Current activities
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Welcome to Cheltenham & Gloucester Fly Dressers Guild. We meet at the Hucclecote Community Centre GL3 3RT on the 1st & 3rd Tuesdays every month at 8pm.
Have we got you interested? Then drop in and visit us! We'll look forward to seeing you.
Frampton Country Fair Sunday 8th September 2019
The Guild will have its usual stand in the Rural Skils Tent a great day don't miss it
BIG FISH
COMPETITION 2019
CHELTENHAM & GLOUCESTERFLY DRESSERS
GUILD
Big Fish Competition 21st May 2019
The annual competition was once again held at Springfield Lake near Evesham. Thirteen members fished the lake on a lovely warm evening with enough wind for a slight ripple; buzzers were the early order of the day, changing to dry or wet flies later on. Most people caught at least one fish towards their two, one brownie and several rainbows were returned. A monster of at least 5 lbs took a size 16 dry sedge but got off by straightening the (Kamasan) hook which was taken by another fish on its way back to David Wilson, but the biggest catch was one of the resident Canada geese, which fortunately also escaped.
At the weigh-in Mike Hall was found to have caught the biggest rainbow at 3lb 10oz, followed by Dave Orritt (2017 winner) with one of 3lb 6½ oz and Colin Playdon (last year’s winner) at 3lb 2oz.
It was a most enjoyable evening, and we are very grateful to our President Terry Beale, who organises the event and keeps everyone in order. Tea, coffee, cake and wine seemed inexhaustible and much fun was had by all participants!
2018 Competition Winners
Advanced fly dressing – David Wilson
Intermediate – Colin Playdon
Novice – Mike Hutton
Best Fish – Mike Perrin
Photographic – David Wilson
Big Fish – Colin Playdon.
A great turn out lovely to see so many attend a really good evening
many thanks to Adrian for organising it and Lilla for officiating
THREE CHOIRS VINEYARD VISIT 2018
CGFDG Social Evening 3 July 2018
On 3 July, Adrian had organised a trip to Three Choirs vineyard near Newent for the Guild’s annual Social Evening. We had a tour of the place first followed by an excellent meal in the
restaurant there. Our tour guide was Polish so was totally impartial as to the superiority or otherwise of the machinery (French, German & Italian except the Chinese vats which were
definitely inferior!) – Nigel took several pictures of the presses, the huge fermentation vats and the various machinery used for filling, corking and labelling.
We started with a look at the vines themselves; the vineyard is 75 acres in total producing quarter of a million bottles of Three Choirs own wine annually plus the same amount for other,
smaller, local producers. Then we went round to the processing buildings to see the presses, which were two large machines outside which crush the fruit (no feet involved: they did
try this in the early days but the local girls invited found that it was really hard work and wouldn’t co-operate!) and the juice is pumped into two big vats before being transferred into the
fermentation vats indoors in a controlled temperature. Blending, bottling, corking and labelling follow.
Three Choirs make a sparkling wine by the champagne method (they aren’t allowed to call the method or the wine “champagne” but that’s what it is) which we tasted first.
Delicious! We had three other tastings too, of rose, sweetish white, and a light red – it was a good value tour! For the sparkling wine, they make white wine as usual, bottle
it when fermented out and introduce a small amount of yeast and sugar into each bottle for a secondary fermentation. The bottles are crown corked and laid on their sides so that the
yeast, once dead, sits in a layer all along the bottle and gives the characteristic toasty taste to the wine. After a certain period the bottles are put in a large metal crate and very
slowly tipped up so that the lees end up in the neck. Each bottle is then carefully (there is between 4 and 7 bars of pressure in there) transferred into a clever Italian machine which
freezes the neck of the bottle, upends it, removes the cap so that the pressure inside pops out the frozen yeast, quickly powers in a champagne cork and attaches a wire cage, and there’s your bottle
nearly finished! Apparently early Dom Perignon (inventor of the wire cage) champagne used to be cloudy because they didn’t have this freezing method of getting the yeast out and that’s
why it was often undrinkable.
We went outside into the sunshine for a final tasting of their red wine, which is matured in oak barrels to give it some tannin, as the English climate is not really suitable for red grapes, and then
we adjourned to the restaurant for an excellent dinner. Many thanks to Adrian for a very enjoyable evening!
Lilla 9.7.18
Dreaming !
Big Fish Competition 2018
The annual competition was held at Springhill again, organised by our President Terry Beale.
Despite a broken bone in his hand, Terry managed to fish and was leading the field for most of the evening with a rainbow of 2lb 11 oz until Colin Playdon hooked a large blue trout at
the last moment before the 9 pm whistle and landed it after – it turned out to weigh 3lb 6 oz!
It was a lovely evening, enough of a wind to keep cool but not keep the fish down,
plenty of fishermen without being crowded, and everyone caught a fish (brownies are returned). Long may it continue.
The competition for 2017 winners were:
Big Fish Dave Orritt
Advanced fly dressing Neil Brooks
Novice fly dressing Karen Twinning
Photographic Dave Romeo
THE RICHARD STURDY MEMORIAL TROPHY: Mike Hall
WHERE TO GO FISHING 2018
You can buy day tickets for
- Bull Hotel (Fairford) from the hotel – River Coln
- Burford Angling Club from Orvis – River Windrush
- Williamstrip Estate from D&J Sports, Cirencester – River Coln
- Lechlade & Bushyleaze – Small stillwater,Tuition & rod hire available
- Woolaston Court (near Lydney) – Small stillwater
- Chew Valley Lake (Chew Stoke, near Bristol) – Reservoir
- Blagdon Lake (Blagdon), near Bristol) - Reservoir
- Barrow Tanks (Barrow Gurney, near Bristol) - Reservoir
- Farmoor (Eynsham/Botley, near Oxford) – Reservoir
- Draycote Water (Dunchurch, near Rugby) – Reservoir.
- Witcombe Estate,Witcombe, gloucester Tel 01452 863591
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The Fishing Museum Online
Have you ever visited The Fishing Museum Online? It covers fly, coarse and salt water fishing and includes sections on fishing tackle and a library.
The library comprises pdfs of books important in the history of fishing, which may be downloaded at no cost. It includes titles such as Pritt’s “Yorkshire Trout Flies”, Halford’s “Floating Flies and How to Dress Them” and “Ogden on Fly Tying”. The reason why you do not have to pay for these downloads is that the copyright has lapsed because of the years that have passed since their publication, and some dedicated folk have been willing to spend time scanning them. The pdf format might not be as satisfying as the beautiful leather-bound reprints that are produced from time to time, but if you are thinking of buying a copy why not check whether it would be of interest before spending your money? The site contains a link to Medlar Press via its “Shop” where you may purchase some of the titles.
This site is well worth visiting for anyone with an interest in fishing. You can reach it by following the link below.
http://www.fishingmuseum.org.uk/
Adrian Pound
12/04/16
Davy's Knot
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