More Dabblers

I’ve been bust at the vice again and the fly boxes are filling up nicely now. For me, Saturday afternoons are my preferred time to tuck myself away with the radio on, happily snipping and whipping away. Steam rising lazily from my umpteenth mug of coffee while the room around me gradually fills with half […]

Holiday weekend (1) a Dabbler pattern

Outside, there is only what can be described as a storm blowing. Trees are bending in the wind and sheets of cold rain are filling the gutters to overflowing. While the east coast of Ireland is just breezy and cool we here in the west are being well and truly battered and soaked. It is […]

Tag tips

This is going to be a short post which may help some of you to make neater and stronger flies. Many patterns call for tags at the end of the body of the fly. Historically tags were part of fully dressed salmon flies (think of Jock Scott, Durham Ranger etc). These allegedly provide ‘aiming points’ […]

Flies for Lough Conn, part 1

Every year hundreds of anglers from every corner of the world travel to County Mayo to fish Lough Conn. I used to be one of the hoard and can remember the intense excitement preparing for the trips, that deep rooted anticipation of each detail of how the fishing would be. Perhaps the greatest thrill was […]