Very excited about heading over to Ireland on Friday, hope to see some of you at the brand new Irish Spring Angling Fair this weekend

I reckon I have been going over to Ireland for around twenty five years now. Fishing, filming, photography, fishing shows, I have no idea how many times I have been over but it’s a lot - and I have never, ever not been very excited to travel to my favourite country on earth. I can still remember the first time a bunch of us from Plymouth pulled into a misty, murky Cork harbour on that old Swansea-Cork ferry. It was my first time in Ireland and I was entranced from that one trip where I was taking photos of the lads shore fishing for a couple of chapters of a book I had been commissioned to write and photograph……………..

And on Friday morning I will take that familiar route to get on the StenaLine ferry from Fishguard to Rosslare (via going to see my mum on Thursday and hopefully getting to see my dad in hospital). Instead of driving right across Ireland to do my guiding work in Kerry as I tend to do over there the most these days though, I shall instead have only an hour or so the other side to get me to where this brand new Irish Spring Angling Fair is taking place just outside of Waterford. My Epic Berlingo is literally quivering at the thought of crossing that stretch of sea between west Wales and south east Ireland.

If any of you who kindly read this blog are going to the new Irish Spring Angling Fair at the weekend, please come and say hi and watch my lure fishing demonstrations and photography talks (timetable here). I might even be able to show you some of the new Savage Gear stuff we’ve got coming out in early June, and if you fancy a look at some of the SGS5 and SGS8 lure rods then I will have some with me because I can’t exactly head over to Ireland on a new moon tide and not get myself out for a bass fishing session or two. I haven’t drunk since I was 18 so those big evenings after the show days are not really my thing, and if the conditions are in my favour I might just go and wander a few beaches in the dark. I know the world is not remotely back to normal, but just the idea of travelling to Ireland and spending a bit of time over there makes me feel so happy…………..