• On coastal waters flyfishing for bass

    ‘I had my existence. I was there.
    Me in my place and the place in me.’

    Seamus Heaney

  • Uncoding ALL LANDSCAPES

    The timeless waves, bright, sifting, broken glass, Came dazzling around, into the rocks, Came glinting, sifting from the Americas. – S.Heaney

  • From the reef to the kelp forest

    I thought the earth
    remembered me, she
    took me back so tenderly, arranging
    her dark skirts, her pockets
    full of lichens and seeds. I slept
    as never before, a stone
    on the riverbed, – M.Oliver

  • ACTIVELY PATIENT

    It don’t do you no nevermind to tell nobody nothing. – T.McGuane

  • TIME INVESTED

    A man is never lost at sea. – E.Hemingway

  • THE LONG REACH OF THE FLY

    The sea is the sea. The old man is an old man. The boy is a boy and the fish is a fish. The shark are all sharks no better and no worse. All the symbolism that people say is shit. What goes beyond is what you see beyond when you know. – E.Hemingway

  • With principles of least time

    Unfathomable Sea! whose waves are years,
    Ocean of Time, whose waters of deep woe
    Are brackish with the salt of human tears!
    Thou shoreless flood, which in thy ebb and flow
    Claspest the limits of mortality! – PB.Shelley

  • WHERE WHEN

    But that is not the question. What are we doing here, that is the question. And we are blessed in this, that we happen to know the answer. Yes, in the immense confusion one thing alone is clear. – S.Beckett

  • From Autumn Transition

    Life and death matters, yes. And the question of how to behave in this world, how to go in the face of everything. Time is short and the water is rising. – R.Carver

  • Through to Summer Threshold

    I know I’m a long way from greatness, but I am beginning to come at it in my own way. I can go through the basic motions pretty well, don’t rely quite as religiously on specific fly patterns as I once did, have worked out ways of compensating for some of my most egregious weaknesses and have come to count heavily on timing because it’s a hell of a lot easier to catch fish when the fish are biting. – J.Grierach

Holding out for the weather now we don’t have long more to wait, fingers crossed! I’m happy that the time has nearly come round at last, it seems like an age since last October when I made the first post regarding the workshops at Kilmore Quay. To say its been a difficult year is an understatement (poor health) and the fast approaching week of workshops puts a line in the sand for me. I… Read More

We have a vacancy on the second of our workshops as one of the attendees is required to be at sea for research purposes – this workshop is being held on the 6th 7th and 8th of October. All workshops cover the three disciplines of Fly Tying Fly Casting and Fly Fishing over three days with Gary Bell Andy Elliott and myself, more details can be found here . You will be joining… Read More

The time is fast approaching for our Autumn workshops. Some recent questions regarding what ‘I might need’ are answered below. If you happen to have any of these or indeed similar items please bring them to your workshop as I know people are fond of using their own gear. I am also of the mind that if this is completely new to you DO NOT buy any gear at all until after… Read More

There’s no doubt being able to catch them with the fly in places like this goes beyond compare – at times, especially in the beginning, the culmination of so many ‘worked at’ things can be so rare it’s both incredibly rewarding and new each time it happens. And then there’s always the element of surprise too!

Less than two months away and what was once a distant plan is shortly about to become a reality. There’s a certain sense of coming home with this project and having spoken to and organised a lot with Pat from Quay House today I am now very excited about the October saltwater fly-fishing workshops. Our week starts on Monday of October 03 through Wednesday with the 3-day workshop for the first group… Read More

‘In the beach flotsam there are often strays from the surface waters of the open ocean, reminders of the fact that most sea creatures are the prisoners of the particular water masses they inhabit. When tongues of their native waters, driven by winds or drawn by varying temperature or salinity patterns, stray into unaccustomed territory, this drifting life is carried involuntarily with them’. The Edge of the Sea – Rachel Carson