Ireland on the Fly

Mar 06 2025 172 ep. 47 mins 82

Ireland on the Fly Podcast artwork

The people and places of fly fishing in Ireland.

www.irelandonthefly.com

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Salmon Watch Ireland & the plans against salmon farming in Ireland in 2025

Mar 06 2025 53 mins

Spring is in the air and it feels like the season is finally starting to click into gear and for many salmon anglers you’ll be thinking of trips to book and plans to make.But one of the big issues affecting wild salmon and sea trout numbers is the presence of salmon farms in some of the most pristine locations around our Atlantic coast.The issue of salmon farming is something we

Kilbride Anglers – a fascinating history of growth & overcoming obstacles since the 1940s

Feb 28 2025 42 mins

This week we’re finding out about a fly fishing club that bucks the trend and continues to grow its membership in the face of declining interest in the sport.Kilbride Anglers Club has long been an innovative and forward thinking club since it was first founded in 1940 and its chairman Martin Kearney joins us on this week’s episode to tell us how the club expanded beyond its Lif

Mastering fly tying techniques with Barry Ord Clarke

Feb 21 2025 58 mins

This week it’s a fly tying book club special with Barry Ord Clarke aka The Feather Bender.Barry’s new book, Advanced Fly Tying Techniques has just been released and is a must-read for anyone looking to develop their fly tying skills further.We spoke to Barry about his incredible fly tying career, his hugely successful YouTube channel and his unusual introduction to learning to

Willie Holmes' journey from Moorbrook trout to Vancouver steelhead

Feb 14 2025 76 mins

It’s a first for us I believe on this week’s episode as we speak to Ulster man Willie Holmes from the fishing shop he manages by the Ch’illiwack river outside Vancouver in British Columbia in Canada.Willie was originally a building contractor who then set up and ran the well known Moorbrook trout fishery in Coleraine before making the leap and moving to Vancouver full time wh

‘If you can tie flies you can build your own fly rod’ Brian Martin’s tips for your first rod build

Feb 07 2025 58 mins

While we’re into February and slowly the season is beginning to come to life, you may not have much of a chance to wet a line in the coming weeks so have you thought about building your own fly rod?Brian Martin is a Fermanagh angler based in Galway who last year set himself the goal of doing just that and as he explains on this week’s Ireland on the Fly, it’s actually not tha

From Greenland to the Erriff - the story of one salmon’s 2,500km journey

Jan 31 2025 31 mins

You may have seen the report recently about a tagged salmon that was detected in the Erriff and was subsequently discovered to have travelled nearly 2,500km from south west Greenland.It’s incredible and direct evidence showing the journey that the Atlantic salmon has to endure to spawn in our rivers and so to find out more we spoke to the IFI’s Glen Wightman who told us about t

Sally Barnes & 50 Years of Change on the Atlantic Coast

Jan 24 2025 61 mins

Sally Barnes is a remarkable woman who has been at the forefront of the Irish artisan food revolution since the 1980s, when she first started smoking wild salmon.But what has a smoker got to do with fly fishing? Sally, who has been married to a fisherman, and lives on the west Cork coast, has seen and experienced first-hand the decline the Atlantic salmon has undergone in modern ti

The unique and special Lough Carra

Jan 16 2025 55 mins

This week we’re finding out about the unique and special Lough Carra, renowned for its marl bottom which gave the water an alluring blue and aquamarine appearance.Not only that but the fishing – and mayfly fishing especially – was pretty spectacular. But like so many things in nature, Lough Carra went into decline due to eutrophication.However, the Lough has many interested s

Salmon Season Opens on the Drowes

Jan 13 2025 39 mins

Happy New Year to you all and we’re into the start of another year and another season which can only mean one thing and that’s catching up with Shane Gallagher from the Drowes Fishery to find out how the opening days went on the river.Shane also looks back on the 2024 season, discusses the fall off in the spring run and why 2025 just might be a year to be hopeful.Listen & follo

From Newfoundland to Ireland with Jamie Pike

Dec 11 2024 62 mins

Newfoundland might be a couple of thousand miles from Ireland but the Irish influence is a strong one in the most eastern part of Canada in terms of people, culture, language and fly fishing.Jamie Pike is a Newfoundlander of Irish descent who is a passionate salmon angler and professional fly tyer and he visited these shores for the first time to tie at the recent Irish Fly Fair.We