Dan O’Neill reports from the River Nore at Mouth Juliet…
During the week I met a man originally from Newcastle but living in New York for most of his life. A very competent angler taught by no other than Lefty Kreh. We had some great takes swinging wet flies.
Michael had a unique accent, it was a mix of Geordie and New York. Super fun with some of the words he used, no bad language of course!! Michael was a very competent caster which made me wonder where he learned or how he learned. When Michael looked at me and asked did I know the late Lefty Kreh I immediately said “Yes, I studied his casting for my APGAI exams”. Lefty had a very no nonsense way of teaching and simplified everything. He knew the level at which his students were very accurately which is a very important to maximise what your client gets from each lesson.
We began at the head of Georges Wall. Michael was on New Zealand style while I began with wet fly. On my 2nd or 3rd cast I had a nice take and landed a lovely little brown about 28-30cm. Michael was getting some takes but mostly small trout, so we swapped over. Funnily enough and it’s nothing to do with my skill level, I hit a brown about 30cm on the New Zealand style first cast. Michael looked and smiled and said “Don’t worry, it will happen for me at some point”. I am a little superstitious and believe good luck happens in threes, what would my three be.
Moving down the run Michael did indeed hit some nice trout of about 30cm so he was happy and enjoyed seeing some Irish brown trout. The pattern I was using was by Ciaran Reilly who gave me some patterns to try at the spring angling fair. They worked exceptionally well so thanks very much Ciaran. As we headed back up to the Manor House, we spoke of Michael’s angling journeys and some of mine. Wonderful day and wonderful company. Always wonderful to hear stories and in this case some of Lefty Kreh’s anecdotes.
Go Fishing…
