A Happy Christmas to all our listeners and as it’s that time of the year we thought we’d bring you a bucket list episode that many of us can only dream about – fly fishing for the golden mahseer in remote Bhutan.

Jake Anchell joins Tom Doc to tell him about the recent once-in-a-lifetime trip he made with his father, David.

Find out about Bhutan, the place of the mahseer in their culture and how you can target this massive fish on the fly. One for the Christmas wish list!

Listen & Follow on Apple or Spotify:

Keep up to date and get regular updates on https://Instagram.com/IrelandontheFly.

So, the salmon and trout season is over for another year and while there was plenty of negatives with fish kills and pollution incidents, there was also still a lot of great fishing to be had.

And for this week’s episode we’re focusing on the brown trout season with Eamonn Ross from Lough Sheelin and Mike Keady from Lough Corrib.

Plus Tom also has updates on a recent worrying development of green algae on Lough Corrib.

Listen & follow on Apple or Spotify:

Get regular updates on https://Instagram.com/IrelandontheFly

No matter the fishing and conditions, the 2025 fly fishing season will go down in memory as the year of the worst ever fish kill in the history of the State, which is certainly saying something based on this country’s approach to pollution, water quality and environmental protection.

We’ve discussed fish kills on this show before, highlighting the fact that when guilty verdicts and fines are handed down, the consequences are risible anyway.

But for this week’s episode we wanted to focus on the questionable practice in the Blackwater investigation and why the current legislation is not fit for purpose.

Conor Arnold of the Upper Bridgetown Salmon Fishery on the Blackwater has been to the forefront during this crisis, spending untold hours highlighting the issue and trying to get to the bottom of it as best as he can.

Conor also spoke as an invited witness at last week’s Oireachtas Committee hearing into the Blackwater fish kill and a day later he spoke to us about the hearing to tell us what arose from it.

Listen & Follow on Apple or Spotify:

Get regular updates on https://Instagram.com/IrelandontheFly

As we head into the final days for most of you for the game fishing season, this week we find out about the Boyne fishery, and the superb brown trout fishing to be had on the Trim Athboy Angling Club waters.

Tommy Keogan is a stalwart of the club and he talks to us about how the club manages its eight miles of waters, as well his love of fishing the loughs and why this year was a particularly good one for him.

For more, visit: https://www.trimathboyanglers.net/

Listen & Follow on Apple or Spotify:

Keep up to date and get regular updates on https://Instagram.com/IrelandontheFly.

Kevin McLoughlin is a lifelong angler from Cork who joins us on this week’s Ireland on the Fly to talk about the good old days for salmon when the spring run was something to behold.

Kevin talks about moving to Cobh, working in the fishing industry and even spending a year on the newly formed fisheries board in 1979.

He has seen it all in Irish fishing since the 1960s and has plenty to tell.

Listen & Follow on Apple or Spotify:

Keep up to date and get regular updates on https://Instagram.com/IrelandontheFly.

Throwing Feathers in the Wind is a new book out by Richard Gorodecky, a fly angler who moved full time to Ireland five years ago to be closer to the river fishing that he loves so much.

Richard was a long-time visitor to these shores fishing all over the country before settling in south Munster but his obsession with fly fishing has also seen him fish all over the world.

Throwing Feathers in the Wind is his first collection of essays detailing his fishing in Ireland and further afield, and is, like so many good fishing books, more about the why than anything else.

Plus, Tom and Daire also discuss the dire fish kill on the Blackwater and ask when will it be the tipping point to stop further fish kills?

Listen & Follow on Apple or Spotify:

To find out more and to buy a copy of Richard's book, go to:Gorodecky.com

Keep up to date and get regular updates on https://Instagram.com/IrelandontheFly.

We’re at the tail end of the grilse run now and with the summer conditions we’ve had, coming off the back of a poor spring run, we’ve been desperately looking for some good news on the salmon front.

And we found it – or sort of – because this week Johnny Casey and Yamil Turcuman two passionate salmon anglers who we’ve spoken to before – join us to let us know how their season has been – ranging from the bad to the sublime....

Listen & Follow on Apple/Spotify:

Keep up to date and get regular updates on https://Instagram.com/IrelandontheFly.

You may have seen the recent campaign and news stories about the disappearance of sprat from our coastal waters and the government’s unwillingness to do enough to protect our marine habitats – but what has it got to do with you if you're an angler and only interested in freshwater?

Well in the current environmental climate, pretty much everything, and whether it’s marine or freshwater conservation it’s something every angler needs to be informing themselves of and trying to do their bit to help with.

So this week we’re joined by campaigning ecologist, Padraic Fogarty, to tell us more about the SaveOurSprat campaign, how the government isn’t doing enough and why everything from sprats right up the marine food chain are in danger.Plus, Tom is back from his week's fishing in Orkney and tells us how the heatwave hit the loughs and the brown trout even that far north.

Listen & Follow on Apple or Spotify:

Keep up to date with all the latest Ireland on the Fly and get regular updates on https://Instagram.com/IrelandontheFly.