SYLLABUS UPDATES

have been applied to the Single Handed and Double Handed Provisional, Advanced and Master Assessments

26th November 2011

AAPGAI Instructors and those ‘Who want to be’ came together at the Caer Beris Manor Hotel in Builth Wells last weekend for the second of our annual assessment events.

Many congratulations to the following for passing their exams in both Provisional, Advanced and Master level assessments.

Following the exams we opened our doors to the general public. A variety of demonstrations and workshops provided great entertainment to visitors prior to spending the afternoon receiving 1-2-1 tuition from the large gathering of willing and helpful instructors.

Jim Williams & Ian May demonstrated ‘Anchors’ & ‘Angles’ in spey casts, Gary Champion below demonstrating the effective use of Switch Rods.

Paul Arden gave a great demonstration on ‘Casting Essentials’ and ‘Tailing Loops’

To cap what was a truly fabulous Autumn event, we were all delighted to see Brian James and Joe Stitt welcomed as AAPGAI Life Time members ~ Well deserved!

AAPGAI instructors will be providing demonstrations and 1-2-1 tuition at the British Fly Fair on the 18th & 19th June at it’s new location – The Staffordshire County Ground.

Program for the weekend:

SATURDAY

10:30
Clive Mitchellhill – Make mine a Double – Spey Casting Techniques

11:30
Jim Fearn – Shooting Heads for Salmon

12:00
Gary Champion – Presentation Casts

13:00
Martyn Armstrong – Chalkstream Techniques

13:30
Lee Cummings – Distance with a Single Hander

14:00
Neil Truelove – The Single Spey – Circles & Snaps

14:30
Vic Knight – The Roll Cast

15:00
Jim Williams – Czech Nymph Techniques

15:30
Tony Riley – Trout – Faults & Cures

SUNDAY

10:30
Clive Mitchellhill – Make mine a Double – Spey Casting Techniques

11:30
Jim Fearn – Shooting Heads for Salmon

12:00
Gary Champion – Presentation Casts

13:00
Martyn Armstrong – Chalkstream Techniques

13:30
Iltyd Griffiths – A Little Bit of Skaggit

14:00
Neil Truelove – The Single Spey – Circles & Snaps

14:30
Vic Knight – The Roll Cast

15:00
Jim Williams – Czech Nymph Techniques

15:30
Tony Riley – Trout – Faults & Cures

It should be a great weekend with lots to see & do… we look forward to seeing you there.

The past weekend saw our first return to the Trout Hotel in Cockermouth, Cumbria since the floods in November 2009.

Supported by AAPGAI for a number of years we were delighted to be able to return to this hotel on the River Derwent to hold our Spring Assessment and Public Open Day Weekend in March.

With the hotel now fully restored we couldn’t have picked a better weekend, almost cloud free bright blue skies, very little wind and a glowing sun gave our candidates almost perfect conditions with which to conduct their Provisional, Advanced and Master level assessments.

 

THE ASSESSMENTS: Special congratulations to some of our successful candidates: Bert Schaaf, John Young, Trevor Hayman and Martyn Armstrong. Trevor is our first candidate to come through the Weekend Instructor Initiatives first introduced by AAPGAI in 2010.

 

(Above left) Bert Schaaf an Advanced Salmon Instructor had driven all the way from Germany, and (Above right) Trevor Hayman are both applauded for successfully passing their Trout Provisional Assessment. AAPGAI Chairman Illtyd Griffiths presents them with their awards.

(Above left) Illtyd congratulates a ghostly John Young on passing his Advanced Trout and (Above right) Martyn Armstrong who passed the very demanding Trout Masters Level Assessment… Congratulations.

THE OPEN DAY: Following the completion of the assessments, we were joined on Saturday by a host of future instructors & keen anglers to enjoy a packed programme of demonstrations and 1-2-1 fly casting & fishing.

After introductions by Gary Champion it was up to Ian May to get things rolling.

Becoming ever more popular and still with an air of mystique as to how best to use it, Ian looked at methods, techniques and likely uses for this this hybrid single or double handed rod – the Switch Rod…

This lead onto Martyn Armstrong & Gary Champion…

They looked at fishing chalk streams & rivers concentrating on presentation casts and stealth like approaches when fishing from the bank as opposed to wading.

Martyn describes a more cross stream presentation…

Crouching tiger hidden dragon – Gary Champion demonstrates a more upstream approach for the perfect dry fly drag free drift…

Martyn goes one better – knees’y does it.

Now time for the big boys…and not just Paul Little & Mike McDaid…

Paul & Mike extolled the virtues and uses of the Double Spey and the Snake Roll with spey lines, shooting heads and single handed rods – Guess who drew the short straw?

Paul Little demonstrates various Snake Roll techniques above…

Paul launches the forward stroke from a Double Spey layout… and launch it stayed!

