Last week just before the very hot weather arrived I was out with Anthony, an angler from Malta here in Ireland for a couple of days. Anthony normally fishes in the sea as there are no rivers or lakes where he lives but he has been keen to try fly fishing, and wanted to fish a river.
After meeting up in Dublin,we found ourselves in the Wicklow mountains on some of my favorite pieces of water. There had been some rain the previous day so the water was perfect. We started off fishing small wet flies in the faster water, there is plenty of rocks and overhanging trees, so plenty of cover for the trout. For someone who had done no fly fishing before Anthony was very quick to learn. After a few splashy takes he eventually got the hang of it and soon he was landing plenty of small hard fighting trout. We fished several streamy pools before lunch and Anthony caught fish in most of them.
After our break I put up a dry fly for him and we went to some of the slower water. Here he had an hour or so of watching a few fish rising constantly, and eventually we matched the hatch and he connected with a couple more trout. Again no big fish but plenty of sport.
Anthony really enjoyed his day on the river and the fly fishing. He is a man that travels a lot with his work, so I think from now on he will be packing a small fly rod on his travels.
