Mal McLeod, Angling Guide on his nine-to-five fishing job
I SPENT 35 YEARS as a print finisher, first with Smurfit and then out on my own. Now I spend my nine-to-five fishing.
My partner is from here originally, and we moved up and opened the angling centre in January of this year. I love living in Carrickmacross: it's very laid back.
There are 40 lakes within a 10-mile radius of our B&B. I'll pick the one I'm going to use depending on the weather. If it's going to be windy, for example, I'll head for a sheltered lake.
Most of my clients are men - around 80 per cent - and a lot of them are from overseas, mainly France. Luckily, phrases like "it was this big" require only hand gestures. Anglers tend to be a placid
lot anyway. If you've got the bug you concentrate on it wholly. You don't do too much talking.
That said, I'm a talker, so no one gets off the boat without a yap. You'd be amazed what you hear when you're out on a lake. Many of my clients have become great friends. Some are like brothers.
I started fishing as a kid. My dad and uncle used to bring me and my cousins to Blessington Lakes, and in the evening, while they'd go off to the pub, we'd still be trying to outdo each other with the number of fish we'd caught - in the dark. If parents did it now they'd be locked up.
I'm the only one who kept up the fishing. I used to bring my own sons fishing at weekends, and they loved it when they were younger, but then they turned 13 and started to be interested in other things. They might come back to it.
I get an awful lot of calls from guys looking to learn how to fish from scratch, because they want to take up a new pastime. And it's a great hobby. Once it catches you, you're hooked.
Normally we stop for lunch at 1pm and go up into a forest with our sandwiches and flask, and talk tactics. Then it's back out on the lake for more. How to catch pike depends on a lot of things, including time of year and time of day.
Once we're finished up we go back to the B&B to shower, and then it's out to the pub for a pint. My partner raises her eyes to heaven every time at this, but it's all part of the service for clients.
By the time bedtime comes I'm asleep within five minutes, and I don't wake. That's a big deal for me. When I was running my print-finishing business I was so stressed I was never able to sleep. I'm not stressed at all now.
In conversation with Sandra O'Connell
• Gate Lodge Angling is at 042-9661833, 086-6050425 and www.gatelodgeangling. com