Ireland on the Fly

He’s The Scientific Angler on YouTube whose videos of Corrib, Arrow and Sheelin show brown trout fishing in Ireland at its best, but what’s also great about Ronan McWilliams’ fly fishing videos is his honesty.

He’s not afraid to say when he’s blanked and when he’s found it tough – authenticity as he says is what it’s all about.

Ronan also tells us about the mystique of the Blue Stacks in Donegal and why he loves nothing better than getting away from it all fishing on remote hill loughs. For more from Ronan, visit his channel at https://www.youtube.com/@thescientificangler.

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Keep up to date and get regular updates on https://Instagram.com/IrelandontheFly.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.irelandonthefly.com

Education about and local engagement with rivers and water catchments are vital for empowering communities, kids and parents to be custodians of their local environments and one group that has been doing fantastic work in this area since the 1990s has been Streamscapes.

It came about after Paul Kearney and Mark Boyden set up the Coomhola Salmon Trust in West Cork in 1989 and evolved then into Streamscapes, working with local communities and schools in the area of aquatic and biodiversity education.

Mark joins us on this week’s episode to tell us more about the work that they do, the importance of empowering local communities and how it can help with the next generation in realising the importance of their environment and river catchments near them.

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Images thanks to Streamscapes.ie and for more information visit Streamscapes.ie

Irish Youth Fly Fishing Team Fundraising Raffle

We wanted to also mention the Irish Youth Fly Fishing Team Fundraising Raffle with prizes of a lake boat, fly rods, engine, hotel stays, angling vouchers all up for grabs.

Tickets are €50 each and limited to just 500 and all proceeds go towards the youth team costs for attending the World Youth Fly Fishing Championships in the USA later this year, so all for a great cause and tickets are on sale now from Frank Dempsey on 087 2351830 or email [email protected]. The draw takes place on June 21st.

Keep up to date and get regular updates on https://Instagram.com/IrelandontheFly.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.irelandonthefly.com

George McGrath is well known to listeners of the Ireland on the Fly podcast, a friend of the show he has joined us on numerous occasions. If you have listened to him before you will no doubt be aware that he and Tom Doc will at times, break out into speaking Irish. George has a great love for the Irish language and is a fluent speaker and Tom, hailing from Joyce Country, is fluent as well.

It was with this in mind that we decided to record a bonus episode during Seachtain na Gaeilge last week. This is a week where the Irish language is promoted throughout the country.

Tom interviewed George and the whole episode is in Irish. It is about George’s background in fishing and his life on his beloved River Suir.

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For those listeners who only have a little Irish here are a few pointers to help you along and here is what is discussed in the interview in this order:

- Where George got his Irish, neighbour from Connemara, evening meetings

- Where George hails from

- How he started in fishing, eels and then on to trout, his first fly rod, the polar opposite of a travel rod. Thumbing and travelling to the fishing. An unusual lift from a blind man

- Pollution problems and the environment

- His YouTube Channel and why he does less hunting, once again the problems in the environment. Swimming against the tide

- Opening day 2025, Euro Nymphing (The Lob) and streamer fishing. He talks of some of the big streamers.

- Salmon on the river. His biggest trout, no catch and release when he was growing up, fast food

Keep up to date and get regular updates on https://Instagram.com/IrelandontheFly.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.irelandonthefly.com

This week we’re joined by Evo Smyth, originally from Latvia, but living and fly fishing in the Irish midlands for the last twenty years.

Although only taking up fly tying ten years ago, Evo quickly made a name for himself as a fly tyer of some skill and his flies have been in demand around the country.

Evo tell us about his fly fishing and fly tying journey and has some really helpful and insightful advice for anyone looking to improve their own fly tying skills.

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Keep up to date and get regular updates on https://Instagram.com/IrelandontheFly.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.irelandonthefly.com

Spring is in the air and it feels like the season is finally starting to click into gear and for many salmon anglers you’ll be thinking of trips to book and plans to make.

But one of the big issues affecting wild salmon and sea trout numbers is the presence of salmon farms in some of the most pristine locations around our Atlantic coast.

