With the salmon run beginning in earnest this month, the Blackwater’s Conor Arnold joins us this week to tell us about the unique May salmon that arrives in the river, and whether the spring run’s decline could actually herald an increase in the back-end? Plus, Tom has a mayfly update from Corrib, and we'll be bringing you more mayfly updates from …

Stan Headley is a fly angler and fly tyer who would be known to so many people in Ireland and the UK. A regular contributor to Trout & Salmon magazine down through the years, the Orkney angler also penned three books - The Loch Fishers Bible, Trout & Salmon Flies of Scotland and Reflections on the Loch which became the go to source for Scottish loc…

This week we’re delighted to bring you our first episode from the river bank. Only a few days ago Daire was lucky enough to fish the Slaney River for the first time on the Ballycarney Fishery beats in the company of the fishery manager, Peter Wadding. Spring salmon fishing on the Slaney has been on our bucket list for a while now and although Daire…

This week it’s a book club episode with Patsy Peril, who co-wrote (with Deirdre Nuttall) ‘Swimming Upstream: one man’s fight to save the Atlantic salmon’. It’s a fascinating memoir about the life of a netsman on the River Shannon. Patsy talks to us about the importance of the salmon to the communities and villages along the Shannon and how the buil…

He’s The Scientific Angler on YouTube whose videos of Corrib, Arrow and Sheelin show brown trout fishing in Ireland at its best, but what’s also great about Ronan McWilliams’ fly fishing videos is his honesty. He’s not afraid to say when he’s blanked and when he’s found it tough – authenticity as he says is what it’s all about. Ronan also tells us …

Education about and local engagement with rivers and water catchments are vital for empowering communities, kids and parents to be custodians of their local environments and one group that has been doing fantastic work in this area since the 1990s has been Streamscapes. It came about after Paul Kearney and Mark Boyden set up the Coomhola Salmon Tru…

George McGrath is well known to listeners of the Ireland on the Fly podcast, a friend of the show he has joined us on numerous occasions. If you have listened to him before you will no doubt be aware that he and Tom Doc will at times, break out into speaking Irish. George has a great love for the Irish language and is a fluent speaker and Tom, hail…

This week we’re joined by Evo Smyth, originally from Latvia, but living and fly fishing in the Irish midlands for the last twenty years. Although only taking up fly tying ten years ago, Evo quickly made a name for himself as a fly tyer of some skill and his flies have been in demand around the country. Evo tell us about his fly fishing and fly tyin…

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 …

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 t…

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 unus…

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 mov…

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 t…

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 Gl…

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 Atlanti…

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, t…

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 ye…

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 …

Chef and sustainable food activist, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, joins Jim Murray for a special Christmas episode of The Last Salmon podcast explaining why farmed salmon should not be on your Christmas dinner table this or any year. ‘We need to hold the industry to account and provide people with alternatives,’ says Hugh. ‘The way you spend your mo…

‘It’s been the strangest of seasons,’ George McGrath tells us on this week’s Ireland on the Fly. George is a friend of the show and well-known fly angler based in Tipperary on the River Suir. We’ve spoken to George previously about the nitrification of his stretch of the river that has seen it clogged with weeds during the summer making it all but …

It might be the off-season for many of us, but have you considered grayling fishing in the UK at this time of year? Known as the Lady of the Stream, the grayling are best fished for in winter time and Mark Driver, one half of Piscari Fly, has plenty of experience fishing for them in Wales in the winter months and he joins us on this week’s Ireland …

We’ve already released our river trout and salmon reviews of the season so now it’s time for this week's Ireland on the Fly episode focusing on Corrib, Sheelin, Melvin, Arrow and other loughs. We spoke to Eamonn Ross and Mike Keady to find out how the fishing went throughout the season and what key learnings there were from the difficult conditions…

It’s time for our salmon review of the season and who better to talk to than one of the most knowledgeable salmon anglers we know, Paddy McDonnell. Paddy gives us an excellent run through of the season on the Moy, as well as the Owenduff, Owenmore and Carraghmore, plus we get into seal predation, coping with the conditions, the place and importance…

