Ireland on the Fly

This week we’re ‘following the fin’ with Louth native, Joe Quinn, who has been based in Mayo for the last fifty years, and is a well-known international angler who has fished for salmon, sea trout and his first love, brown trout. We talk to Joe about brown trout on Lough Conn, night time sea trout fishing, why he ditched the salmon rod over twenty years ago and find out some special fishing storie...

We spoke last week about the disastrous escape of thousands of farmed salmon from Killary Harbour and the consequences that will have on the wild fish stocks on the west coast of Ireland. Billy Smyth is chairperson and co-founder of Galway Bay Against Salmon Cages which has been instrumental in fighting the development of fish farms and raising awareness about their dangers in Irish waters and so...

For the last few weeks of the season we wanted to speak to fly anglers to find out how their season has gone. You hear different stories about how conditions have been and how loughs and rivers have fared around the country, so what has it actually been like for anglers on the ground? This week, it was great to chat once again to James Barry, the fisheries scientist and highly accomplished all rou...

It’s hard to believe but we’re into the final few weeks of the salmon and brown trout season and while you’re trying to fit in as much fishing as you can, for this week’s Ireland on the Fly we wanted to find out how some of the loughs are fishing for brown trout in September and we’re joined by Dominic Kerrigan, a fanatical fly angler who regularly fishes Melvin, Erne and Sheelin and he gives us h...

Glenda Powell, who is well known in Ireland and abroad as a fly casting instructor and guide on the river Blackwater joins us on this week’s Ireland on the Fly. In recent years Glenda has also been organising trips for salmon, sea trout and Arctic char to places such as Patagonia, Greenland and Iceland and having just spent two months in the land of fire and ice catching her personal best Icelandi...

This week  we speak to Judd Ruane, the well-known sea trout fishing guide on the Moy Estuary.  Judd talks to us about the incredible days he has had as well as some of the famous names that have been in his boat, plus you’ll also hear about 16 years on the road touring Ireland, the UK and America with a Glen Miller style big band. It’s fair to say that Judd has more than a few stories to tell abou...

The Costello & Fermoyle fishery in Connemara is one that evokes historic nostalgia mentioned as it was in Kingsmill Moore’s A Man May Fish as a favourite location of his for sea trout. The fishery comprises the Casla River and a series of lakes, including Glenicmurrin, Fermoyle, Clogher, and the Schoolhouse Loughs, set in beautiful scenery against the backdrop of the Twelve Pins mountains. Althoug...

This week we’re joined by the prolific angling writer, Chris McCully. Chris has been a regular contributor to Trout & Salmon magazine and in his spare time has written not just on fishing, but also English academic works as well as poetry. In Ireland though he’s probably best known for 'Nomads of the Tides: Fishing for Irish Sea Trout', which he wrote with Ken Whelan back in 2013 and it’s still a...

Joining us on this week’s show is Paul Molloy from Oughterard whose family has been steeped in Irish fly fishing for generations living and working by the shore of Lough Corrib. And as a kid growing up, Paul tells us of the mayfly market where they would be selling mayflies by the dozen and then as he got older how he got more and more into the fly tying side of things becoming an All Ireland Yout...

We’re nearly at the end of July and how has Ireland’s most prolific salmon river, the Moy, been doing in what’s been another difficult season? We wanted to find out if the grilse run had given any positivity to anglers this summer and so we decided to catch up with East Mayo Angler Garrett Ruigrok to find out more. Listen & follow on Apple or Spotify : Rate, review and follow the show to keep up t...

Mick O’Farrell is an Irish fly angler and is that rare breed who moved to the UK and subsequently established a high reputation for himself on the stillwaters in England in addition to his prowess in Ireland. He became well known for his book, ‘A Passion for Trout’ and could often be read in UK fly fishing publications discussing stillwater tactics and flies. With best intentions to retire to Irel...

For this week’s episode we’re focusing on salmon and the recent decision in Norway to close thirty-three of the country’s most prolific rivers in the southwest including the Gaula and Orkla. It was a decision that caught many unawares, including anglers who were on their way out to Norway and one such angler was Johnny Casey who we spoke to before on the podcast about his love of salmon fishing an...

