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………”
Tag Archives: fly fishing in Ireland
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”
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”
Cheap fly tying material
A very quick post for you fly tyers out there. It feels like everything in our lives just gets more and more expensive with every passing day so any way of reducing costs in our pastimes has to be a good thing. For fly tyers the cost of some synthetics can be quite high, soContinueContinue reading “Cheap fly tying material”
The Banshee
Here’s one for ye all now. A sea trout fly I tied up around the time Adam was a boy (OK, slight exaggeration). What I wanted was a pattern featuring green and black but there was nothing out there that matched my expectations so, I tied this fly. The colours looked a bit, well, ‘demonic’ContinueContinue reading “The Banshee”
Lift off
Most of the visiting anglers I meet on the western lakes are accomplished fly fishers with a vast array of tackle and tactics at their fingertips. Until quite recently they were much more adaptable than the locals who often stuck rigidly to short line wet fly. Switching to lures on HD lines, fishing tiny driesContinueContinue reading “Lift off”
Coming short
Disclaimer – I do have the answer to this problem but I will give you my thoughts anyway. Also be aware I am going to ramble on a bit (as is my want) because this is a big topic to cover. It is pleasantly warm here in the west of Ireland this morning, a niceContinueContinue reading “Coming short”
End of June
It has been a very hard few days, a lot of ‘stuff’ has been going on, things which have drained me to the point of exhaustion. I needed some time to myself so I made the effort to take my old boat out for a couple of hours on lough Conn. Heavy rain over theContinueContinue reading “End of June”
32 – Episode 27, Kerry
6th June, D-day. I was stood up to my knees in Lough Bofinna in county Cork trying to decide what to do when it occurred to me that Kerry was not so terribly far away. There is a stocked lough called Barfinnihy which lies high up in the hills on the ring of Kerry, veryContinueContinue reading “32 – Episode 27, Kerry”
32 – Episode 26, Cork
Lough Bofinna. I have no rational explanation why this secluded little lake sang to me but as soon as I read about it I decided I simply had to fish it. Cork is a big county with countless opportunities to fish so quite how my brain fixed on this far off lough will for everContinueContinue reading “32 – Episode 26, Cork”
Claretbumbler 