We’ve got the first of our season review episodes this week and we’re focusing on river brown trout with River Nore guide, Dan O’Neill, who gives us the lowdown on his local river as well as those nearby including the Kings and the Suir. Dan will be telling us about conditions throughout the year, hatches and of course some of the fish highlights a…

We’re into October, the nights are closing in, and for some of you, pike fishing awaits, or evenings fly tying at the vice. But the off season also means the Irish Fly Fair in November and this week’s guest is Darryl Mooney who tells us about his involvement as the fly manager and some of the incredible fly tyers who will be jetting in from around …

It was very saddening to hear the news that John Gierach, the world famous and beloved fly fishing writer, has passed away at the age of 78.He was a huge inspiration to us here on Ireland on the Fly for his books, personality, style and approach to fly fishing as well as life. There was much we could all learn from him.And so, in honour of the late…

So, that’s pretty much it for the season for brown trout, sea trout and salmon fly anglers. Currane, Sheelin and a few other lakes are still open until October 12th but for the vast majority of you the rods are being put away for the winter. Over the coming weeks we’ll be reviewing how the season went on the rivers and loughs around Ireland for sal…

This week we’re ‘following the fin’ with Louth native, Joe Quinn, who has been based in Mayo for the last fifty years, and is a well-known international angler who has fished for salmon, sea trout and his first love, brown trout. We talk to Joe about brown trout on Lough Conn, night time sea trout fishing, why he ditched the salmon rod over twenty …

We spoke last week about the disastrous escape of thousands of farmed salmon from Killary Harbour and the consequences that will have on the wild fish stocks on the west coast of Ireland. Billy Smyth is chairperson and co-founder of Galway Bay Against Salmon Cages which has been instrumental in fighting the development of fish farms and raising awa…

For the last few weeks of the season we wanted to speak to fly anglers to find out how their season has gone.You hear different stories about how conditions have been and how loughs and rivers have fared around the country, so what has it actually been like for anglers on the ground?This week, it was great to chat once again to James Barry, the fis…

It’s hard to believe but we’re into the final few weeks of the salmon and brown trout season and while you’re trying to fit in as much fishing as you can, for this week’s Ireland on the Fly we wanted to find out how some of the loughs are fishing for brown trout in September and we’re joined by Dominic Kerrigan, a fanatical fly angler who regularly…

Glenda Powell, who is well known in Ireland and abroad as a fly casting instructor and guide on the river Blackwater joins us on this week’s Ireland on the Fly. In recent years Glenda has also been organising trips for salmon, sea trout and Arctic char to places such as Patagonia, Greenland and Iceland and having just spent two months in the land o…

This week we speak to Judd Ruane, the well-known sea trout fishing guide on the Moy Estuary. Judd talks to us about the incredible days he has had as well as some of the famous names that have been in his boat, plus you’ll also hear about 16 years on the road touring Ireland, the UK and America with a Glen Miller style big band. It’s fair to say th…

The Costello & Fermoyle fishery in Connemara is one that evokes historic nostalgia mentioned as it was in Kingsmill Moore’s A Man May Fish as a favourite location of his for sea trout. The fishery comprises the Casla River and a series of lakes, including Glenicmurrin, Fermoyle, Clogher, and the Schoolhouse Loughs, set in beautiful scenery against …

This week we’re joined by the prolific angling writer, Chris McCully. Chris has been a regular contributor to Trout & Salmon magazine and in his spare time has written not just on fishing, but also English academic works as well as poetry. In Ireland though he’s probably best known for 'Nomads of the Tides: Fishing for Irish Sea Trout', which he wr…

Joining us on this week’s show is Paul Molloy from Oughterard whose family has been steeped in Irish fly fishing for generations living and working by the shore of Lough Corrib. And as a kid growing up, Paul tells us of the mayfly market where they would be selling mayflies by the dozen and then as he got older how he got more and more into the fly…

