SIM Fly Fishing Festival 2024

Just returned from attending the SIM Fly Fishing Festival in a tiny and scenic town called Castel di Sangro, Italy. This festival being deeply impressive is an understatement. This year was the 21e edition of this festival. A festival to celebrate the art of fly fishing & tying but foremost celebration of camaraderie. Among many top Italian fly tiers a group of international fly tiers were invited, including yours truly.

SIM (Scuola Italiana di Pesca a Mosca), founded in 1978, is the Italian fly fishing school where knowledge & history of fly fishing is educated. They have many regional meetings with the yearly festival at their headquarters in the civic museum in Castel di Sangro being the main event.

It all started with the amazing diner Friday evening at the center square of the town with live music. The hospitality of Italians is heartwarming. It was a joy to see old friends and meet friends that I've known for many years but meeting for the first time. Saturday started with a nice walk from the hotel to the venue. Tying at 'center stage' in the wonderful auditorium was simply humbling. The weather was glorious making the weekend really special.

The venue is an abby just along the little Sangro river. Not sure how old this building is, but the central square inside is beautifully decorated with frescos. 

Thanks to all the friends, what a joy to see you (again)! Finally a huge thanks to Umberto Oreglini for the logistics and taking care of us. Grazie Umberto!

Here's a video of the SIM festival from the local TV station

Rise

Here's another golden oldie DVD by Confluence films that can be enjoyed for free!

Observing

Observing in a small spring creek in Spanish Pyrenees

Fly fishing Bhutan

Not the most obvious place to go fishing but after watching it certainly one of the most special. The scenery of the lower Himalayas, the history and culture of Bhutan and for sure the fish. The two species of the mahseer are really exotic for any angler.

Mr. & Mrs. March Brown

A little gig I did with one of the Norwegian fly tier, Jan Håvard Krohn, at the recent Nordic Fly Fair was to collaborate in tying a couple called Mr. & Mrs. March Brown.

I tied the dry fly and Jan tied the (wonderful) wet fly version of the March Brown.

Short tour of the Catskill Fly Fishing Center & Museum

Here's a nice video which takes you through the Catskill Fly Fishing Center & Museum in Livingston Manor.

Hope to visit it one day myself.

Drift

I bought a fair amount of DVDs back in the years. My favorite ones were videos that had various types of fisheries or destinations that were spotlighted rather than one subject.

One of the great videos produced by the now gone company called Confluence Films. I enjoyed them a lot on DVD, now Drift is available on Youtube to enjoy for free!

This video was released in the late 2000's. DVDs were still the main way to enjoy movies as well as fly fishing videos. Now I'm feeling really old...

Nordic Fly Fair 2024

Wow, the fourth (previous shows in 2018, 2022 & 2023) time attending the Nordic Fly Fair in Elverum, Norway. This fly fishing show feels much more like a gathering of friends rather than a show.

As so often the case with this show the weather this weekend (May 4 & 5) was amazing. Probably too nice as the amount of visitors seems to be a bit lower than the previous ones. But time wasn't wasted as we got to enjoy more stories together and of course cast outside at the casting pond.

The dinner after the first day is as usually superb. Amazing food, wonderful comradery and because of the fantastic weather we ate outside at the terrace overlooking the majestic Glomma river.

I also got to cast the new Orvis Helios 4 (904-F and 905-F). There was so much hype around this new rod. To be honest I barely feel any difference with the previous Helios 3, which I really like... The price of the new Helios 4 is insane. Orvis probably needs to sell rods to keep up with their overhead costs.

Well anyway, I cast many different rods including a NAM (way too fast / stiff with very little feedback), a few Scotts (the 884 GS is so wonderful and the discontinued Radian 905 still rocks!), bamboo rods and a few vintage fiberglass rods as well.

I'm already looking forward to next spring!

Tom Sutcliffe

Tom passed away April 8, 2024 so I moved the original posted on June 18, 2020 forward.

Tom Sutcliffe is certainly the grandfather of South African fly fishing. Tom owned a fly shop in the early 1980's in Johannesburg (source: Leigh Perkins' book 'A Sportsman's Life', page 147), is an accomplished author, fly tier and a wonderful painter.

We got in touch when I subscribed to his newsletter called 'The Spirit of Fly Fishing' Tom started in 2010. His weekly newsletters has been a wonderful potpourri of South African fly fishing scenery, short stories and pictures sent in by subscribers from all over the world. Even a few short stories from me. Fast forward to March 2020 Tom announced the end of the newsletter.

Over the years through Tom I also got in touch with several South African friends like Ed Herbst, Peter Brigg, Koos Eckard, Stephen Boshoff and Gavin Erwin. As a thank you to Tom I decided to send him a frame with a couple of flies. I asked my friend André Frijlink of Frame Your Fly to help with the frame. The result is top notch.

Thank you Tom for your friendship!


Update April 29, 2024:

Tom's daughter sent me a few pictures of Tom's study.

It's so nice to know that Tom, when walking to his study, would take a glance at the frame 😢

Update April 18, 2024:

A memorial service for Tom was held at the St Andrews church in Newlands.

Update April 8, 2024:

Today the sad news arrived that Tom has passed away...

Good bye Tom


Update July 3, 2021:

Tom's June 2021 newsletter mentions he is pleased with the frame 😄

Update June 10, 2021:

Wow, what an adventure.

I shipped the frame on June 18, 2020 to South Africa. The parcel was seemed lost as Tom never received it. May 25, 2021 (almost a year later!) the parcel was returned by the South African postal service. The address was correct so why it wasn't delivered is a mystery. I'm glad the frame returned back undamaged.

I shipped the parcel again, this time with UPS and as of today (after more than a year) it finally arrived at its destination!


Update Jan 10, 2021:

Tom decided to revive his newsletters again!

Blue Winged Olive

Green Hulk?

Found this green kapok dubbing in my tying bag.

The body looks like the green paint on the TV series The Hulk 😂

Elk hair Green Drake

Elk hair Green Drake dun and spinner (aka Coffin Fly).

The idea of this design is to make a large profile fly with less bulk.

Using a 1x (or even regular length) hook, less bulky body (strands of Elk hair rather than a long dubbing body) and long pheasant tail fibers for tails.

In this video I show how I tie the Coffin fly. For the dun use an olive dyed elk hair for the body, some sort of dun shade hackle tip for the wings (I like the wider profile of a hen feather) and a dun hackle.

Corey Ford

Corey Ford - a fly Walt Dette named in honor of writer Corey Ford.
These days a rounded rooster hackle tip is next to impossible to find. This was the best I have in light cream.

Tying a Gray Ghost

Land of little rivers

The delightful documentary 'Land of Little Rivers', originally only available on DVD, can be watched on Youtube for free now! Not sure if it's legal, so watch it before it's taken down.

Goodbye March

March is almost gone already!

Saying goodbye with a March Brown

Dark Coty

The hackle is a dark dun with a slight brown-ish sheen over it. Really buggy looking hackle.

The body is muskrat with a few straggles of claret seal’s fur

Honey Dun

 

The Relic

A fly that was deeply inspired by a color pencil drawing by an artist called Kate Hall.

Kate also came up with the name for this fly, The Relic.