Ireland on the Fly

It's time for our salmon review of the season and who better to talk to than one of the most knowledgeable salmon anglers we know, Paddy McDonnell.

Paddy gives us an excellent run through of the season on the Moy, as well as the Owenduff, Owenmore and Carraghmore, plus we get into seal predation, coping with the conditions, the place and importance of the salmon in Irish culture and the vexed question of hatcheries – to hatch or not to hatch.

Plus, this week we’re linking up with the Conservation and Science Podcast by Tommy Serafinski of TommysOutdoors.com which is focused on hunting, the outdoors and conservation that we thought might be of interest to the Ireland on the Fly listeners, so we spoke to Tommy to find out more about his show.

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River Suir angler George McGrath got in touch about an issue that has energised him and many of you in the Irish fly fishing community in recent weeks in relation to weed growth in Irish rivers and lakes that has been as bad in living memory.

So, what’s going on? Who’s responsible and more importantly, what can be done about it?

George McGrath joins us to tell us what he has seen and fisheries scientist, Ken Whelan, gives his scientific explanation as to what is most likely the reason, plus who to contact and what pro-active measures can be taken to ensure that this problem does not go unaddressed.

If you have seen similar weed growth and conditions that George McGrath has described, then get in touch with LAWaters.ie to start the investigation.

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To hear how the mayfly season went this year on Lough Sheelin, for this episode we spoke to Eamonn Ross from the Lough Sheelin Trout Protection Association.

Eamonn describes it as a tough time for him on the lake with the better days coming at the start of the mayfly period while it was hard to get the trout to move for the fly, he says, unless it was right on them.

Eamonn also talks about his memories of Sheelin from the 1980s to its current popularity and he explains why it is so special and magical for so many fly anglers, especially during the mayfly.

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With Tom recently returned from his busman’s holiday on the Orkneys, what better time to record another bucket list episode, this time focusing on the brown trout fishing to be had in the northern Scottish islands.

On this episode you’ll hear from some of the guides and boatmen that Tom met and fished with during his stay and relive the frenetic action that he saw on the lakes each day.

Plus, find out more about the landscape and history of the Orkneys and why Tom describes it as brown trout heaven.

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The mid-summer St Johns Eve celebrations at the end of June signalled the traditional start of the sea trout run in Ireland and if you’ve read Kingsmill Moore’s A Man May Fish you’ll get some idea of just how magical and plentiful the sea trout fishing in Connemara once was.

So for this latest episode of Ireland on the Fly, we wanted to find out more about that time, what made it so special and just why it all collapsed so dramatically in the late 1980s and we spoke to Joe Creane, a lifelong Connemara fly fisherman who is now a guide on Lough Inagh.

Keep up to date on IrelandontheFly.com as well as on Instagram.com/IrelandontheFly.