LAST CAST

I have had to change my angling life again, not a problem! This change was borne of circumstances beyond my control and beyond the parameters of how I felt I could run my bass angling guiding business.

The ‘valid’ number of bass have simply disappeared from the Wexford coast. 

Ten years of freedom to build something personally worthwhile were given to me by two people at the centre of my life. This  freedom was beyond value. Now I have time to contemplate the consequences and meaning of such a vast angling treasure. I was free to contemplate the rise of a tide over a location, free to rise from a warm bed at 02:00 hrs to bring people from around the world onto the coast to fish for bass, free to watch a breeze arrive across a mirrored sea. Free from the constraints of 9 to 5, time, mostly, had no consequence unless it was connected to tide or arrival or departure or season.

Now that I don’t have that same freedom my anticipation of being out on the coast to fish when I can is even more heightened, more valuable, more significant. Time cannot be wasted. I don’t regret not having the same freedom, I have been lucky beyond belief, worked hard, created luck,struggled, laughed, cried, failed, lost, learned, understood, witnessed and grew. I bring this with me now to my life, my family, my work and more than anything to my personal bass fishing.

The experience of having worked within that sense of freedom has made me aware that it is always there ready at any time that I might choose it again. Whenever I am ready, whenever the coast is right again!  I am waiting..

My main bass angling interests now lie in working slowly on Thirtyards over the next few years whilst developing some aspects of social media to support my visual interpretation of the unique Irish coastline. This will happen as I personally fish and sometimes perhaps work on small angling projects.

I will continue to guide for bass and seatrout fishing but only in a very limited fashion and mostly with fly fishing in mind. This decision has not been easy, but at this time there are simply too many reasons and aspects that currently exist in Irish bass fishing that make the change one that I am very happy to have made.

Thirtyards is a personal project. It is still largely a work in progress, a vehicle, a place, a companion perhaps. I anticipate Thirtyards coming slowly into existence over the latter half of season 2014 into 2015 and on-wards.

I have created Thirtyards largely as an accompaniment to a plan for a book. A book based in the bass fishing that I have encountered on the coast of Ireland whilst both fly and lure fishing. Thirtyards will also include a sense of some of my guiding days and the potential behind a service like saltwater guiding in Ireland. There’s no doubt that the many customer interactions, fishing days and magic moments, especially those of the last ten years self-employed and working as a full time bass fishing guide have been tremendous and at times beyond anything I could have ever imagined.

I want, now, over the next few years to put those experiences down before they disappear. You can already find some of these ramblings and extracts and perhaps the start of the coming together of the book here on the Coastal Notes page. You can also find the fishing thoughts of many other people on these pages.

Thirtyards is a place too where you can find limited unique bespoke guided saltwater bass fishing adventures on the coast of Ireland and details of my saltwater fly fishing workshops. It is ultimately about a planned attempt to create something but its also about time and place rather than distance cast or numbers caught or how to or the latest gear guide… at this time an unmeasured bass fishing universe exists inside my mind. I’m trying my best to get it out there!

I feel a huge sense of anticipation, largely because I’m excited by what might lie ahead, and there’s a lot of time and indeed work ahead, but also, I am challenged by ‘what content’ might want to find its way onto Thirtyards and also what I might choose to leave out for the book…

I am consciously taking my time.

Thanks for stopping byon the odd occasion and perhaps we’ll meet someday, who knows, it might be in the right place at the right time!

Regards, and keep casting – Jim

Leave no trace

MAGIC

COMMISSION IMPLEMENTING REGULATION (EU) 2015/111

26 January 2015

establishing measures to alleviate a serious threat to the conservation of the sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax) stock in the Celtic Sea, Channel, Irish Sea and southern North Sea

THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION,

Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,

Having regard to Regulation (EU) No 1380/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 December 2013 on the Common Fisheries Policy, amending Council Regulations (EC) No 1954/2003 and (EC) No 1224/2009 and repealing Council Regulations (EC) No 2371/2002 and (EC) No 639/2004 and Council Decision 2004/585/EC (1), and in particular Article 12(1) thereof,

Entry into force

This Regulation shall enter into force on the day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.

It shall apply until 30 April 2015.

This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.

Done at Brussels, 26 January 2015.

For the Commission

The President

Jean-Claude JUNCKER

Find me here from today

Revive quarterly

A Journey 2004 - 2014

 

Using various strategies to get your business and services ‘visible’ is beyond doubt essential. In todays world that definitely means using social media tools, websites, mobile friendly accessibility, and a strong reputable and credible online presence.

The use of ‘Feature’ articles in angling publications is one of those strategies that I adopted early in 2003 through the advice of David Byrne. The first International ‘Feature’ that effectively portrayed the potential of South Eastern Irelands bass fishing appeared in VoyagesdePeche in 2004 (here). Nico Jamin was the chief Journalist working with the magazine at the time and his photos feature in the article.

Julien La Journade the editor in chief of the magazine has a close and highly developed relationship with Irish angling promotion. A constant champion of many guides and services in this country Julien has done me many small promotional ‘unprompted favours’ over the past ten years. Subtle in context, a paragraph here a photograph there, just enough to keep things ticking over.

I have been very lucky with the journalists I have had the opportunity to work with over the past ten years. When I want to work with somebody I’ve already made the decision on the basis that I know that their objectives are based simply in carefully promoting the angling, the local support services and of course the guiding as provided by Jim Hendrick. Here’s the kicker though, many angling journalists are interested in promoting themselves and their angling prowess in preference to either the fish the environment or the services. This is often achieved by being facilitated into positions of angling opportunities that they could have never ever dreamed of experiencing!

I have been careful and lucky too.

But I’m guessing now that this is always the case, there’s always a little bit of quid pro quo, and that’s fine until you find their friends are casually ‘guiding’ on places where you have worked for years to develop. Somehow the quid and the quo are not the same.

The something special about Julien LaJournade is probably in his passion, his depth of understanding of both what it means to be a genuine fishing guide whilst being aware of the impacts of local recreational angling and the associated risks of over development of any fishery in many environments. I have learned to believe that these are some of the characteristics of quality angling journalism.

My personal strategy with magazine features was to use many different International publications across many countries over time. Coupling this to reporters who viewed Wexford in the same way as Guinea Bissau, Gabon or Norway and that in these places were unique fishing possibilities available to you if you used a local fishing guide – simple, this is their job. I know how to do mine.

Julien returned to Ireland this year and we worked on an article for his magazine. We had an incredible week. Both tough and at times awe inspiring. I find it appropriate now as I change my life and my angling, again, that the magazine I started with in 2004 (as above), the first of its kind to visit South East Ireland and particularly Wexford,  is the one I close with for the time being.

So much has changed since then. The magic of technology and photography has moved so much that these photos here were taken on my mobile phone, unheard of in 2003! Some of these and more feature in the latest edition of  Voyagesdepeche.

Julien has completed 9 pages of an article about his latest experiences of Irish bass fishing on the wild coast of Ireland guided by Jim Hendrick.

Julien is a balanced writer, a great lure fisherman and someone who has inspired me never to get engaged in the online bullshit of expertise that’s so prevalent around bass fishing.

I believe that not everyone has agreed with what I did as a guide, I tried to do my job as best as I could and with as many like minded people as I could find. I’ve had incredible bass angling experiences and I have been lucky to have shared some of those times with great angling journalists. Journalists who have done bass fishing and Ireland proud.

Thanks to you all – Jim Hendrick