I am excited to be heading over to the Irish Spring Angling Fair this weekend (April 30th & May 1st). There is a fantastic lineup of demonstrators expected to attend including former world Spey casting champions, international competition anglers in coarse and fly fishing, world famous sea anglers and expert pike anglers with bait, lure and fly.

The Fair is taking place at Ardaire Springs Angling Centre in Mooncoin, Kilkenny which is not far from where I am based. This is an ideal venue for an angling fair as there is plenty of water for demos, a large log cabin for talks, an area for food stands and displaying boats and trailers and a lots of space for an exhibitor marquee and free parking.

In addition to 18 top class demonstrators there will be fly casting distance and accuracy competitions, lectures on angling techniques, a host of trade exhibitors and a fly tyers row. There will also be lots of FREE kids tuition on angling and fly tying. I am delighted to see such promotion of youth into our sport. In addition to this it is great to see there will be an expert on water quality as protecting our angling environments is key to preserving the quality of our sport.

My role at the Fair will be to give a talk each day on saltwater fly fishing. This will mainly cover fly fishing for bass and mullet but there are lots of saltwater species to target with fly including seatrout, mackerel, flounder, pollack etc.

Angling Fairs are great fun and there is always lots to learn. A day spent at an angling fair is a very cost effective way to get expert advice and tips from some of the best anglers in the world at what they do. Of course, it can also be a place to grab a great tackle bargain if you are lucky. There are lots of great giveaways and prizes on offer at the Fair also. The first 100 attendees each day get a free Semperfli goodie bag and there are other prizes on offer from the Fair sponsors. Again, this is great to see because we as anglers are all one community and that is why we like attending these type of events to meet up with friends old and new.

For many anglers, it has been a tough last 2 years or so not being able to meet up with likeminded individuals. So, if you are attending the Fair come along to one of my talks if you are interested in saltwater fly fishing or call to see me on the Mackenzie stand in the exhibitor marquee.