Guest FP | Wednesday, 8 October 2025
Growing up in the lush green countryside of Ireland it didn’t take me long before I began to explore my surroundings. The walk to my local shop at a young age took me over an old stone bridge. I would peer over and look at the brown trout as they lay still occasionally moving for a nymph or fly that was travelling down their food lane. At times the trout would dart off faster than my eyes could follow, leaving me trying to chase a shadow. It wasn't long before I realised it was my shadow that was cast on the riverbed as I peered over that caused the Trout to show me their shadow. A lesson that stayed with me throughout my fly-fishing career and certainly helped me claim a few fish I wouldn't have caught without my shadow knowledge.
As time passed by it was quite clear there were quite a few bits of knowledge that would assist me on my angling journey. Approaching fish is also another lesson that I learned during my early years. It always made me think “can a fish really hear a ball bearing rattling around in a lure? “. I would watch all these ads and videos where there would be all sorts of gadgets on lures and the like to make a rattle or vibration. The fish did respond to these vibrations and rattles which made me think “if they can sense or hear that then they must be able to hear me crunching over loose gravel when wading or splashing around in the water”. Of course, I can't float over the water so had to put some thought and add caution to my wading approach.
Wildlife like the resident grey heron of the Gowran river often schooled me in my approach, I’d watch the steady movements and the stillness. Later in life I would watch some of the best dry fly anglers the world has to offer. I would watch and think “now where have I seen that approach before” and realise that the grey heron tried to teach me but I was too young to understand.
Of course, there is the basic approach and then there is your set up and how you present your fly. I fish as light as I can get away with when targeting Brown Trout, presentation is highly important where I fish. Generally, I use a copolymer tippet over fluorocarbon (find it’s too stiff and dictates where and what the fly does) as copolymer is quite supple and allows the fly or nymph to work and look far more natural. I also focus on the diameter of the line to breaking strain. The summer months see me use .10 or .08 which allows my 2mm tungsten head nymph to get down nice and quickly. The higher diameters cause more hydro-friction delaying my nymph getting down and at times the nymph will stop as it's just unable to get to the bottom as the friction is too much, so we are not fishing where we think we are. I also use copolymer on my wet fly leaders, I believe it really allows the fly to work and catch some of the natural swirls and twirls of the water, making it make moves that the fish are used to seeing their food items make.
It's amazing to think a young boy peering over a bridge at a young age would wind up speaking about hydro-friction. I do believe it was realising the Trout wasn't a “silly fish” led me to take all the elements of my approach and set up into consideration thus ticking as many boxes as I could before my first cast to try and trick my quarry.
Dan O Neill