Coastal guiding

‘I did not want to live out my life in the strenuous effort to hold a ghost world together. It was plain as the stars that time herself moved in grand tidal sweeps rather than the tick-tocks we suffocate within, and that I must reshape myself to fully inhabit the earth rather than dawdle in the sump of my foibles’.
Jim Harrison

Guiding Services

The service remains closed since end of 2014

Having worked as a bass fishing guide for twelve seasons, it was during and shortly after the close of season 2014 that I decided to stop. There were many reasons as to why I should, there were also many as to why I might not! The greatest job in the world, is at times, if you are genuinely guiding in all its true aspects, also one of the most challenging. It had at times become very difficult. It was with a large degree of sadness that I reached a decision to close the guiding services. This decision was based entirely on a deteriorating population of fish. Without this major part of the service I am not prepared to accept people as customers for guided bass fishing holidays – I can market my business all I like, but not without the security of the general population of fish in a multitude of different locations.

I fondly remember from those intense fantastic years, archived here, that when things are difficult in bass fishing it’s the smaller decisions, the unexpected surprises like the glimpses of fish in a wave, the perfect cast into a gale, the surface strike in pouring rain –moments of genuine satisfaction that make bass fishing the extraordinary pursuit that it is. Don’t ever be fooled into thinking it’s easy, it’s not! Yes, at times the sun shines and every fish is big and silver and each cast produces a miracle. These are the days that we fish for. Remember too – the coast of Wexford, indeed any coastal county in Ireland, can be a challenging experience but theses places have many different rewards many of which are hidden. More thoughts on guiding can be found here.

If you know how to look and if you like to wander and discover then you can find these rewards. This is what i had missed so much, the simple personal coastal fishing experience.

If you, like me, like to learn the hard way, the best way, through personal time invested and if you happen to like casting and swingin’ flies by the wind and waves at the coast – then perhaps I’ll see you out there, who knows!

Keep casting

Jim