I’ve put together a short film of our recent guiding trip in Ireland, loving the great memories!

Of course the basis of these co-guided trips I do together with John Quinlan over in Kerry is the fishing, but I would also suggest that the lads who kindly come back year after year - pandemic allowing of course - are returning for a whole bunch of different reasons. When the fishing is good it’s awesome, and when the fishing is tough for whatever reason(s), John and I work as hard as we can to find answers. Sometimes we find them and sometimes we don’t, but damn we have good fun with our lads doing so, we have plenty of non-bass fishing options, and I would suggest that spending time in such an outrageously special part of the world with a cool bunch of people is a big reason for these trips working like they do……………

If I could I would do this co-guiding work for free because I love it so much and the fact that I am not fishing has never bothered me for a single second. I get to spend meaningful time in a country I love like no other, I am around people I really like and trust and have fun with, I get to be around fishing virtually non-stop, I meet and often become friends with some really good people, I learn more about fishing every single time we take our lads out fishing, I get to use whatever knowledge and skills I have hopefully acquired over a number of years, and I absolutely love the buzz when you ask one of your lads to change a lure or lure colour or work a lure a certain way or cast in a certain spot - and they catch a fish because of it. It’s a thrill like you would not believe and I can’t get enough of it.

Anyway, one thing that John and I like to do for our lads is for me to shoot as many photos as possible of their trips and then put together some online galleries as an album of their time with us. If and when it’s possible I will also shoot a bit of video. It’s just me doing as much as I can on a GoPro and I’m not recording any meaningful sound hence the music in the video above, but over the course of the two trips I managed to just about shoot enough stuff to put together this short film which I hope gives our lads a good memory first off, and secondly gives anybody else who doesn’t know this part of the world a glimpse into why so many of us love it so much. I can remember every single part of the video as if it were yesterday and I can’t wait to get back over there at the end of next week. You all have a good weekend and please stay safe and well and hopefully away from this wretched virus which seems to be everywhere……….