November 11, 2024 • 14 mins
What drives two friends to create a weekly podcast about fly fishing? How do they manage to keep it fresh and engaging week after week? Ireland on the Fly started as Daire's passion project about four years ago, combining his media background with his newfound love for fly fishing. The podcast took on new life when Tom, an experienced angling guide and former Hardy and Grays sales manager, joined the team two and a half years ago.
The show explores the rich culture and history of fly fishing in Ireland, featuring diverse topics from technical fishing advice to environmental issues. Each episode brings unique perspectives through interviews with historians, scientists, and fellow anglers. The hosts maintain a careful balance between practical fishing content and broader environmental concerns, often addressing current issues like the recent Killery Harbour salmon farm escapees, while staying true to their role as custodians of rivers and lakes.
As media veterans, Daire and Tom understand the challenge of keeping environmental content engaging for their audience. They work to find fresh angles on recurring issues like fish kills and salmon farming, while still delivering the practical fishing content their listeners desire. Their approach combines awareness-raising with entertainment, proving that educational content can coexist with engaging storytelling.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
I have a special guest for youtoday, Tom and Dara from Ireland
on the Fly. Welcome to theshow, guys.
Hey, Tommy, thanks for having us.
Hey, Tommy, good to talk to you.
Ireland on the Fly isobviously a podcast. And everyone
who is listening to thispodcast should pause right now and
go on the app that you'reusing to listen to this podcast and
find Ireland on the Fly andsubscribe and then you can come back
(00:22):
to this podcast. And so onceyou've done that, Ireland on the
Fly is a podcast. But there'sso much more than just the podcast.
Could you give us a lay down?What is that you're doing?
Well, I suppose I might takeit up, Tom, just by way of background.
I suppose I started itprobably maybe four years ago, maybe.
I think I might have been atthis stage back in the midst of time.
(00:44):
I live in Tipperary, south ofIreland, near Cork. I'm a dove, originally
from the accent. And when wemoved out to Tipperary, I started
fly fishing. River shores nearme. I used to fish as a kid course
fishing lakes and canals andstuff. And I always wanted to take
up fly fishing. The shore soclose to me, it was the river shore
or there was the golf courseand I had plenty of friends who played
(01:07):
golf. So I just figured I'lldo fly fishing. I figured that'd
be a better, better waste ofmy time. I knew I couldn't do both.
I work in the media. I've beena radio producer. I was a radio producer
since 2001. I did my veryfirst podcast back in 2007, would
you believe, and we couldn'teven call it a podcast. We did it
with Leinster Rugby. We had tocall it Leinster Rugby Radio because
(01:30):
people back then wouldn't evenknow what a podcast was. And it was
probably only, I suppose I'vebeen working on podcasts since then
and it wasn't really untilabout 2016 that podcast I think started
really taking off. And as Isaid, I was fly fishing and it was,
became a. Started as a passionproject really. I was fascinated
first and foremost by, and thesubtitle of our podcast is the people
(01:51):
and Places of Fly Fishing inIreland. And for me, you know, I'm
not a very experienced angler.Well, especially when I was starting,
you know, I, you know, I'mnot, I'm not like Tom where I grew
up in the water and I'mimmersed in the life of fly fishing.
And I was fascinated actuallya lot by the people and the culture
and the history to do with flyfishing because there's Such a rich
(02:12):
fly fishing history inIreland. And so if I'd be fishing
around Ireland in any places,I'd always be like, what's that church
rune over there? Or what's,you know, why is the. Why is there
such and such a word for, youknow, trout in the Irish or something
like that? So I was alwaysreally fascinated in the culture
and the history, especiallythe 1800s. When you start delving
into it and you realize thekind of influence Irish people had
(02:36):
on fly fishing and the kind ofripple effect of that influence around
the world. So started thatpodcast was like anything when you're.
I don't know about you, Tommy,but I find when I was doing it on
my own, it becomes difficult,you know, to try and kind of keep
doing it week in, week out andbe interesting to get your insights
on it. And I knew Tom fromfishing, from a documentary I did
(02:57):
on mayfly season and Carb andTommy, you can never shut him up.
He's been very quiet at themoment because I. Because I'm a bit
of a rev gift of the gab aswell. And I always got on with Tom
and I approached Tom, what wasit Tom, about two years ago? Was
it three years ago?
