The light of ‘life’

There is a light within these flies that gives them a life, even when they are out of water. Its difficult sometimes to see but it’s there in a way that will appeal to your instincts the moment you recognise it.

Their inherent translucency created by the sparseness of the material and the unbelievable colour balance combined with the ‘constant’ motion of the clouser style, results in a fly that creates huge confidence when you are fishing it.

The tier in control of his material.

Spring Special - 3 Day workshop - guided fishing

Would you like to kick start the season – maybe round off a few corners - The 3rd 4th and 5th of May fall on an excellent tidal period – This spring offer includes two days guiding with on the water instruction if required – on the third day I fish with you as we explore the South East Coast of Ireland. The spring special is for two people only with guided fishing day 1, 2 and 3 (and I get the opportunity to fish with you on the third) - please contact me for further breakdown of exact details and plan. 3 Day

Reflections – on a year ahead

Challenges often appear from what seems like nowhere, that is of course if you accept them as challenges. They could be interpreted as obstacles, difficulties, and down right bloody problems or nuisances. Like most other jobs, guiding for clients for wild fish in a saltwater environment presents a great many obstacles, but this is more than a job to me - its a considerable part of my life.

Indeed the first challenge I face is to get the customer interested in the fishing, the possibilities, the experiences and the environments that Ireland has to offer, then I need to ensure him of my own experience, the service and my ability to guide him professionally and safely.

Getting people to travel to this country to experience quality fishing is indeed a task in itself. What is it that a paying client desires, what makes him decide to travel to Ireland to fish?

Why would you travel to a country to experience guided fishing? What would your wishes be?

There are of course any number of reasons and desires – but this is only stage one of a list.

As I head into a busy new year I am presented with new challenges, ones that didn’t exist before – and like many things in this job they are beyond my control. These too will be met, in the same way that I can deal with tough weather, temperamental fish, wind, rain, cold, sun, clouds, barometric pressure, the newest fly or lure……...

Life

New kid on the block

Looks like I have some competition – William my younger brother caught his first bass on a lure today – its gonna be a long summer of texts and mobiled fotos!

Wexford Biodiversity - Bass fishing protection

You may remember a post I made some time back in relation to Wexfords Biodiversity management - HERE

Wexford County Council wanted the views of all members of the community to help plan how the biodiversity resource of our County was to be protected and managed over the next five years. They invited submissions from the public

Submissions were made to Wexford Co.Council in the last few weeks

TOTAL 99 received - of that TOTAL 75 were in relation to the continued protection of the Bass fishery

75% of total submissions received were concerned about conservation, protection and the re-opening of the commercial Bass fishery. This has proved to be a real heads up for those involved in environmental management and protection.

There may be avenues and ways to further integrate the fishery into the biodiversity protection and management plan in a stonger more embedded fashion

Congratulations to everyone concerned in many many ways

Follow me follow you

Tried today for a short while for some seatrout - fishing the #6 and a Rio streamer tip with a 10'-0" leader - flies thrown were juletrae, gadget, sunken lure, grey frede, and some white streamers - many many fish following but none taken - an incredible spring afternoon of mist sunshine and geese!

Vision

Would'nt it be great if we had the commitment to do something similar - I mean lets face it, what are we going to do with the fish that we have 'protected' for the past twenty years that every body wants a piece of?

1. Could we realise the recreational potential of the fishery?
2. Could we create employment and contibute to the socio economic structure sustainably?
3. Could we grow up, act maturely and begin to believe the fishery is world class?
4. Could we just stop ticking boxes whilst thinking that we are doing something?
5. Could we realise what is actually happening is as usual, very little?
6. Can we do anything for ourselves, whilst others exploit the potential?

Happy St Patricks Day

Seatrout time comes round again…..

Its that mad time of year again when I go fishing for seatrout in the sea. This time I’m going to do some proper work on the fly and hopefully with some luck achieve something worthwhile –its never been easy though take a look at these from some time back!

I’ve changed my lines to the Guideline coastal slow intermediate #6 which is aimed at fly fishers targeting Seatrout, Bass and other species requiring a stealthy approach and long, accurate casts. The low-profile head has a length of 10,5 meters and transfers into a floating running line that makes up the rest of this 32 meter long WF line. Its built on a DC core hence it will detect the tiniest of pulls from any shy fish.

The sink rate is 1,25 cm/sec. making it ideal for fishing just under the surface, even at a relatively slow retrieve.

