Yesterday Ken and I had a great day on our Match the Hatch Course on the River Rye where we were facilitated by the local angling club.  We arrived early to Leixlip and had a quick sample of the river near the village.  We found water slaters, caseless caddis, olive nymphs and quite a lot of shrimps as well as few other bugs.  We then went on to meet the participants at our arranged venue for the first part of the course.  Ken explained in detail the connection between the available food and the quality of trout in a river.

He then discussed the fly life anglers were likely to encounter when sampling the river.  After a short tea break I made a presentation about matching the real insects with suitable imitations.

After lunch we went to a stretch of the river and Ken showed the participants how to sample the river and identify the insects found.

I then gave a short demonstration of some fishing techniques that the participants could use in order to catch some trout!

The day flew bye and soon it was at an end but I really enjoyed it.  Many thanks to Ken, Brendan and all the participants who made it a great day out. Ken and I will be at the Northwest Angling Fair in Strabane towards the end of the month and I am really looking forward to this as I have a lot of good friends living in the area.  In July we will have our seatrout fishing course on the Slayney which proved very popular last year.  We are working on organising some further courses before the year is out so “watch this space”!