I felt it was going to happen way back around the 18th November and to a large extent it did and is still. Its still out there. I had planned to work out an article yesterday and today for Fly Fishing & Fly Tying w
ith David. Unfortunately the real world is getting in the way a lot at the moment and the wolves have to be kept from the door so today was a no and we didn’t complete the article.
Speaking of doors the fly I am fishing with at the moment is, I feel, about to open one door another bit, don’t get me wrong there’s nothing revolutionary about it and after all there is nothing new in fly fishing, but what I could do with it yesterday just enhanced another aspect of bass on the fly VERY successfully. More of this later.
Thanks to David for the support, craic, and general good time! We saw fish hunt, we saw fish follow, we had hits and we had misses and we had long periods of inactivity. We didn’t have any big fish – but would I rather be anywhere else than where I was yesterday morning and afternoon – No I don’t think so.
Its not too often you can get these conditions running into early December on the Wexford coast
AND There’s another chance this week yet and under the current timings I think I’m going to have to try and take it. More juggling and out come the bigger flies, shorter leaders and the #9 lines.
I think I’ll stay on home ground though and fingers crossed – but its going to be exciting and I cant wait.
Its the start of a new promise – more fly fishing and time for Jim Hendrick for a while.
England
“The first sale value of ALL commercial landings into England [Sea Angling 2012 is ONLY about England] is only £164 million and that includes a wide range of species such as lobsters, cockles, monkfish, lemon sole, hake that are of no direct interest to recreational anglers. If from this list you include only the species of interest to both commercial fishing and anglers alike, you are left with commercial landings worth just £35 million at market in 2012.
So those fishery resources upon which the recreational angling sector across England are dependent, and which drive £2 billion worth of expenditure, are ONLY WORTH £35 million to commercial fishing! Yes, that’s right! First sale landings value – what the fishermen receive – is less than 2% of what sea anglers put into the economy.” –John Morgan UK Bass
For an extensive review of the UK Report jump to this link HERE
________________________________________________________________
Ireland.
The Minister of State with Responsibility for Natural Resources, Fergus O’ Dowd T.D. today warmly welcomed the findings of a new national economic study which has revealed for the first time that angling and angling tourism in Ireland is generating a dividend in excess of €0.75 billion within the Irish economy every year.
The study, commissioned by Inland Fisheries Ireland, shows direct spending on angling in Ireland amounted to €555 million in 2012, with indirect spending worth an additional €200 million and totalling €755 million. Recreational angling was also found to directly support 10,000 existing Irish jobs, many of which are located in the most peripheral and rural parts of the Irish countryside and along our coastline.
For an extensive review of the Irish Report jump to this link HERE
The report notes
- There is evidence of a decline in recreational angling participation levels in recent years
- Decline in participation attributed to a range of factors including:
- Economic recession
- Poor weather
- Quality of fishing
- Illegal practices
________________________________________________________________
Jim Levison has been photographing the 
outdoors for the past twenty years. For the last eleven years Jim has been guiding saltwater fly anglers off the fabled waters of Montauk Point, New York, in search of striped bass, blue fish and false albacore. Jim spends about one hundred days a year on his home waters in the Northeast constantly photographing new images for his stock portfolio.
Read the interview HERE at FlyDreamers
AFTER TEN YEARS
Here’s what I love about guiding, as in guiding as a sustainable responsible business
- It is very difficult and at times very complex
- It is tough, very tough – it really is, the toughest thing I’ve ever done
- It very often has very little to do with fishing
- During a guided day a person will, very often, chat about themselves, the time they have, the things they do, their lives and complexities, the people and the things they deal with on a day by day basis
- Very often at the end of a guided day a person will tend to want to deal with some of those things differently
- People in a guiding environment are very interesting
- It very often has everything to do with fishing
After ten years of working as a bass fishing guide blogging and writing about some of those experiences I have developed a desire to move on from the love of trying to perfect the actual guiding process. This has, over the years, become a slight obsession, and after any number of experiences and a number of qualifications, indeed years of hard work, I have it where I want it, just about. I have it distilled!
Because I am ‘over’ trying to determine and dig out and create the best process of doing it and making it happen I surely know it enough now to forget about it, to stop thinking about it and yet still be able adapt and change it as is necessary, seek to reinvent it appropriately to circumstances– I’ve earned that. That is my reward and I am doing that. I am a good bass fishing guide.
I’ve spent enough time on trying to perceive clarity, to understand the meaning of what it is to bass fish in Ireland as a guide and the wider perception and often misconception of what bass guiding is about. This in itself means I no longer seek to try to understand the frequently expressed opinions and ‘definitions’, the ‘functions’ the ‘modern angling requirements’ of the bass angler. I know what these really are, most of them are really simple.
These opinions, wherever they exist, are done too often, done for the sake of supposedly encouraging valuable dialogue, but in reality are likely done for self serving debate and congratulatory ego snacks, even done for plain old look at me and what I can do.
‘A recent blog documenting the experience of one East London Tesco customer on going viral, prompted the company’s chairman to give his first ever media interview in response. The tumblr account was started two weeks ago and tells a story of store alarms going off through the night, empty shelves, cluttered aisles and absent staff – all illustrated with comically disastrous photos.
Normally a champion of social media customer service, Tesco reacted quickly and openly stated their in-store ops weren’t up to scratch. Richard Broadbent went so far as to tell The Sunday Times that, in a Digital age, having a good product is no longer enough:
“The company that provides the best relationship with the customer will win – not through product, but through the best experience.”
His sentiments are not unlike those expressed by Michael O’Leary in his recent customer service U-turn. A long-time proponent of product over service, he announced in September that Ryanair is making steps towards improving the user experience of their website.
The real difference arises in customer experience.’ – DMI
At first blush, a sport that measures success by ripping a creature from its environment, putting it in fear for its life, and sometimes taking that life would seem to have more to do with survival of the fittest than more soulful notions such as ethics and principles. But there is a lot of right and wrong in fly fishing, and the right carries over into much else that humans have the choice of doing rightly or wrongly.
Peter Kaminksy – The flyfisherman’s guide to the meaning of life
THIRTYARDS 
You must be logged in to post a comment.