Fishing CV – Stephen (Chatto) Chatterton

I grew up on the shores of Lake Illawarra, near Wollongong in New South Wales Australia, where I learnt the fundamentals of fishing.

I have been involved with fishing ever since and fished extensively with bait and then lures before being introduced to fly fishing in 1993. With a background in commercial management in a number of large profitable private companies, followed by eleven very successful vintages in my own winery which was in the top 10% by size in the Australian wine industry, I took a step backward from the daily grind and started my own boat charter and guiding services initially guiding on and around Lake Illawarra. In 2001 I moved to Kalkite on the shore of Lake Jindabyne in the Snowy Mountains of New South Wales, so that I could focus more on my passion of fly fishing for trout. At the same time I transferred my boat charter and guiding business there.

I am a committed (or according to my wife Julie “a committable”) fly fisherman and as well as fishing in various trout, bass and estuary, catch and release, fly fishing competitions I am a dedicated exponent of fly fishing and fly tying and I am heavily involved in the management and promotion of competition sports fly fishing in Australia.

Fly Fishing and fly tying remain my favourite past times if I am not at my fly tying desk, more often than not, you will find me chasing “wild” browns and rainbows somewhere around local rivers including the Thredbo, Gungarlin, Eucumbene and Mowamba or practicing my shore based and loch style fishing techniques on one of the local lakes including Jindabyne which is at my door step or Lake Eucumbene, Tantangara Reservoir and Island Bend Storage. I practice my fly fishing on average two or three times every week, now mainly for trout, but where possible still take the opportunity to fish for estuary species and Australian Bass treating each outing as an opportunity to hone my fly fishing skills.

I am competitive in nature an am the only member of FFA NSW that has qualified to fish in the FFA NSW team every year for the last six years, have been placed in the top four in each of those years and have been FFA NSW champion three or four times in that period. In 2009 I fished for Australia in Ocean Fly Fishing Championships in New Zealand and came first in the second of the two Australian teams. I have won quite a few state competitions including the 2010 Rocky Valley FFA Victoria competition at which 46 fly fishers competed and was a member of the Winning team at the 2010 Nationals.

I regard my fly fishing as being the best that has ever been and confident in my skill and physical abilities will continue to improve. I have an open mind and am constantly learning from others. I am a very good wader and have very good casting skills. I have great communication skills and often take the lead in facilitating the sharing of information. This I believe has led directly to FFA NSW’s climb to success at the recent national and at interstate competitions.

I really enjoys tying flies and tie all my own flies mostly on barbless hooks  and constantly upgrade and refine the flies that I utilises in my fishing and the information I shares fwith others.

I have had a fly fishing information web site since 1995 and have recently upgraded that to an interactive content management system which includes recipes for over 160 flies, articles on fly fishing skills, a comprehensive data base of fly tying skills, and detailed information on fly fishing locations. Information that is available on that web site www.fishonfly.com.au is growing all the time.

I have been a member of a number fishing clubs and organizations for many years including Illawarra Fly Fishers, Southern Bass, Institute of Fresh Water Anglers and the Jindabyne Trout Society and of course Fly Fish Australia Inc. (FFA).

In 2005 I was appointed a Director of Fly Fish Australia Inc. Since then I have  worked toward my stated agenda for FFA which is to make sure that “a level playing field is enjoyed by all members” and that the  organization increase its international competitiveness and overall professionalism. In 2006 I took over the role of President of FFA and at the 2007 Annual general Meeting I was re-elected to that position un-apposed and have remained in that position ever since. I do not take that role for granted and acknowledge that I only serve at the pleasure of the membership.

I have very good boating skills and have owned boats most of my life ranging from canoes made from bent pieces of corrugated iron with road bitumen sealing the gaps and holes to fly bridge cruisers of up to 54 feet in length and 17 feet wide – all good fishing platforms in their own way. I have formalised my boating skills by completing a TAFE course in Transport and Distribution (Marine Studies) and am a qualified Coxswain which gives me both ships master and ships engineer qualifications.

Commercial CV – Stephen Peter Chatterton BECO, BACC, Principal in Public Practice ASA, Associate Institute Of Personnel Management, Fellow Institute of Chartered Secretaries, Fellow Australian Institute of Management (Retired)

Stephen Chatterton was born in 1949 in Penrith England and his family immigrated to Australia in 1951. He grew up living around Wollongong learning much from his parents who were self employed for most of his formative years. Amongst their interests his parents owned the business known as the Normandie Private Hotel in North Wollongong during its halcyon years. The family lived and worked there and Stephen literally grew up in the hospitality industry. He took his first outside job at the age of 15 years as a Bank Officer with the ANZ Bank. He worked with the bank until 1972 and left to take up a position in the finance industry. Stephen worked in the finance industry for four years in total attaining the rank of Accountant with Alliance Acceptance and Branch Manager with Mercantile Credits Ltd. In 1976 he was “poached” from his position in the finance industry and took up a position of Accountant for a group of large local private companies. He thrived in that commercial environment and at the time of resigning from the group in late 1992, to concentrate on the running of a winery business that he and his wife Julie had purchased earlier that year, was Chief Executive of St. Peter’s Winery & Distillery, Hanging Rock Winery, Southern Steel Supplies, Surdex Steel, B&W Steel, Allied Shipping Services (ASSCO), Rollco Engineering, Longueville Private Hospital, Dee Why Gardens Retirement Village, Laurieton Retirement Village and Domino Computers and was Executive Director of a number of other companies in the group. The winery business that Stephen & Julie had purchased was located at Yenda just outside Griffith and was called St. Peter’s Winery & Distillery. The facility was in the top 10% of wineries in Australia by production capacity and in comparative terms, on that basis, equal in size to approximately 20% of all of the combined wineries in the Hunter Valley of NSW. The winery grew and prospered under the control of Stephen Chatterton until he accepted a purchase offer in 2001. Stephen & Julie Chatterton also owned, but lease out, Jamberoo Valley Lodge which is a 40 room motel / reception / conference centre nestled in the foothills of Jamberoo Mountain just inland from Kiama. In 2007 they also sold that business and property. Stephen’s tertiary qualifications include a degrees in Economics and Accountancy and a certificate in Personnel Administration. He also became a Chartered Secretary, a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Corporate Managers and Secretaries, a CPA and a Principal in Public Practice, a fellow of the Australian Society of Accountants and a fellow of the Australian Institute of Management. In 2004 Stephen completed a TAFE course in Transport and Distribution (Marine Studies) and became a Coxswain so that he could own and operate a commercial fishing boat within his own “fly fishing business” based at Kalkite on Lake Jindabyne where he also lives. Stephen is a keen family man, enjoys his weekly game of golf and is a committed (or committable) fly fisherman and fly tier and was an accredited Fly Fishing Guide until 2010, is President of Fly Fish Australia and an active member of a number of fly fishing oriented organizations. Stephen is currently also involved in a number of community activities and has been a Deputy Captain in the NSW Rural Fire Service in charge of the fire shed and fire truck at Kalkite. Stephen also is a Justice of the peace and holds a St. John Ambulance current Senior First Aid certificate.