Now for the maestro of all things Roll Casting, Vic knight steps up, or rather..in

More than just a straight line cast, Vic demonstrates changes of direction, curves & hooks for tricky situations when the overhead just isn’t an option…

Vic Knight above slows his natural Mach II tip speed delivery down to a blurrrrrr…

Twas’ Vic who concluded the morning sessions leading into lunch… arranged on river it gave all the attending visitors the opportunity to either pick up one of the plethora of rods, reels and lines available, have a cast, a chat, or just relax and munch the delights provide by the Trout Hotel… sticky bun anyone?

Moving on and re-energised it was into the afternoon session and Lee Cummings.

This was utterly mind blowing, in layman’s terms Lee demonstrated distance casting techniques, why & where they can be useful, set ups for general fishing distances such as big reservoirs or techniques for those that perhaps have aspirations for the competitive arena.

I only wish we’d had a lens wide enough to have captured his key shots… (Note to self: ‘fish eye lens next time’)

Finally it was onto the twilight shift and Jim Williams

Jim has a passion for long rods and light lines so described the tackle, set ups and techniques he uses for High Sticking, Duo, Czech and French nymphing

A bit of simulating required with the Derwents water at summer level and shallow.

Having concluded the demonstrations early afternoon with Steve Peterson who’d brought along some of the recent and latest technology in rod designs (The Hardy Sintrix) it was time to split up and let our guests and visitors come forward, grab a rod (any rod) and spend some one on one time with an instructor… regardless of ability everyone got to cast one of at least 70 to 80 rods made available via instructors. Just a great afternoon to complete what was a fabulous day… made so by the attending visitors, thank you on behalf of AAPGAI

We look forward to seeing you in October 2011 at Caer beris – more details

 

October saw the second of this years AAPGAI Assessment Weekends. Guests, senior assessors, current AAPGAI instructors progressing further, and wannabe instructors taking Provisional exams for the first time all gathered at Caerberis, Builth Wells, Powys.

Over a 3 day period and with favourable conditions, each candidate was scheduled to take to the river (Wye) in front of their team of assessors and deliver their chosen Syllabus. An excellent turnout saw a pass rate this year of 62%… a great result from some very well prepared and skilled candidates.

Amongst those successes were… (Congratulated by Illtyd Griffiths – Chairman)

Sam Franklin (Provisional Salmon)

Gerald Spires (Provisional Trout)

Lee Gallant (Provisional Trout)

Dave Wiltshire (Provisional Trout)

Oskar pal Sveinsson over from Iceland (Provisional Trout)

Steve Kemp (Advanced Trout)

Derrick Jones (Advanced Trout)

Kevin Styles (Advanced Trout)

Ian May (Masters Trout)

Jim Williams (Masters Trout) 

Following the 3 days of exam assessments, we concluded with our popular Open Day on Saturday the 16th. This is a great opportunity for ‘would be’ instructors & the general public to watch and participate in fishing, fly tying and fly casting demonstrations in one form or another, as well as receive 1-2-1 instruction from one of the many AAPGAI instructors in attendance throughout the weekend event.

Jim Williams starts Saturday off with a Light Line & Long Rod Nymphing Demo

  Roll casting maestro Vic Knight does his thing

Oskar doing a great demo on fishing the riffle hitch with a single hander

Additional demonstrations from…

• Sue MacNiven – Injuries that can occur through fly fishing
• Paul Little – Spinning with Multipliers & Fixed Spool reels
• Tim Smith & David Pilkington – West Country Sea Trout Fishing
• Ian May – Teaching the Double Spey on grass

… all well attended & received by an enthusiastic audience.

Congratulations to all the successful candidates and participants during the weekend, we look forward to seeing you next time… HERE

An event not to be missed by any serious angler. The British Fly Fair International held at Trentham Gardens (Stoke-on-Trent) on the 30th & 31st October 2010.

AAPGAI as usual have been given the honour of providing the fly casting demonstrations, come and say hello… we’re more than happy to offer any advice on fly fishing and casting in general.

Spring Assessment & Development Weekend Trout Hotel, Cockermouth, Cumbria 23rd – 26th March 2011

£50 per person

After the success of the Autumn Development Weekend we are all looking forward with anticipation to the next full gathering. Assessments for our awards will take place during the 23rd, 24th and 25th March on the River Derwent and early application would be advised to confirm ones place. Syllabus are available… here

The 26th March will be of interest to all anglers, whether your goal is to become an instructor in the future, or you’d just like to come along and enjoy some exciting workshops & demonstrations performed by some of the best instructors in the country. These workshops will cover a wide area of game fishing and will attempt to cater for all attendees. Whether your interest lies with single handed or double handed rods, casting, fishing techniques, or fly dressing, there will be something for everyone.

See more details or Download Application Form

The CLA Game Fair takes place this coming weekend and many of our AAPGAI instructors will be firmly planted in various locations across the fishing village. You may even be accompanied by one having decided to test a rod the wife won’t let you have… if you’re visiting we hope you have a great weekend.

AAPGAI´s – Illtyd Griffiths, Gary Champion, Clive Mitchelhill, Steve Peterson and Karl Humphries will be on hand to demonstrate and give advice at the Irish International Fly Fair on the 3rd & 4th of July 2010.