Ireland on the Fly

It might be the off-season for many of us, but have you considered grayling fishing in the UK at this time of year?

Known as the Lady of the Stream, the grayling are best fished for in winter time and Mark Driver, one half of Piscari Fly, has plenty of experience fishing for them in Wales in the winter months and he joins us on this week’s Ireland on the Fly to give us the ins and outs of where and how to catch grayling on the fly.

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

We’ve already released our river trout and salmon reviews of the season so now it’s time for this week's Ireland on the Fly episode focusing on Corrib, Sheelin, Melvin, Arrow and other loughs.

We spoke to Eamonn Ross and Mike Keady to find out how the fishing went throughout the season and what key learnings there were from the difficult conditions at times during the year.

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

It's time for our salmon review of the season and who better to talk to than one of the most knowledgeable salmon anglers we know, Paddy McDonnell.

Paddy gives us an excellent run through of the season on the Moy, as well as the Owenduff, Owenmore and Carraghmore, plus we get into seal predation, coping with the conditions, the place and importance of the salmon in Irish culture and the vexed question of hatcheries – to hatch or not to hatch.

Plus, this week we’re linking up with the Conservation and Science Podcast by Tommy Serafinski of TommysOutdoors.com which is focused on hunting, the outdoors and conservation that we thought might be of interest to the Ireland on the Fly listeners, so we spoke to Tommy to find out more about his show.

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

We’ve got the first of our season review episodes this week and we’re focusing on river brown trout with River Nore guide, Dan O’Neill, who gives us the lowdown on his local river as well as those nearby including the Kings and the Suir.  

Dan will be telling us about conditions throughout the year, hatches and of course some of the fish highlights as well….

Thanks also to everyone who entered the competition for tickets to the Irish Fly Fair, the answer was Fermanagh as to what county the event is being held in and the winner was Mark Dunne.

Stay tuned over the next few weeks when we will have our salmon and loughs trout season review episodes as well.

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

We’re into October, the nights are closing in, and for some of you, pike fishing awaits, or evenings fly tying at the vice.

But the off season also means the Irish Fly Fair in November and this week’s guest is Darryl Mooney who tells us about his involvement as the fly manager and some of the incredible fly tyers who will be jetting in from around the world.

And we have two tickets to give away to the event – just listen to the question we ask about the fair during the show and email your answer to [email protected].

Plus Darryl tells us about an incredible trip to Bosnia for grayling that he had this summer and with his years of being involved in the fly fishing tackle trade, he tells us why we maybe need to be looking more towards the carp industry for innovation and insights.

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

It was very saddening to hear the news that John Gierach, the world famous and beloved fly fishing writer, has passed away at the age of 78.

He was a huge inspiration to us here on Ireland on the Fly for his books, personality, style and approach to fly fishing as well as life.  There was much we could all learn from him.

And so, in honour of the late, great John Gierach, we remember him with a repost of an interview we did with John in April 2023 when his last book, All the Time in the World, was released.

John explained why he saw himself as a writer first and angler second, discussed the hard work and process behind his writing success, which began with Trout Bum in 1986, and he also delved into why he headed west to Colorado to begin a life lived based solely around fly fishing.

All the Time in the World was a poignant title, with John explaining how he came to choose it when remembering a fly fishing friend who had passed away.  Little did we think that just 18 months later, John Gierach too would pass on to the eternal river.

“Later in life,” he wrote. “The death of a friend is no longer unbelievable because you’ve learned about mortality the hard way, but that doesn’t make the news land any easier.”

John Gierach, 1946-2024, ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam.

So, that’s pretty much it for the season for brown trout, sea trout and salmon fly anglers.  Currane, Sheelin and a few other lakes are still open until October 12th but for the vast majority of you the rods are being put away for the winter.

Over the coming weeks we’ll be reviewing how the season went on the rivers and loughs around Ireland for salmon and brown trout so stay tuned for those episodes…

But this week we catch up with a salmon angler who moved over from England just three years ago and discovered salmon fishing that he is in thrall to.  You might have seen some of George Kavanagh’s incredible images from the Suir on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/george.kavanagh.58) and it was no surprise to learn that George is a commercial photographer who has worked all around the world on shoots.

Salmon fishing is his other passion though and the recent move to Ireland opened his eyes to the salmon fishing that was on his doorstep.  Sometimes it takes someone to come in from elsewhere to maybe make us appreciate what we actually have here……

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

This week we’re ‘following the fin’ with Louth native, Joe Quinn, who has been based in Mayo for the last fifty years, and is a well-known international angler who has fished for salmon, sea trout and his first love, brown trout.

We talk to Joe about brown trout on Lough Conn, night time sea trout fishing, why he ditched the salmon rod over twenty years ago and find out some special fishing stories from New Zealand.

Plus, he tells us how a GoPro retirement present to himself has seen him set up an ever-growing YouTube channel at:

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

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

We spoke last week about the disastrous escape of thousands of farmed salmon from Killary Harbour and the consequences that will have on the wild fish stocks on the west coast of Ireland.

Billy Smyth is chairperson and co-founder of Galway Bay Against Salmon Cages which has been instrumental in fighting the development of fish farms and raising awareness about their dangers in Irish waters and so for this week’s episode we spoke to Billy to get more information about the Killary Harbour escape and find out how campaigning and public protests really can have an influence and effect on the government and politicians.

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

For the last few weeks of the season we wanted to speak to fly anglers to find out how their season has gone.

You hear different stories about how conditions have been and how loughs and rivers have fared around the country, so what has it actually been like for anglers on the ground?

This week, James Barry, the fisheries scientist and highly accomplished all round fly fisherman, joins us with some of the highlights from his 2024 season, including a first trip to Patagonia, some incredible mayfly fishing on Sheelin, a consistent run of salmon over the summer months and now some autumn bass to look forward to….

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