Dave Southall Master Fly-Fisher will be holding a Masterclass for Members Saturday June 21st
We are delighted to announce that Dave Southall will be joining us on the river bank on Saturday June to 21st to present a special masterclass covering river-craft, Italian style casting and entomology.
Saturday 21st June
10.00 start
Reading the river for maximum success
Big trout on tiny flies
The Italian casting style-demonstration, features and benefits.
Fly fishing entomology introduction with kick sampling
4.00pm Finnish
Cost £50.00/head
This event is open to all members, for further details please email: [email protected]
Yesterday’s we rounded off our early season Masterclass Series with local fly fishing legend Fred Bainbridge.
Fred Bainbridge Beat 5 (Pool 30) Hatchery Flatts, River Ure, West Tanfield
We have been extremely fortunate to host Fred Bainbridge, Charles Jardine and Jim Curry in recent weeks, providing members with an opportunity to rub shoulders with some of the best in the business.
What have I learnt in the last 3 weeks?
Smaller groups of 5/6 members creates a great learning environment where everyone gets to spend quality time with the coach and plenty of time on the river to try out new techniques on the river (and meet new members too).
Everyone has their own style, their own way of doing things but the basic techniques remain the same. There is no ‘one size fits all’ take the basics and develop what works for you.
The one common trait of all three coaches was their attention to detail. Whatever they were doing, they wanted to get the detail right.
I have copied a post from Fred on his Yorkshire Fly Fishing Services facebook page this morning, good to hear he’s planning to join us again for another session later this year!
Thank you Charles, Fred and Jim!
Yorkshire Fly Fishing Services – Facebook
I’m very fortunate to have established healthy and positive relationships with a number of clubs here in North Yorkshire.
Today I hosted a manageable group at the prestigious Tanfield Angling Club. TAC is a very special place indeed and steeped in angling history, it was also stomping ground of Francis Walbran.
Over the last few years I’ve developed a fabulous relationship with this club and also managed to drag my good friend ( kicking and screaming ) Charles Jardine ooop north to co host masterclass weekends here with me.
This season alone they have already drafted CJ up to conduct a workshop, former APAGI Master instructor and top all round guy, Jim Curry for a casting course and myself for a multi technique workshop today looking at three long range techniques for low water conditions plus a Euro booster as well… This is a really forward thinking club that recognise the benefits of having great teachers onboard – its not a club that drafts in ‘Barry from Brighton’ who thinks he knows what he’s doing…
The fish here are plentiful and in stunning condition – I managed several beautiful wild trout during my demos alone..
But on top of all that the atmosphere is simply superb, the members are fantastically open and friendly as are all of the committee and the river keeper, Robert cannot do enough to help and assist any members.
Former England Rugby legend, Nigel Melville is the new secretary and has done a fantastic job already… he’s a superb ambassador for the club.
It was great to meet the new chairman as well who hasn’t been able to fish much this season and even better to help get him onto a few fish in the afternoon.
Great day and I look forward to doing more with TAC possibly later in the season with CJ again.
As you’d expect TAC is fully subscribed but there is availability (although limited) to join its waiting list for the 2026/7 season.
Driven by two fundamentals: conservation of wild habitats and the key of presentation. Jeremy Lucas is known for his simplicity and minimalism which he refers to as the ‘ultimate refinement’. Cambridge science graduate, author of Presentation Fly-Fishing, Tactical Fly-Fishing and long standing England team member, Jeremy’s name is synonymous with light line fly fishing.
During the thirty years that I lived in Cumbria, fishing the Eden and the rivers of North Yorkshire, including the Ure, I had never fished on the Tanfield Angling Club waters. Thanks to the kind invitation of my friend Robert Russell, the Riverkeeper, a small group of friends and I enjoyed what each of us regard as the most wonderful of fly fishing experiences. We were stunned, frankly, by this beautiful stretch of river; the scenic splendour, the rich history and the quality of the fishing.
With water levels at an all time springtime low, after a devastatingly dry period in northern England, we might have expected to struggle. I know that on the Eden, we would have done, waiting for the ‘easy’ time of late afternoon when the trout become easy targets as they feed on spinners. Not so at West Tanfield. We fished very different areas. I started on Sturdy’s Stream (yes, really, that section most favoured by the original Riverkeeper, Tom Sturdy, of Sturdy’s Fancy fame).
With no hatch and nothing other than small fish breaking the surface, I fished duo style, with an Oppo dry fly and Hydropsyche caddis (the predominant caddis species on all northern rivers) on point. There was the immediate gratification of two lovely wild trout on the Hydro as I worked upstream. Soon I came to Staveley and, in the low water, I could wade out to the rapid on the far bank. This screamed fish to me. Fast water has the three essential requirements of salmonid species – oxygen, cover and food. And so it proved. There were grayling rising, as I approached, and also a few subtle rises on the periphery of the rapid that I knew were trout. There were midge in the air, along with grannom caddis and a few medium olives, but whatever the fish were taking was invisible to me.
