.

Anyone interested in learning to tie or seeing how it’s done – please contact Colin Newton.

The Intermediates with Roger on Table 1 are tieing variations of a mayfly as requested for the next few lessons including an Active Mayfly Dun which is a Philip White fly.

The Improvers with Richard on Table 2 will review the Red Butt TLB Buzzer and then move on to
GML Chironomid Emerger (258 book, page 113)
Black and Blue Buzzer and variations (273 book, page 47)
These are all interesting early season buzzers.

The Beginners with Colin on Table 3 will review the basic skills and then move on to some simple buzzer patterns.

Over the last 2 years there has been significant progression in the flies tied by the group – having learnt the basic techniques for fly tying they’ve now moved on to a wide variety of flies. It is very rewarding to see how complete beginners are now able to tie flies with confidence and enter competitions. The standard has been outstanding – there’s always room for improvement, but they will catch fish!

Here are some examples of flies tied by the classes recently:

Tight lines

Colin Newton

colinjnewton@outlook.com

Past flies:-

Flies for 22 April 2024

Flies for April 8 2024

Flies for 25 March 2024

Flies 11 March 2024

Flies for March 4 2024

Flies for February 12 2024

Flies for January 29 Lesson

Flies for 15th January Lesson

Flies for 19 December Lesson

Invicta Fly Tying Group Report -July 2023

The Colin Newton instigated fly tying group has now finished for the summer months and Colin has written a report which updates on the progress made over the past months.

Many thanks to Colin for his organisation and Roger Hurren for being the course demonstrator.

Click on link below to read report:

Invicta Fly Tying Report July 10th

Invicta Fly Tying Group Report – May 2023

The Invicta Fly Tying Group had their second lesson at Grafham on Monday 1 May. Eleven people attended including Jeff Hickson and Peter Waterhouse who very kindly gave up their time offering their support and expertise.

The lesson started with a recap of the last session and we then moved on to tying a variation of the Buzzer and the Fab. Very excitingly members subsequently went fishing and caught on the flies that they’d made – great news!

The next lesson will be on Tuesday 16 May at Grafham Harbour Café and we are very grateful to them for the use of their restaurant. We will review last lesson and then learn to tie a basic Diawl Bach and a Hare’s Ear. These two flies will help us move forward by mastering the complexities of dubbing and tying hackles.

Fly tying is a slow process and the group is already making good progress.

Anyone is still very welcome to join us – a new member came on Monday and was soon brought up to speed so he can now move forward.

Tight Lines

Colin Newton

Invicta Fly Tying Group

The Invicta Fly Tying Group met at Grafham for its first gathering on Monday 17th April. There were 9 of us including Roger Hurren who has very kindly volunteered to teach us – he is an experienced fly tyer who has been tying for over 50 years and won the John Krailing Trophy.

The lesson began with an introduction to fly tying and Roger talked us through the various tools and equipment required explaining all the basic principles. He then demonstrated how to tie a basic Buzzer and an orange Fab. We all tied these flies under supervision to ensure we were tying them correctly and would then be able to practise them. Everyone went home with flies that they could fish with – guaranteed to catch!

In our next lesson we will progress on to alternative patterns for these flies and make sure that we have mastered the basic techniques. There was very positive feedback from the group who had found the session extremely informative.

Colin Newton – group organiser.

07889 988484

Chris McLeod’s Winter Shrimping Pattern

I’ve been getting ready for the winter bank fishing. If anyone is interested, this is a very simple point fly when shrimping in the shallows.

I have been asked about my shrimp pattern a number of times now so I thought I’d jot down the tying sequence for the website. I’ve found it a very successful point fly, often catching as many as the droppers – something which a sacrificial point fly often doesn’t.

Click link below to see tying instructions:

Tying the floating shrimp

Chris McLeod

Top 10 Flies as selected by some of our most experienced and consistent members.

We asked a few of our leading and most consistent members to list the flies that they would chose if limited to only having 10 in their fly box. Those asked have regularly finished in the top three or four positions in our club championship (Carr Cup) during the past few years in addition to representing the club in AMFC matches and other competitions.

This week we are starting off with the flies selected by Keith Gilchrist. Click the link at the bottom of this section to open Keith’s selection.

We suspect that some fly patterns will be chosen by more than one person, but that only goes to reinforce the importance of having that pattern in your own fly box.

Most of the flies mentioned are available commercially, but tying your own is both rewarding and ensures that you can copy any fly.

Click link below to view Keith’s Top 10:

Top 10 Flies – Keith Gilchrist

Next time, Mark Searle’s Top 10

Top 10 Flies -Week 2

In addition to being our ‘Competitions booking officer’ Mark Searle has consistently been one of Invicta’s leading anglers.

This week he shows us the flies he would select if limited to only 10 in his box.

Top 10 Flies- Mark Searle

Top 10 Flies -Week 3

This week Chris McLeod shows us his Top 10 flies.

Chris is one of Invicta’s most experienced and well known anglers with considerable knowledge of the reservoirs both from the bank and boats.

Top 10 Flies -Chris McLeod

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Top 10 Flies -Week 4

Tony Smith is one of our most consistent anglers fishing major competitions on a regular basis, he particularly enjoys top of the water action; this is reflected in his fly selection.

It follows that half of his top 10 consists of dries or surface patterns. He admits that close friend and Invicta member Simon Peck who has a reputation for his tying skills ties many of his flies.

Top 10 Flies – Tony Smith

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Top 10 Flies -Week 5

Simon Peck is a very experienced trout and Grayling angler on both reservoir and river. His tying is of a high standard and he ties a lot of flies not only for himself but also his regular fishing partner Tony Smith.