FLY ZONE

Rod: A.Jensen 8’-0” #6 seatrout specialist

Line: Guideline coastal slow inter #6

Reel: Vision XLA – # 6/7

Leader: Hand built tapered – 10’-0” Maxima Chameleon and Rio fluoroflex tippet

A trout from the sea VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Spring arrives

Spring 2011 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

‘Dead loss for the economy’ is top download

Resources used in last 30 days		Reads	D/Load
Dead Loss for the economy		1,259	322
Bass Fishing Plan 2011		901	225
Bass Fishing Resources - Notes and observations		96	92
Flyer Costs Total		75	23
Fly Fishing Tactics For Bigger Bass - P3		64	37
Fly Fishing Tactics for Bigger Bass - P1		52	19
Fly Fishing Tactics For Bigger Bass - P2		49	18
Fly fishing Tactics For Bigger Bass - P4		44	17
Fly Fishing Tactics for Bigger Bass - P5		42	14
001 January Fly Tactics for Bigger Bass		39	6
Bass Fishing Economic Benefits		39	9
The Marine Institute Bass Paper		34	31
Guides Diary May		29	14
Tropical Saltwater Fly Fishing Workshop		25	19
Guide’s Diary December		25	24
Bass Fishing Services Ireland		25	24
Sea Bass Proposal		24	10
Probassfisher E-Zine Jan-Feb 2010		23	12
Guides Diary March		23	23
Bass Fishing Open Week		22	22
Totals		2,890	471

These numbers represent what people are reading from the Available Downloads Section on Probassfisher during the last 30 days.

The conservation post 'Dead loss for the economy' includes a downloadable poster from the Irish Bass group – nearly 1300 people have read the poster from within Scribd and 322 have taken the option to download it since February 12th.

Since the post was made in February 3rd on average 43 people per day read the post over the last 30 days - We can do something

The best of the best

In anticipation of 2011 and a busy season ahead I still continue to believe in Andy Elliot’s flies and our ability to work together. Being able to customise style, shape and colour almost at will and to continuously adapt the patterns for a winning edge they are in my opinion

		Simply the best VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

February weather summary

After the extreme low temperatures of early winter caused by an Arctic airstream over Ireland, Atlantic weather patterns dominated during February, resulting in much milder and wetter conditions across the country. Deep depressions also brought strong winds at times, particularly early in the month.

It was the warmest February for between nine and 13 years almost everywhere, with mean air temperatures for the month around two degrees higher than normal. There were only between three and seven days with air frost at most inland stations, compared with the normal number for February of between five and nine, and where frost did occur it was mostly slight.

Monthly rainfall totals were above normal everywhere and were well above normal in parts of the west and midlands, where it was the wettest February since 2002 at some stations and the wettest since 1997 at Claremorris. The heaviest daily falls were measured between the 3rd and 9th, with 5-day totals of over 100mm between the 3rd and 7th in places; falls of snow were recorded in northern areas on the 6th/7th. There were between 15 and 22 wetdays during the month at most stations (days with 1mm or more rainfall), higher than the normal range for February of between 11 and 16 wetdays.

Despite a dull start to the month, sunshine totals were above normal almost everywhere, with very sunny conditions developing between the 26th and 28th
source met eireann

Questions answered

A lot of people asked me many questions about the fishing at Andros whilst at the Hooked live show - over the next few days – I’ll post some of the answers for you. If you are interested in experiencing some of the best bonefishing in the world please don’t hesitate to mail.

Andros Island

Andros Island is the southwest-most island in the Bahamas, and the biggest island in the Bahamas, and the least densely populated in the Bahamas. It’s a big place without a lot of people.

Its called an island, but Andros is actually a collection of a whole bunch of islands. The tidal systems on Andros are really complicated, with countless ‘creeks’ that flow through the island.

Right near the middle of Andros are three major waterways that cut the island into its major pieces – these are known as the Bights.

The Bights

The North Bight, the Middle Bight and the South Bight are giant saltwater openings in the middle of Andros, and they split the island up into its major parts (which also happen to be its administrative districts). The whole of Andros Island north of the North Bight is called, appropriately, North Andros. Between the North Bight and the Middle Bight are a whole bunch of smaller Cays. Between the Middle Bight and the South Bight is Mangrove Cay. And the area south of the South Bight is, you guessed it, is where I have fished – South Andros.

South Andros Island

South Andros is even less developed than the rest of Andros. Somewhere in the neighbourhood of 800 people live in a handful of settlements, spread almost entirely along the east coast of the island – places like Congo Town (where the airport is located), Kemp’s Bay and Mars Bay (the southern end of the road).

Slowly

Slowly coming out of the mire, simply too much to do - beginning to think of Denmark, a whilst away yet but no harm in dreaming of spring days in pleasant environments.

Spring flies - not a one trip pony

The Beach Comber from Richard Strolis on Vimeo.