The Wexford coast

The water within thirtyards

Coastal Blog

The longer writing — bass fishing on the Irish coast, and the coast itself — and some pieces from the book for you. The twelve I’d stand over are on The coast; everything else is in the archive.

Short notes from the shore are on TideLines; the photographs are on Seeing.


  • Rigging up

    Rigging up

    Since August most of my free time has gone into this site rather than onto the page. This is an account of what I’ve done, why, and where it goes…

  • Hurdy Gurdy

    Hurdy Gurdy

    For the thrill of it.

  • Forlorn fly

    Forlorn fly

    White deceiver

  • Influences

    Influences

    The elastic stretches on a northerly and snaps on a southwesterly. Forty years believing the fishing was the snap, and it never was.

  • Eclipse

    Eclipse

    Nearly gone now and still not dark

  • Days like these

    Days like these

    We had fished the fly early that morning, from the shore. By the time we came to the point the tide was rising, and the point was doing what a…

  • Submission

    Submission

    Ireland’s National Nature Restoration Plan is due on 1 September 2026. This is the submission I made to it — a case for treating the recreational sea bass fishery as…

  • Destiny

    Destiny

    — after Krzysztof Kieślowski

  • Lady’s Island Lake

    Lady’s Island Lake

    An important open public meeting will be held at 7pm on Nov 17 at Lady’s Island Community Centre on nitrate pollution. An Taisce’s Head of Advocacy & freshwater expert, Dr…

  • Greed again

    Greed again

  • Lighthouse

    Lighthouse

  • Divine Deep

    Divine Deep

    — after John Moriarty, Turtle Was Gone a Long Time