Dan O’Neill fills us in on what the APGAI team have been up to over the past month.
This month we look back at the North West Angling Fair in Strabane and hear from some of the APGAI Ireland team who attended the event. Thinking of getting your first fly rod? Dan O’Neill speaks about our choices and what will help us choose. We also look at upcoming events that APGAI Ireland will be attending in the coming months.
The North West Angling Fair
Some of our members were at the North West Angling Fair giving demonstrations in casting, angling techniques and fly tying – there was even a special appearance from an Honorary APGAI Ireland member!
The North West Angling Fair took place in Strabane in Co. Tyrone, and the event was held in the fabulous Melvin Sports Complex on the banks of the River Mourne. This Angling Show has been running for a good number of years now and is well supported by the larger angling community. Over the weekend, there were lots of activities taking place, including casting and fishing demonstrations, fly casting, fly tying, bushcraft, trade stands, and lots more.
Throughout the show, there was an abundance of young anglers and fly tyers showing off their skills. It is fantastic to see such a depth of youth talent in this region who are into fly fishing and fly tying. Throughout the Show, be it on Fly Tyers Row or out on the casting green, you could see the future of angling is in good hands with the youths who presented themselves and their abilities over the weekend.
We in APGAI Ireland were also present as ever at the show. Our President Arthur Greenwood, our Secretary Trevor Greene, and our member Trevor Norris were very busy on Fly Tyers Row over the weekend, instructing and coaching in the art of fly dressing, while our casting instructors Pauline McClenaghan and Ian Gamble were putting the attendees through their paces out on the casting green.
We were also honoured to have one of Ireland’s most legendary fly-casting instructors, Honorary APGAI Member Patrick Trotter, joining us this year. Now retired, his special appearance was a privilege for us all. As a thank you for his incredible contribution to the angling community, Councillor Fergal Leonard of Derry City & Strabane District Council presented Patrick with a beautiful, engraved glass paperweight in recognition of this memorable occasion.
Our Chairman, Peter Driver, came up from Kilkenny, and he was hosting several workshops in Euro-Nymphing over the weekend. In the casting area, he explained the tackle and setups, following this by demonstrating the technique on the River Mourne itself. This was the first time that this approach to catching fish had been demonstrated at the North West Angling Show, and it went down well, with the demonstrations being well attended and lots of great feedback.
We would like to say a huge thanks to Derry City & Strabane District Council and all involved in hosting and organising this event. They are never easy to get over the line, and they take a tremendous amount of work. However, the weekend was a great success and was enjoyed by all who came along. Big congratulations to all the stallholders who make the event worthwhile, with some great bargains to be had! We would also like to thank our members who demonstrated over the weekend and flew the flag for APGAI Ireland. A final thanks to all the people who came along to the show, who watched, listened and asked questions during the demos. It’s your support and interest that makes it all worthwhile.
Basic set-ups
I am lucky enough to be working in the angling industry, guiding and teaching hundreds of people a year – how do these trips vary? When it comes to beginners, I speak quite a lot about the set-up. Equipment can be the biggest minefield and intimidating for beginners. I try to nail down the techniques each person would like to try. When we go on a trip, I take a couple of rods, and we try some different techniques to see what the person takes to and enjoys. I always find a person takes to a certain technique and it suits them. I then base my advice on this technique when advising on a set-up and equipment. This really narrows down the selection process. Most applications on the river where I fish (The River Nore) can be covered with a 9ft 5wt. I can switch from dry fly, dry dropper and wet fly with this rod weight, giving myself a little more choice and freedom to switch and “experiment”. There are what we call specialised rods or rod weights for specific techniques, but I am teaching mostly beginners, so the 9ft 5wt, or “vanilla” as we call it, is a great all-rounder. A line to match with a general-purpose taper is perfect. There are specialised tapers also, but a general-purpose weight forward line is what we beginners are after. With a fly reel, it’s quite important that it balances the set-up; it’s much more pleasurable to fish with a balanced set-up, and the rod performs how it should. The above is a basic guide for your first fly fishing set-up and it will help a little to break through parts of the minefield at least.
Now we come to the fishing part. What do we need to know as beginners? Rivercraft is a huge part of success, so what is rivercraft? Rivercraft is the skill and knowledge that we need to practice to understand the river and where the fish should be lying. Once we get good at this, it’s easier to know where to position ourselves in the water and where to present our flies. There is, of course, some more to it, but the above is for now enough to know why rivercraft is important. Where can we learn such though, and what do we take from our learnings? I have spent many hours peering over a bridge at brown trout in their feeding lanes, watching how they take a fly, watching them refuse a food particle and watching how they react to possible danger. When observing the trout from the bridge, I would look upstream of the fish and try to figure out why that fish is holding there. Sometimes, there will be a rock ahead of the fish or a weed bed, or it could be a branch that is causing a surface deflection – there is always a reason, so watch the fish and try to figure out why the fish has chosen to lie there. You will find that information will help you when you’re on the river, it will help you to spot features in the water and perhaps where the fish will lie in relation to where the feature is located. It’s not always easy to get out with the fly rod and go for a cast, but a part of rivercraft can be learned by just walking and watching while the fly rod is resting at home.
Hopefully, the above will help any of you who are getting ready to begin the fly-fishing journey.
Upcoming Events
The Irish Spring Angling Fair
This fantastic event is nearly upon us. Our APGAI Ireland team will be on hand for one-to-one tuition, kids’ casting and fly tying, demonstrations and much more. There is a new dedicated demo area where there will be talks, demos and more. Make sure to stop by and say hello to our APGAI Ireland team. The event is on the 3rd and 4th of May at Ardaire Springs, Mooncoin, Co. Kilkenny.
The Irish Fly Fair
Organised by APGAI Ireland’s Stevie Munn, this event is not to be missed. Some of our APGAI Ireland team will be there, so be sure to say hello. There will be a super line-up of tyers and casters, kids’ casting, kids’ fly tying, beginners’ casting, and tying demos. Our APGAI Ireland fly dressers will once again run the Junior Fly-Tying Competition, with great prizes to be won each day! It’s held in the Killyhevlin Hotel in Enniskillen and will be held this year on the 25th and 26th of October.
