I am risking life and limb here as I commit fly tying heresy. The ‘bumble’ patterns devised by the late, great Justice T.C. Kingsmill Moore were ahead of their time in many ways. His use of multiple different coloured hackles to impart ‘life’ into his flies were an inspiration and his prodigious catches of troutContinueContinue reading “Silver Blue Bumble”
Category Archives: trout fishing
The importance of fly choice?
I have been busy tying flies over the past few weeks, dabblers and bumbles pouring off the vice as boxes are filled and the overflow chucked into a receptacle a a sort of back up for next season. Of course, I don’t really need any more flies, thousands are already in my collections of troutContinueContinue reading “The importance of fly choice?”
Another tough day on Carra
My plans to do a lot of fishing on Carra this season turned to dust, but I did manage to get out one last time last Sunday. It was the final competition for the club, a day which the forecasters had predicted would be one of gales and torrential rain. Strange as it may seem,ContinueContinue reading “Another tough day on Carra”
Tackling tough conditions
When dreaming of days on the big limestone loughs I am willing to wager us fly fishers imagine clouds driven across the sky by a brisk south westerly, the warm air still damp from recent rain and trout splashing as they intercept hatching flies. While we do get halcyon like that sometimes, more often theContinueContinue reading “Tackling tough conditions”
Carra competition
Those hardy souls who regularly follow this blog are no doubt fed up of hearing how much I dislike angling competitions and the fact that I have not fished them in twenty plus years. All this pontificating was never going to end well and sure enough, yesterday I found myself taking part in a fishingContinueContinue reading “Carra competition”
Back to the Robe
For the past couple of months I have been thinking about fishing, preparing to go fishing but not actually managed to do any fishing. Apart from a solitary coarse session I have been confined to quarters, of my own volition I must say. There has just been so much going on that angling dropped downContinueContinue reading “Back to the Robe”
2025………
Bloody weather! I had hoped to make a flying start to 2025 but the snow, ice, wind, rain etc have conspired against me. While not actually getting out to do any fishing for many weeks, I have been busy repairing, cleaning and organising my gear in preparation for the coming season. Fly boxes are fillingContinueContinue reading “2025………”
Cock Robin Palmer
Christmas Day here in Castlebar and I have completed my first list of chores. With a little time on my hands before we launch into full blown Christmas dinner mode, I have been poking about the back alleys of my website and come across a few posts which somehow never saw the light of day.ContinueContinue reading “Cock Robin Palmer”
Jointed Mayfly
Another one for all you hard working fly tyers out there. This is a rather unusual wee fly which is not one I see in use too often. One of the materials is peculiarly Irish, PTFE tape. This is referred to here as simply ‘Plumber’s tape’ as is is used by those professionals when makingContinueContinue reading “Jointed Mayfly”
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”
Claretbumbler 