Dan O’Neill from Trout Fishing Ireland reports on the Southern County Fishing Resort Open Day…
It arrived and it passed like all event days. There is loads of anticipation and excitement then you find yourself in the middle of the event. The fishing resort is something special for sure. Fly fishing, coarse fishing, casting areas a clubhouse and manicured surroundings. I looked around at one point and watched Joe Conway, George Burdess, Nikita Greidans and Jack Keenahen working with the kids and parents and it was really something. I was quite busy on the casting side of the event and had some wonderful young casters that I will for sure see again soon.
The open day began with some casting and just basic overhead and a little roll casting. All the candidates done very well and really asked some good questions which are always welcome. It was great to see the kids and adults having fun learning. I learned quite a lot from the day too. I have been trying to help with getting kids involved in fly fishing, showing them the fun side of things and using analogies that they can relate to. Many of the people went to the bottom lake to fish for trout after the casting clinics to put their new skills to the test.
Anthony has now discovered pole fishing thanks to Jack Keenahen. Anthony had plenty of silvers and carp from the top lake, it was great to see him enjoying and adapting to a new technique. I must say Jack and Nikita really did a top job and interacted with all participants. It was great to have someone on the team that could relate to some of the kids that were there, being closer to their age really helped to build the connection. Joe and George tied flies with some of the kids and done a great job, The kids seemed really interested and tied quite a few flies to try on the lake. Both the lads also done a demo on the bottom lake on different retrieves, the videos are available to watch on my Tik Tok account. I made a couple of videos to help choose a fly rod weight, just a beginner analogy which I will be making more of in the coming weeks. The video is available on my Facebook, Instagram and Tik Tok. A big thanks to everyone for asking the time to come along to the event, we hope to see you at the next one.
As we all know times have changed and do change, of course if we don’t change with the times the times change us. I have been recently thinking of getting kids involved in fishing as a river, a river constantly changes and as it changes the fish move about and hold in different places,they hold here for reasons, perhaps feeding,socialising and other aspects, if i am fishing and in an area where the fish have moved from then what chance have i got of reaching them. I need to change my approach and / or where i am fishing. Maybe a few years ago the fish sat there or grouped up but times change. I am by no means the only person that sees this, many have got on the train, are well established and on the way, taking many with them on the journey.
My point here is social media covers quite a lot of different platforms, so it becomes the “river”, and the different platforms are the “fishing spots”, getting kids has become more challenging as there are more places for them to be and the movement from platform to platform has become live and can change in one week, keeping your finger on the pulse I find is key and expecting changes and embracing them could be the key to getting this to work. Many years ago, I remember if an event was on their wasn’t a lamp post or telephone box safe (God I sound old!!) or the local shop notice board would have some bits and pieces on it that I would read while having a mouthful of Fruit Salad sweets or Apple Jacks. Wow, times have really changed!!
An overview of the event after showed there was room for improvement as there always will be. The next event at Southern County is in the planning stages and will have even more fishing fun. In the coming weeks we will release the details of dates and full event description. We look forward to welcoming you to the event.
A big thanks to everyone for asking the time to come along to the event, we hope to see you at the next one.
Dan
Go fishing…
