THE fishing gods have not been particularly kind to salmon anglers of late and at present I understand there is a considerable amount of water about from the Mourne to Connemara.
Perhaps when this passes, or at least fines down, there will be some good sport to be had. Anyway, if you cannot go fishing then perhaps the next best thing is to talk about matters piscatorial or read about some other angler’s adventures.
I was delighted, therefore, when a book entitled Fly-Fishing, Fact Vs Fiction (published by Colin Smythe Limited at £16.99, www.colinsmythe. co.uk) and written by Jo Rippier dropped through my letterbox last week.
Jo is an Englishman who has lived in near Frankfurt in Germany for about the last half-century, lecturing in English in the local university. He has a passion for angling and over this period he has visited Ireland on many occasions and, for better or worse, but definitely with much fun, we have shared a boat in search of sea trout and wild brownies.
Notice there is no mention of salmon as Jo, who is a little eccentric in the nicest possible way, can or will not get his head around salmon angling. However, it has not stopped him catching the odd grilse while in pursuit of sea trout which is testament to his angling skills and very irritating for the unsuccessful salmon angler.
The Outer Hebrides are visited in these pages, as are numerous Bavarian trout streams and Lower Lough Erne, Lough Conn and the famous Ballynahinch system in Connemara in it’s pomp.
The reader will find tales of triumph and disaster in Jo’s inimitable quirky style and a question perhaps of why each of us go fishing and what it brings to our lives.
Along the way the author came to meet and befriend two of game angling’s great writers and characters in TC Kingsmill Moore and Hugh Falkus. The former wrote the classic A Man May Fish (Colin Smythe Ltd) and Jo was instrumental in getting the great man to publish his second edition of the book.
Any serious game angler in Ireland will at some point have fished in some of the waters frequented by TC Kingsmill Moore, be it the Eany, Owencarrow, Drowes, Delphi or Slaney.
The same goes for legend that was Hugh Falkus if you have visited the Bush or Lough Fern. Therefore it was a pleasure and most informative to read some of Jo’s thoughts and experiences with two of the most influential and redoubtable characters in angling, and indeed life.
Jo’s volume will not tell you how to fish but it will share some serious thoughts on conservation and much lighter reflections linking past and present and the old cliché of truth occasionally being stranger than fiction – especially in the world of fly-fishing.