In fast water, I favour a caddis style CDC pattern (#16/17) and switching to this as I waded into position, I made the first tentative casts. Staveley is now indelibly imprinted in my memory. Without moving my feet, I rose perhaps thirty fish, both grayling and trout, and netted a dozen. Note that this was springtime when grayling are out of season, but this is always the way on a mixed wild fishery when you will catch grayling even when targeting trout. With barbless hooks and soft netting, this does no harm to the grayling whatsoever. Remember that a feeding grayling is not a spawning grayling. Nonetheless, I needed to move on, and Robert offered me a ‘challenge’ that would greet me downstream.
Freshly tied caddis (#16) and a pair of my standard heron herl plume tips (#20)
The contrast was startling – smooth, slow water, with a well-defined foam lane towards the far bank. Cruising fish, which were obviously mostly trout. I felt that the big caddis was wrong. I extended the leader out to about 14’ and put on a size 21 plume tip. And they came, the trout, and a few grayling, by carefully placing the fly on the foam lane as the fish patrolled. Beautiful fish, these, and I might have stayed all afternoon with them, but for Robert’s alternative ideas.
He took me farther downstream, near the hatchery, where there were enormous trout cruising. Again a contrast. I continued with the long tippet and small plume tip, only to have ‘fresh air’ rises and a few pricked fish. Robert suggested the caddis again, so even though this looked too big to me on the calm surface, I did as I was bid. The result was immediate, in the form of a gorgeous 5lb plus trout, the biggest of the trip.
All my companions enjoyed fishing that they described as unbeatable, and we are still talking about it now, each yearning to return to Tanfield. Frankly, there is no trout and grayling water in England that offers so much to the fly fisher.
Jeremy Lucas is author of Fly Fisher, Tactical Fly Fishing and Presentation Fly Fishing.
Fly-fishing legends Charles Jardine and Jim Curry joined us on the riverbank this month to deliver 2 fantastic casting masterclasses. Of course, practice, practice, practice, but understanding the basic techniques that underpin a good cast makes the process so much more effective. Charles and Jim were both keen to emphasise that everyone has their own style, but the fundamentals are the same.
After the long winter it’s finally time to be out on the river again, river conditions are at summer levels, so now is the time to get out and find those big elusive browns that are only seen at the beginning of the season but are usually in places inaccessible due to high water level.
The good weather has also made it possible for us to get the first fish stocked into the river slightly earlier so they should all be switched over on to naturals in time for the Easter bank holiday with more fish being added on a regular basis.
Last weekend we held our first masterclass of the season with Charles Jardine and next week Jim Curry will be running a casting masterclass for a small group of TAC members. We are blessed to have the support of so many world renowned fly-fisherman and thank them for the significant contribution they are making to the Club.
It’s great to see members taking full advantage of these opportunities and I am sure that with a little bit more casting distance and accuracy you may land yourself one of the many large over wintered fish. Richard Williams caught a 6lb brown trout last week, a nice surprise, and Owen Candy’s son Alexander landed his first trout.
I look forward to seeing you on the river bank soon, tight lines!
Our work focused on repairs to the steps at Wood’s Stream (Beat 2 – 14). • The hand rail has been removed, due to condition (We will look to replace on another working party). • The steps at the top have been repaired. • Additional work is required towards the bottom of the steps due to one missing.
Further repairs are required, so please take care if using the steps to access the river while repair works continue.
Following a recent visit to The Tanfield Angling Club from fly fishing legend Charles Jardine, he wrote an article about the Club for Fly Fishing & Fly tying Magazine (April 2025).
The article provides an excellent history of the club, the excellent fishing and challenges of fishing the River Ure and even a few recommendations on how to fish it!. Thank you Charles!
Tom Sturdy was the first Tanfield Angling Club River keeper and he became Water Bailiff on £1 per week in March 1899. ‘Silent Tom’ (as he was known) was credited with the ability ‘to train fish to be free risers to the fly’. No one has ever worked out how but perhaps it was something to do with his ‘Sturdy’s Fancy’. This was a particularly successful grayling fly he designed (tying instructions are given in the September 2016 edition of Fly Fishing and Fly Tying).
Following in the fly-tying footsteps of Tom Sturdy, the club held its first fly-tying event on Sunday 10 Oct, with half a dozen members attending, and by all accounts it was a journey of discovery for attendees, we even managed to tie some F-Flies. How effective they are remains to be discovered!
The next evening will be at The Bruce Arms, in West Tanfield on Sunday 10th November at 18:00. For those interested and new to tying we will by tying the Brassie Nymph, and for those more experienced tiers just come along for the social.
We have devised a beginner programme and included several of the Fly Dressers Guild Award Scheme flies, so you can follow the one that works for you, alternatively you can just come along and do your own thing.
There will be a small fee per evening £10 per evening, and a supplement of £5 for materials if you would like to follow the beginners programme (which is open to everyone).
If you would like to attend please drop Owen an email – [email protected]