You may not be into competition fishing but when the FIPS-Mouche World Championships are on surely you can’t help but wonder how the Irish team fared when pitting itself against the best in the world at fly fishing on rivers and lakes? This year the Worlds were held in the south of France where John Buckley, the Killarney angler, was the team captain, and while we might not be expected to medal go...

Stevie Munn is a well-known name in Irish and UK fly fishing circles as someone who has worked in the tackle trade, guided and instructed and also set up the Irish Fly Fair first in Galway before moving to Enniskillen. Stevie is a fanatical fly fisherman who will cast a fly for salmon, sea trout and brown trout – especially the beloved dollaghan trout of Lough Neagh which have included 20lbers in...

The Dodder is a unique and special river that flows through Dublin’s south city boundaries with salmon, sea trout and incredible brown trout in it – a fact not many capital cities can claim. But as an urban river it faces many, ongoing challenges and Mark McAndrew, who is on the committee of the Dodder Anglers Association and fishes the river practically every day during the season, joins us this...

The 2024 salmon season is well under way and we're waiting for the grilse run, but having spoken to anglers around the country it appears that numbers are still down and following a similar path to 2023. However, if you’ve been despondent and down in the dumps about the salmon, fear not, for this week’s guest, Sean McLaughlin, who is a salmon angler based outside Derry and a Loop Tackle ambassador...

Internationally renowned fishery scientist, Ken Whelan, issues a call to action on the latest episode of The Last Salmon. He says that ranching can and will work to help improve salmon numbers in relation to supporting a rod fishery for anglers and he explains to us the background to its successful development and implementation – albeit with caveats and cautions. Likening it to racehorse breeding...

It’s time for our second and final mayfly update from around the country and this week we’re hearing how Lough Sheelin and Lough Arrow fared with Eamonn Ross and Jackie Mahon.   Eamonn explains how the fishing was fantastic the first week the mayfly was up with some incredible fish being caught, but it’s been tougher since then. Meanwhile on Arrow, Jackie describes it as patchy, and similar to man...

This week’s episode is a fascinating look at the famous Castleconnell Fishery on the River Shannon in Limerick with Pat O’Connor who is chair of the Castleconnell River Association. It’s a fishery steeped in history when it was internationally renowned for its huge salmon in the 1800s to the early 1900s and it became a thriving centre for tackle development including the Castleconnell rod. But sin...

We’ve our first update of the mayfly season for this week’s show and Mike Keady joins us to tell us how Corrib has been fishing. The weather has been unsettled and cold which hasn’t helped things, Mike tells us, but he does expect it to pick up for the next 1-2 weeks so if you have the opportunity do try and make the most of it before it finishes up on Corrib. On Derg, Shane Creamer was out fishin...

The Owenmore Fishery has been in the news recently with the State buying up the river and lands that are situated on the Dingle peninsula in Kerry. So what does the future hold for the fishery and what is the fishing like on the river and lakes in one of Ireland’s most scenic locations? Frank Maunsell has been the fishery manager there for over a quarter of a century and he joins us on this week’s...

Rory’s.  It’s a famous name with a famous owner, Rory Harkin, of Rory’s Tackle Shop in Temple Bar in Dublin. But did you know it opened its doors in 1959 when there were just warehouses around the area and trout and salmon could be caught by the bucketful within Dublin’s environs? Rory Harkin may have passed on the running of the shop to his daughter Mary but he joins us this week to talk about hi...

This week we’re turning our attention to first editions of Irish angling books. The Ireland on the Fly Book Club is an important part of what we do here on the podcast and Muiris Huston, the medical contributor to the Irish times, is also a fly angler and fly fishing book collector and he joins us on the show to discuss the books everyone should have on their shelves. Listen & follow on Apple or S...

It might be hard to believe, but mayfly season is starting soon and it’s expected on Lough Derg from around April 20th onwards. This week’s guest is Shane Creamer from the Garrykennedy Angling Club and he gives us some great and honest insights into fishing Derg during mayfly and the rest of the season. Listen & follow on Apple or Spotify: Rate, review and follow the show to keep up to date with a...

This week we speak to Nicholas Grubb who grew up in south Tipperary beside the Suir and the Tar and he tells us about the incredible catches of fish that were to be had growing up. It’s a throwback to another age and his great grandfather Samuel also had a reported 62lber which would have been an Irish record but it was never measured or verified at the time. Nicholas also previously wrote an arti...