Irish Angler

GeneralFlyCoarseSeaTackle

Guide’s Diary

Wednesday June 17th

Preparations are made or a two-day bass shing workshop at SEAi. All notes are printed or eachattendee and the house is prepared, rom top tobottom everything is clean and tidy – beds made,paths swept, outside urniture ready, welcomebasket prepared. A ‘mobile’ library o shingmaterial – DVD’s, books, magazines – is movedto the house to provide reerence points, andcredibility in the shery in Wexord is enhanced when people read o SEAi rom the internationalpress. Te local restaurant is reserved or bothlunch and evening meals, to give us exibility around timings o tides. All the required shing gear is made ready and prepared to match the ow o the structureo the workshop. Fly lines, ies, hard baits, sotbaits, lure rods, lure reels, surace lures, jerk baits,knot diagrams, hooks and rigging are withinarm’s reach as we move through the sequencesdictated by the workshop. At around ve in theevening the rst people start to arrive and I show them to their rooms. At seven we have a shortintroductory session and then our evening mealand, you guessed it, a couple o pints!

Thursday June 18th

Te workshop kicks of at nine in the morning. We will have already talked a lot about ourexperiences and shared many stories and I willhave a good idea as regards where people are at with their bass shing. Te workshop is brokeninto two, three-hour sessions each day, withtheory in the morning and practical in theaternoon or evening. Te rst hal o Day One isspent discussing all o the inuences, movements,timings, and the habits o the species. Te secondhal is spent, depending whether it’s a y or lure workshop, on hard baits and all o their variousapplications and the best methods used to shthem correctly. Ten we do some shing and netuning o the techniques and then home or theevening meal.

Friday June 19th

Te second workshop, depending on ourplanning and tidal cycle, might begin with uson the water early in the morning re-applyingthe techniques and learning about sh handling,catch and release, location development, takinggood photographs and saety. Sot baits or sinkingy lines and all o their uses and applications arethe ocus o today. Maximum attention is paidto each guest as groups are kept small – there’salways a lot o craic as people are now much morecomortable and have got to know each other.Finally, it ends around evening time and I supply a CD o all photographs o the workshop to eachperson. Back up e-mail support is provided on anon-going basis.

testament o the ability o shing totranscend all walks o lie are the shingand angling reerences embedded inboth o James Joyce’s masterpieces. For me, June 16th is the opening o the bass season atera month o anticipation. It is also the week in which the rst international clients o the year will arrive at SEAi. Yes, I could encouragepeople to arrive beore May15th, but it’s tooearly in the season on the Wexord coast orany stability in the weather systems and theshing.It’s the time o year or me to resume my roleas a shing guide, and to do so very actively orthe next ve months. Tat role is o course very much more than many people ever imagine itto be. Here’s a snapshot o a typical busy six-day schedule rom June 17th to 22nd

June 16th may beBloomsday for Joyce fans,but for

Jim Hendrick

itmarks the opening of thebass season. This is howhe spends the season’s

frst week.