Bass Fishing Wexford & Ireland: April 2014

Wednesday 23 April 2014

Guiding–distilled for fun!

After ten years of working as a bass fishing guide blogging and writing about some of those experiences on this site I have developed a desire to move on from the love of trying to perfect the actual guiding process. This has, over the years, become a slight obsession, and after any number of experiences and time spent on qualifications, personal development, indeed years of hard work, I have it where I want it, just about.

Is this important? After all this personal effort, it is to me, I like experiences that are hard won, rewarding, and are worthwhile investing time in. Over the past ten years bass guiding by itself was never going to keep the wolves from the door here, so it was always necessary to have fall back. I’ve done this through education. Qualifications are not nearly as important as people make them out to be, that is of course until they are needed as a short positive answer to a twenty second question.

Does this make me a better guide? I know this, it has certainly helped, of that I have no doubt. It openly demonstrates a willingness to commit to improvement and development and tests that long effort with a recognised validity.

I’ve read enough bullshit on forums and blogs in relation to bass guiding and what its supposed to be. I’ve seen many guides come and many go. I’ve had both extremely positive and negative experiences with customers to know how good and bad the job can be. Its a job like any other and also a job not like any other. I’m very glad to say the positives I’ve experienced far outweigh the negatives.

Lots of people are guides in this country, guides that simply just get on with it on a day by day basis without demonstrating any self indulgent public torture.

They try daily with integrity to make themselves and their businesses better.

They often look inwards and they know well and understand the depth the reality and the rigours of the job, what it means to do it both properly, and to use their infinite local knowledge, ability and experiences to transcend the perceptions of what a fishing guide is or can be.

What a guide hears

10 Serious things about guiding

10 Not so serious things about guiding

No Crap

I have it distilled!

Bass fishing on the fly

A unique Irish saltwater event will take place in Cork harbour next week. Nine people from places as far away as the US, the UK and Denmark as well as a solid Irish representation will gather at the Bella Vista Hotel for three days.

The event is a series of workshops which can be used as either a primer or indeed an advanced lesson, depending on your requirements, in the three aspects of saltwater fly fishing in Ireland.

· Fly fishing
· Fly casting
· Fly tying

The emphasis whilst not strictly placed on bass fishing is firmly based in the techniques used to catch them on the fly in Ireland. This of course also means if you wanted to catch stripers in the USA the workshops will transfer. They will also transfer between species like sea trout.

It was never going to be easy to gather a group of nine people together at once in the one place at the one time. And in order to achieve the workshops across all disciplines was a task so this is testament to the keen interest that people have in saltwater fly fishing for bass and other species, and I am really delighted it has happened.

All of this was pitched at a very accessible cost.

Glenda Powell – World champion fly caster and fishing guide will deliver workshops on fly casting over the three days.

Brian Healy who has worked with me over the past few years and has years of experience in salt and freshwater guiding/fishing/tying will facilitate the tying workshops and I, Jim Hendrick will look after the guiding for bass and possibly sea trout too along the Cork coast.

The three days will no doubt be an experience of sharing and learning many different experiences and aspects of saltwater fly fishing not only in Ireland but from other countries also. Alan is just back from Denmark, Paul fishes Montana, Johann fishes Denmark, and John fishes Florida backcountry…

Working across three small Irish fishing business’s plus Kevin Murphy’s Bella Vista Hotel which has been synonymous with bass fishing for a long while, it represents a pooling of considerable talent experience and skills that can be demonstrated as one resource and of course this can have a positive local economic impact too over the three days.

Once again it’s a small example and testament to the interest that exists in bass fishing in this country and all the positive aspects that are associated with it.

This aspect is often too easily overlooked forgotten or simply for reasons too many to mention, not promoted in any way whatsoever. This applies not only to this event but to the angling fraternity as a whole.

Who knows what may come out of this three days, maybe next year another three day event or an extended event incorporating lure fishing as well.