The issue of salmon farming is something we continually cover on this podcast and for this week’s episode we catch up with John Murphy from Salmon Watch Ireland to find out about updated legislation that means salmon farms are having to renew their licences.

This also means it’s a time for action and opposition to these renewal applications and John Murphy tells us what can be done to counter the increasing threat of salmon farms to the environment and our wild fish.

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To find out more go to: www.salmonwatchireland.ie

Keep up to date and get regular updates on https://Instagram.com/IrelandontheFly.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.irelandonthefly.com

This week we’re finding out about a fly fishing club that bucks the trend and continues to grow its membership in the face of declining interest in the sport.

Kilbride Anglers Club has long been an innovative and forward thinking club since it was first founded in 1940 and its chairman Martin Kearney joins us on this week’s episode to tell us how the club expanded beyond its Liffey waters to the Meath Blackwater as well as having 14 boats around the lakes of Ireland.

But it was a pollution incident on the Blackwater twenty years ago that forced the club into restoration and expanding beyond just its rivers.

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Images: https://kilbrideanglersclub.com/

Keep up to date and get regular updates on https://Instagram.com/IrelandontheFly.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.irelandonthefly.com

This week it’s a fly tying book club special with Barry Ord Clarke aka The Feather Bender.

Barry’s new book, Advanced Fly Tying Techniques has just been released and is a must-read for anyone looking to develop their fly tying skills further.

We spoke to Barry about his incredible fly tying career, his hugely successful YouTube channel and his unusual introduction to learning to tie flies.

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https://www.thefeatherbender.com/

https://www.youtube.com/@Thefeatherbender

Keep up to date with all the latest Ireland on the Fly and get regular updates on https://Instagram.com/IrelandontheFly.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.irelandonthefly.com

It’s a first for us I believe on this week’s episode as we speak to Ulster man Willie Holmes from the fishing shop he manages by the Ch’illiwack river outside Vancouver in British Columbia in Canada.

Willie was originally a building contractor who then set up and ran the well known Moorbrook trout fishery in Coleraine before making the leap and moving to Vancouver full time where he now gets to fly fish for incredible steelhead and Pacific salmon.

Willie tells us about his journey and why he now calls British Columbia home.

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You can also view a live feed of the Vedder/Ch'illiwack river that runs by the fishing shop at:https://www.pacificrivers.com/camera/Keep up to date and get regular updates on https://Instagram.com/IrelandontheFly.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.irelandonthefly.com

While we’re into February and slowly the season is beginning to come to life, you may not have much of a chance to wet a line in the coming weeks so have you thought about building your own fly rod?

Brian Martin is a Fermanagh angler based in Galway who last year set himself the goal of doing just that and as he explains on this week’s Ireland on the Fly, it’s actually not that difficult and he encourages any fly angler to give it a try.

If you’ve been dreaming of a specific rod for your own fly fishing needs, then maybe you won’t have to shell out a fortune for a branded one and could actually build one yourself.

Plus, Brian also tells us about his love of dry fly fishing and the incredible migratory lake brown trout that he targets during the summer months.

Listen & follow on Apple or Spotify:

Keep up to date and get regular updates on https://Instagram.com/IrelandontheFly.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.irelandonthefly.com

You may have seen the report recently about a tagged salmon that was detected in the Erriff and was subsequently discovered to have travelled nearly 2,500km from south west Greenland.

It’s incredible and direct evidence showing the journey that the Atlantic salmon has to endure to spawn in our rivers and so to find out more we spoke to the IFI’s Glen Wightman who told us about the discovery and what it means for our understanding of the salmon’s life.

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Here’s a visual of the distance travelled by the salmon from south west Greenland to the Erriff:

The full story from the IFI including the map of the salmon's journey is at:https://www.fisheriesireland.ie/news/press-releases/ifi-picks-up-trail-of-salmon-that-swam-from-greenland-back-to-mayo-0

Keep up to date with all the latest Ireland on the Fly on https://Instagram.com/IrelandontheFly.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.irelandonthefly.com