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Flyfishing in Ireland by Peter O'Reilly

Reviewed by Terry Lawton

I struggled to like or enjoy this book. It falls between two stools. For a book that is, it seems, written for beginners, the author assumes a lot of prior knowledge, knowledge that many beginners will not have. For the improver - for whom the book is also written - the book doesn't go far enough. To me, it lacks the passion and addiction of fly fishing. I thought about this book when driving to the river the other evening. It occurred to me where the problem might lie: it is sponsored by the Central Fisheries Board Ireland. In his foreward, John O'Connor, chief executive of the Board, writes: "Two of my board's principal objectives are to make angling attractive and accessible to our young people, and to promote it abroad. I believe this book will make a major contribution in this regard." The book has been written for a commercial end.

An example of not providing enough information is to cover (I was going to say dismiss) upstream nymphing in a single page! And I simply can't agree that "The take is very easy to spot.". This is but one of a number of sweeping assertions with which I do not agree. Another: "It is well known that brown trout are primarily bottom feeders." Really, who says? They are not roach.

What are the book's good points? Well, Brown trout: fishing on the loughs is obviously relevant to and about fishing in Ireland and another chapter, The Trout's Food, is about Ireland and Irish loughs and rivers. There is a list of the principal flies of Irish rivers and loughs, the Duck fly and dapping. To many anglers Ireland means dapping, but again it is covered in but a single page. What a missed opportunity. The book does cover salmon and sea trout fishing as well as trout.

From a practical point of view it is a shame that some of the pictures of flies are not always on contiguous pages to the relevant dressing which is a bore if you use the book to tie some of the flies in it.

The author, Peter O'Reilly who lives on the river Boyne in County Meath, is described in the blurb as being Ireland's best known fishing author. He is the game angling advisor of the Central Fisheries Board and a fishing and fly-tying instructor.

Flyfishing in Ireland by Peter O'Reilly. 192 pages, hardback. Published by Merlin Unwin Books at £16.



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