We’re nearly at the end of July and how has Ireland’s most prolific salmon river, the Moy, been doing in what’s been another difficult season? We wanted to find out if the grilse run had given any positivity to anglers this summer and so we decided to catch up with East Mayo Angler Garrett Ruigrok to find out more. Listen & follow on Apple or Spoti…

Mick O’Farrell is an Irish fly angler and is that rare breed who moved to the UK and subsequently established a high reputation for himself on the stillwaters in England in addition to his prowess in Ireland. He became well known for his book, ‘A Passion for Trout’ and could often be read in UK fly fishing publications discussing stillwater tactics…

For this week’s episode we’re focusing on salmon and the recent decision in Norway to close thirty-three of the country’s most prolific rivers in the southwest including the Gaula and Orkla. It was a decision that caught many unawares, including anglers who were on their way out to Norway and one such angler was Johnny Casey who we spoke to before …

You may not be into competition fishing but when the FIPS-Mouche World Championships are on surely you can’t help but wonder how the Irish team fared when pitting itself against the best in the world at fly fishing on rivers and lakes? This year the Worlds were held in the south of France where John Buckley, the Killarney angler, was the team capta…

Stevie Munn is a well-known name in Irish and UK fly fishing circles as someone who has worked in the tackle trade, guided and instructed and also set up the Irish Fly Fair first in Galway before moving to Enniskillen. Stevie is a fanatical fly fisherman who will cast a fly for salmon, sea trout and brown trout – especially the beloved dollaghan tr…

The Dodder is a unique and special river that flows through Dublin’s south city boundaries with salmon, sea trout and incredible brown trout in it – a fact not many capital cities can claim. But as an urban river it faces many, ongoing challenges and Mark McAndrew, who is on the committee of the Dodder Anglers Association and fishes the river pract…

The 2024 salmon season is well under way and we're waiting for the grilse run, but having spoken to anglers around the country it appears that numbers are still down and following a similar path to 2023. However, if you’ve been despondent and down in the dumps about the salmon, fear not, for this week’s guest, Sean McLaughlin, who is a salmon angle…

Internationally renowned fishery scientist, Ken Whelan, issues a call to action on the latest episode of The Last Salmon. He says that ranching can and will work to help improve salmon numbers in relation to supporting a rod fishery for anglers and he explains to us the background to its successful development and implementation – albeit with cavea…

For the final episode of the first series of The Last Salmon, Daire and Jim revisit Iceland and the issue of the regulation and future of salmon farms which Iceland’s politicians are currently drafting new legislation for. Elvar Fridriksson, Iceland’s Programme Director of The North Atlantic Salmon Fund, and Jasper Pääkkönen, actor, angler and pass…

It’s time for our second and final mayfly update from around the country and this week we’re hearing how Lough Sheelin and Lough Arrow fared with Eamonn Ross and Jackie Mahon. Eamonn explains how the fishing was fantastic the first week the mayfly was up with some incredible fish being caught, but it’s been tougher since then. Meanwhile on Arrow, J…

This week’s episode is a fascinating look at the famous Castleconnell Fishery on the River Shannon in Limerick with Pat O’Connor who is chair of the Castleconnell River Association. It’s a fishery steeped in history when it was internationally renowned for its huge salmon in the 1800s to the early 1900s and it became a thriving centre for tackle de…

We’ve our first update of the mayfly season for this week’s show and Mike Keady joins us to tell us how Corrib has been fishing. The weather has been unsettled and cold which hasn’t helped things, Mike tells us, but he does expect it to pick up for the next 1-2 weeks so if you have the opportunity do try and make the most of it before it finishes u…

Internationally renowned fishery scientist, Ken Whelan, issues a call to action on the latest episode of The Last Salmon. He says that ranching can and will work to help improve salmon numbers in relation to supporting a rod fishery for anglers and he explains to us the background to its successful development and implementation – albeit with cavea…

The Owenmore Fishery has been in the news recently with the State buying up the river and lands that are situated on the Dingle peninsula in Kerry. So what does the future hold for the fishery and what is the fishing like on the river and lakes in one of Ireland’s most scenic locations? Frank Maunsell has been the fishery manager there for over a q…