One of the highlights of meeting up with the friends and family of Reba McEntire this time was to meet her son Shelby Blackstock again.
Shelby is a rookie professional motor racing driver racing Grand-Am with Roush Performance and he has had a great start to his career with 3 top-10 finishes including pole position in season opener at Daytona. He has also signed with Andretti Autosport team in US F2000 for 2012 season.
I had met and fished with Shelby on the previous visit. Shelby is a keen angler and enjoys the relaxation of fishing but had not tried his hand at fly fishing. He was taking time out before preparations for his next race which is July 27th at famed Indianapolis circuit and asked would I take time to provide him with some fly-fishing lessons. [slideshow gallery_id=”15″]
We spent a couple of hours over 2 days getting a bit of casting exercise in and had the luck to put it into practice for both trout and pike while in Ireland. The weather was not great, with plenty of rain but Shelby caught 2 pike on streamer flies, and rounded off his trip with a couple of lovely trout. All fish were released. The very best of Irish luck on the track for rest of 2012. rj
Check out Shelbys progress at www.shelbyblackstock.com.