Maddy Kelly of the Irish Ladies Flyfishing Association writes about Dorrie Gibbons who will represent Ireland on the Irish Trout Fly Fishing Association Senior Fly fishing Team later this Spring…
Dorrie Gibbons from Cong, Co. Mayo, is quite likely only the 6th woman in the 90+ year history of the Irish Trout Fly Fishing Association (ITFFA), to have qualified to represent Ireland. She is a member of the 2025 ITFFA Senior Fly Fishing Team and will take part in the ‘Spring International Match’ to be fished on Rutland Water in England on the 16th May competing against teams from England, Scotland and Wales.
Dorrie won her place on the Irish Team by coming 8th at the National Final held on Lough Lein Co Kerry last June with a bag of 3 fish for 0.613kg using a Cortland Camo line and finding success with Dabblers – 2 on the International Dabbler and one on a Green Dabbler.
Dorrie comes from a fishing background. Both her parents were keen anglers when she was a child, especially her late father Dick Gibbons (RIP) who represented Ireland on many occasions with the Irish Disabled Team. Her mother Mary, at 83 years age, still thoroughly enjoys the sport of angling and fishes the Cong River and Lough Corrib.
Dorrie started fishing at the early age of 5, being taught by her Dad on the beautiful Lough Corrib. She started to take it seriously in her 20’s and became well known on the Irish Competition scene taking part in the big competitions like the World Cup on Lough Mask, the Lough Melvin Open and the Lough Sheelin Rehabilitation Competition in October 2022 where she finished 3rd having caught a beautiful wild brown trout of 5.79lbs. She has achieved 9 caps with the Irish Ladies Flyfishing Association (ILFA) team including two gold medals in 2009 and 2013. Dorrie also won ‘Top Lady Angler’ at the Bob Church Classic on Rutland Water in 2010 catching 17 Trout.
Last year, to celebrate a special birthday she chose to fish Kylemore Lake, Connemara with two good friends Basil Shields, and Mary Miller. Dorrie marked the day well by landing her PB fish – a Salmon weighing 18lbs on a Silver Daddy fly. It took 25 minutes to land the magnificent fish.
Back in 2014 to celebrate an earlier milestone birthday, Dorrie organised a fly-fishing competition called ‘Cast a Line for Autism’ with all proceeds going to charities related to children with special needs.
Having received positive feedback from that first event, Dorrie aimed to run the competition to complete a 10-year period until her next milestone birthday fell but due to the Covid19 pandemic she lost two years of the event that had quickly become an annual fixture on the Irish fly fishing competition scene. However in those 8 years Dorrie managed to raise over €40,000 supporting The Galway Autism Partnership, a Sensory Garden (Cong National School), The Irish Guide Dogs, and St. Anthony’s Special School, Castlebar.
The ‘Cast a Line for Autism’ event will not be running in 2025, but she hopes to bring it back in 2026.
Pub quiz
Being a member of any Irish fishing team is expensive and to help with costs Dorrie is running a Pub Quiz to raise funds to support all 3 representatives from Connaught including Tommy Carroll from Westport and Pauric Walsh from Cornamona who have also qualified for the ITFFA team.
The Pub Quiz will take place at Lydon’s Lodge Hotel, Cong, on Friday 21st of March 2025, beginning at 8.30pm. If you are interested in participating in the quiz, contact Lydon’s Lodge Hotel Cong on (094) 9546053 or Dorrie on (087) 9383185 for details.
As well as being a good angler Dorrie is a talented artist and photographer and finds that her fly fishing and art help her relax especially when both are combined.
The Irish Ladies Flyfishing Association wishes Dorrie and the rest of the Irish team good luck and tight lines for both the Spring and Autumn Internationals.
Interested in joining ILFA or fishing for Ireland?
For any women interested in being part of a women’s team the Irish Ladies Flyfishing Association will be running trials throughout the year in order to select the team that will represent Ireland in 2026 when the International Ladies Flyfishing Championships will be held on Grafham Water in England. The first ILFA trial will be held in Leinster on Lough Lene on Sunday 6th April.
Anyone interested in the selection process of the ITFFA should contact a club that is affiliated to the ITFFA.
A series of days to introduce women to flyfishing will be run by several organisations in 2025 throughout Ireland including the ILFA, Reel Women based in Northern Ireland, FROG cic based in the NW and the Ulster Angling Federation based in Northern Ireland.
For more information about any of these introductory days or about the ILFA team trials or if you wish to join the ILFA or would like to support the ILFA please contact Maddy Kelly PRO, ILFA on [email protected]
We are on Facebook as Irish Ladies Flyfishing Association
