To mark International Women’s Day, Inland Fisheries Ireland is celebrating some of Ireland’s well known women anglers.
Liz Dermott is Vice Captain of the Irish Ladies Fly Fishing Team and a retired nurse from Portadown. She is due to take her 4th cap for Ireland soon and holds three silver medals for fly fishing. Here she tells us how she got started fishing and where it’s taken her to date.
“My husband, Mark, had fly fished for years and when I had to retire following a spinal injury, we bought a caravan in Kesh, Co. Fermanagh. My husband would go out fishing on Lough Erne and I decided I would go out on the boat and read a book while he was at it!
So I went out with him and started to spot fish for him. One evening, we were having a BBQ and he set up the fly rod with a bit of wool at the end. He encouraged me to have a go and to my surprise, I was able to cast and it started from there.
In 2014, I was approached by the Irish Ladies Fly Fishing Team and invited to try out for the team. I went to the trial and the following year, I qualified on the subs team and made it onto the team in 2016. That year, we went to Scotland for the Home Internationals where we won a silver medal and in 2017 we again got a silver medal at the same championship on Lough Melvin. This year, I have qualified as Vice-Captain of the squad so I’ve come a long way in a short time!
I have also fished for the Irish Disabled Fly Fishing Team when in 2015 their captain had taken ill and they needed another angler. I hadn’t been fishing long by then but I gave it a go and I won the Top Irish Rod award and I got a silver medal there too.
After nursing for 30 years, I enjoy fishing as I get to be out in the open. When you’ve been in a very stressful job for years and raised three children, it’s lovely to get out and be with nature. All you have to think about is what fly you are going to put on and whether the fish is going to take. You just lose yourself in it, it’s very relaxing and you switch off.
Fishing is something that I can do together with my husband. We had planned on playing golf when we retired but because of my spinal injury I am very limited as to what I can do but fishing in the boat is the perfect sport for me. We go out fishing together on Lough Erne or Melvin and just chill and enjoy it – whoever loses makes the tea!
I think there are very few women fishing as it used to be seen as bad luck for a woman to be out on a boat years ago. It was frowned upon. But I have to say that when I joined Garrison Lough Melvin Anglers, everyone made me so welcome. I was so apprehensive about coming into a male dominated club but they’re great. On the 13th of April 2017, I caught the first salmon on the fly on Lough Melvin, the first ever lady to catch the first salmon!
I only took up fishing six years ago, at the age of 50. When you are a bit older, you lose your confidence a bit, you think people have been doing this from a young age and you don’t want to be a burden. I can fish now to a level that I can enjoy and you never want to lose that enjoyment from it.
I would encourage other women to get out onto the water. The Irish Ladies Fly Fishing Association holds Training Day for women anglers and Induction Days for novices. It’s great to see women joining and watching them progress to making the team. We need to promote the sport as much as possible.
Look us up on our website or social media!”
Favourite Fishing Destination: In Ireland, Lough Melvin, Co. Fermanagh and abroad, Llyn Clywedog Trout Fishery in Wales.
