Ladies and Gentlemen, an FDG member has just (re-)alerted us to an exhibition themed around the Northern traditional flies, the insects they imitate, the birds whose plumage is used to tie them, and the modern day substitutes for protected species. Further details below:

Rivers, Streams and the Art of Fly Tying

The exhibition brings together objects from the museum's Natural History collection, images of freshwater animals found in local streams, and our imitations of them. ‘Natural design’ has been copied over many years by the fly tyer to attract fish. The famous ‘North Country Files’ were tied to mimic the natural food of fish in northern streams and are seen by many as a perfect copy of nature itself.


Opening times:
January to March: Wednesdays and Sundays 12:00 noon to 5:00 pm
April: Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays 12:00 noon to 5:00 pm

Contact the Museum to enquire about planned fly tying day courses.

Kindly supported by Bradford Museums, Ken Stokes and other members of the Fly Dressers' Guild; Dean Andrews, John Tyzak and FishOn Productions; and Rob Smith of North Country Flies.

Link to the Museum's website

[Note: this has been reposted from the "Interesting Events" thread, as with hindsight, that thread title is too narrow to encompass the wide range of events that the Guild gets involved in.][COLOR="Silver"]

How about putting the catalogue on line?

The event is hosted by the London branch which doesn't have a website. We would be happy to put a link on the main guild site if they did, but to upload the catalogue for one branch would mean we have to do it for any branch that asks.

If you require a catalogue you can write to Mike Humphreys. please PM me for his address.

Regards

__________________
Chris REEVES

www.flydressersguild.org

37th Annual John Watts Fly Fishing Competition
Grafham Water, Saturday 25th August 2012

Entries open - deadline for applications is 1 August 2012


The John Watts Competition is an annual fishing competition organised by The Fly Dressers' Guild for its members. The aim of the event is for Guild members to get together for a day out on the water and meet members from other Branches and parts of the country, or renew acquaintances made in previous years.

The competition is fished from boats and is contested by teams of four. Originally, the teams were organised and put forward exclusively by Branches of the Guild, but the event is now open to teams of individual (branch or non-branch) Guild members as well.

The catch limit for the day is 12 trout per team member, of which the first four trout are to be presented at the weigh-in, the remaining eight to be carefully released. The winners will be the team landing the most fish on the day. In the event of a tie in the number of fish landed, the winning team will be decided based on the heaviest bag of fish presented at the weigh-in.

This year's competition is taking place at Grafham Water on Saturday 25th August and the cost of entry is £160 per team of four (i.e. £40 per team member). This covers the cost of your fishing ticket, boat hire and a light buffet after the event, during which the trophies for the event will be presented.

For further details on the competition, rules and the entry form, please go to the John Watts page on The Fly Dressers' Guild website, or contact Chris Reeves, the General Secretary. (Branch secretaries - you should have already received this information by email/ post, although the cost of entry may have been incorrectly stated as £140 per team in your papers).

The deadline for receipt of entry forms and payment is 1st August, but note that the number of entries is restricted to 20, and applications will be accepted on a first come, first served basis. Entries have already started to come in, so if you're interested in taking part, you should get your act together soon! This forum provides an ideal venue for finding other Guild members keen to fish the event and so make up a team of four ...


Hope to see you there on the day!

The Executive Committee