Not a fly I use personally, but it is popular in the area for all game fish. I guess I am just too wedded to the old Claret Bumble to bother with this fly personally, but I am tying a few up today to sell. The one I see most often is the dressing IContinueContinue reading “The Stone Goat”
Author Archives: Claretbumbler
Claret Gosling
A nice simple one for you fly tyers out there, but one which does well on all Irish loughs. Hook: I use a wide range of hooks for this pattern. Tie it on your bog standard heavy wet fly in sizes 8 to 12 or long shanks in the same range Tying silk: I preferContinueContinue reading “Claret Gosling”
Mulranny Pig
This wee fly intrigues me. Mulranny is a scenic wee village on the northern shore of Clew Bay, a few miles from where we live. There is a golf course, a nice hotel that does a roaring trade during the summer and the usual scatter of touristy shops. The views across the bay to theContinueContinue reading “Mulranny Pig”
Leggy Dunkeld
The Dunkeld, in various guises, has always been one of my favourite flies. A long time ago, when I was a kid just starting out on my angling career, I bought a small cellophane packet of cock hackles which were dyed orange for the princely sum of fifteen pence from Somers tackle shop which wasContinueContinue reading “Leggy Dunkeld”
Banagher
Recent weeks have been too busy to fit in much fishing but even when I did venture out the results were poor to say the least. I will happily own up to my own shortcomings but other anglers I was with suffered equally miserable results. I badly needed a pick-me-up. Last week, while buying maggotsContinueContinue reading “Banagher”
Grey Mayfly Nymph
I guess we are now at the beginning of the fly tying season so I will post a few flies every now and then. I’ll start today with a fly I often turn to when the mayfly fishing is difficult due to calm conditions. This is a very easy nymph to tie but getting theContinueContinue reading “Grey Mayfly Nymph”
The quiet season
2024 proved to be a huge disappointment for game anglers across Ireland. I have no answers as to why this happened, but here is roughly how the season just gone played out. The season started out with reports of a lot of trout being caught on Corrib by the trolling guys. This is not unusualContinueContinue reading “The quiet season”
All over
Returning from a lovely trip to Sligo, we found the kitchen awash due to a burst water pipe under the floor. Splashing into the dining room only brought further misery as the water had destroyed the wooden floor in there too. The insurance assessor shook his head while scribbling furiously in a small black notepadContinueContinue reading “All over”
Change of seasons
Last Friday was a scorcher, 28 degrees when Helen and I were mooching around Galway city. The sun splitting the stones on Shop Street, traditional music flowing from the open doors of the pubs and throngs of visitors enjoying the spectacle of the sun beaming down on old Eire. I found a high stool inContinueContinue reading “Change of seasons”
The blue rod
This tale all begins many months ago when one of my followers on this blog got in touch about a post I wrote on old ABU rods. Keith had a similar love of the Swedish rods from the 1970’s, and indeed we both actually owed examples of the same rods. We agreed to keep inContinueContinue reading “The blue rod”
Claretbumbler 