BRENDAN KERR, a fly-fishing instructor in Co Donegal, describes his day
I START MY fly-fishing lessons at around 9am. To get to the hotel, which is on Lough Eske, I drive from Bangor, where I live, or Carrick, about 45 minutes to the west, where we have a holiday home.
Before I meet a client I will talk to them, to find out their level of experience and what their goals are. Then, the night before, I draw up a lesson plan to suit.
My main focus is complete beginners. I think there’s a mystique about fly-fishing that puts people off trying it out, and my aim is to guide them through that.
Lessons can last anything from a couple of hours to two and a half days. By the end of them they should be ready to head off and do it for themselves.
I don’t take guests out on the water, although I can arrange that for them. What I’m really doing is getting them started. It’s a bit like having a lesson with a golf pro before you go out on the course, only what I’m teaching is how to cast a fly line.
They also get to find out how a rod works, which people who fish might laugh at, but it’s important to learn.
When you think about it, you are asking a little tiny thing the size of a fly, which has no weight, to take your line out 50ft or 60ft (15m or 20m). You do that by learning how to load the fly rod with a fly, and there is quite a bit of technical competence required.
There is also a certain stroke, a certain arm movement, required, and if they get that right they are set up for life.
I also teach them how to cope with wind, and cover health-and-safety aspects of fly-fishing.
I try to organise it that the hotel instruction runs from 9am to 5pm at weekends, and the rest of the time I instruct privately and do some environmental consultancy work relating to fishing from a sustainability point of view, looking at things like water quality and fish habitats.
I used to be a sales executive in a pharmaceutical company, so this is a complete lifestyle change for me.
Fishing gets you away from the stresses of everyday life. It’s very intense, because you have to stay so focused, but it can also be sociable, especially if you have a good fishing buddy.
It also allows you become a part of nature, actively involved in hunting your prey and being hunted by it. By contrast, walkers or ornithologists are observers of nature.
It’s very therapeutic. Even when I stop working, at the end of the day, I never really finish. I’m always thinking about fish.
** Brendan Kerr is fly-fishing instructor at Harvey’s Point hotel, in Co Donegal
** In conversation with Sandra O’Connell