GeneralFlyCoarseSeaTackle

82Irish Angler

November 2009

It’s important to appreciate eachsh for the sport it offers.

Guide’s Diary

Jim Hendrick’s

client

Pat Boyle

from Donegal guest writes the diarythis month as he muses on what really matters in shing.

nother August, another eagerly anticipated trip to Wexordfnally comes to pass. It seems like no time really since we werethere last. Expectations were tempered by the act that theprevious week or so had seen the weather gods not being at allkind. We expected the Wednesday to be tight going, but hopes were higher or the Tursday and higher still or the Friday. Expectations wereset accordingly and we determined to make the most o what was available. Wednesday turned out to be a testing time just in terms o fnding water tofsh in. Many marks were visited only to fnd them murky and unappealing, which wasn’t really a surprise. We did fnd one or two marks and fshedreasonably hard, but it quickly became apparent that the fsh were still scarceinshore and those that could be seen were dour and not keen to eed. Gerry Friel did take one fsh on poppers, but try as I might on the y rod – andagainst Jim’s counsel to drop the y in avour o lures – I couldn’t interest afsh at all. Given that catching opportunities were thin anyway, I enjoyed my time with the y rod all the more. With the wind airly consistently blowing onto my casting arm, I wasorced to spend two days either back or under-handed casting o my letshoulder to get a line out. Since plugging and sot plastics were largely