Two and a half years ago now.
I think two and a half. And Isaid, tom, would you be interested
(03:18):
in coming on board? Andbecause Tom, Tom's an international
angler, he's the proper flyfishing angler here. You know, I'm
just the kind of enthusiasticamateur. Tom is the professional,
the guide. And I like to thinkit works. I don't know what Tom says.
We're still doing it. We evenfish together. We haven't fallen
(03:38):
out yet.
Oh, that works too.
So that's. Yeah, so that's byway of it. And you know, I think
most importantly, Tommy, weenjoy it. You know, there's loads
of it. I remember and Tom willtell this story is, you know, we
come up with the ideastogether with so many. We've so many
ideas or bouncing ideas offeach other, but we enjoy doing it.
I think that's the mostimportant thing.
And you covered a lot of mostof it there, Dar. Yeah. So I came
(04:01):
on because my background hasnothing to do with podcasts, anything
like that journalism orwhatever. Tommy, my. I'm. I'm a full
time guide here on lock carbonlock mask. I've been fishing since
I was near to a duck. My dadfished, but my grandparents fished
when I wasn't guiding in my,my lifetime so far, I actually worked
(04:23):
in the angling trade And Iworked for fly fishing company Hardy
and Graze for seven years. Iwas their Irish, Irish sales manager.
So basically all I've known inmy life has been fly fishing, particularly
since I've been working. Soyeah, and just Dara approached me
and I had no clue about itwhatsoever. And I wasn't. We. I listened
(04:47):
to a couple but I think justto cut to it, yeah, it works. What
we do just works together. Imean, you know, Daryl tell you, you
know that he said to me firstoff, and I now know to be true, we
need to be regular. He says weneed to do it every week. And I went,
not a notion. I can't seemyself doing that. And. But I do
(05:10):
know because I understand abit now after two and a half years,
yeah, you do need it to beregular. But the reason I'm regular
is as Dara says, love doingit. Absolutely love doing it. And
it's very true what Dara saysthere, you know. The subtitle as
such is the people and placeswe got to talk to so many different
and such a varied amount ofpeople. I'm like, you know, I can
(05:33):
go on from, you know, fromguys with some really interesting
views about, you know, historyto some really fascinating insight
scientific wise to guys that,you know, just crack me up. We're
just talking there earlier onthere's guys that, you know, I, when
(05:53):
I'm chatting to them, theyjust crack me up. And you know, it's
been so varied and there's avery rich history of fly fishing
all right in Ireland. And, butalso, not only is the, it's so varied
and that's the bit that getsme going and like we were talking
there now today about, youknow, what we have to do now for
(06:13):
the next couple of guestswe're doing now and this is great
and you know, Darren saying, Igot that, that'll be brilliant. And
I actually can't wait to talkto some of these guys sometimes I
really can't. And I'd like tothink it comes across that when we're
talking to guys and maybe youknow that yourself, Tommy, I think
we're certain there earlier onthat you get to talk to these people.
It's fantastic. It really is.And you know, also as well, I know
(06:36):
sometimes we have questionsworked out beforehand and it goes
way off the script because youknow the guy will tell you something
and you go, wow, that, that isso amazing. I want to find out more
about that. And you know, allthe scripted questions are out the
window and you know, you'redown, you're down a rabbit hole.
And it's fascinating. Butyeah, that's, that's, yeah, that's,
that's my side of it.
(06:57):
I agree totally. And sometimesguests are coming like, oh, do you
have a questions for me? And Isaid like, hey, I can send you bullet
points, but there's like noguarantee. We just not good after
second one goes somewhereelse. And guys, I gotta ask you,
I gotta ask you a question.You're, you're talking about fly
fishing. And what is theproportion of talking about technical
(07:19):
aspects of fly fishing orfishing on a certain body of water
and how big of a portion istalking about general environmental
issues and the state of theenvironment? Because obviously again,
before we hit the record onthis short interview, we talked about
this aspect of things. Socould you tell us a little bit like
(07:43):
how these two topics aremeshing in your podcast?
Well, I think we like to getthe balance, is what I'd say, Tommy.
So we don't, you know, in ourhead when we're looking at the Excel
sheet and planning out theepisodes we want to do, always a
mix, say in the next sixweeks, you'd always try and get a
mix of kind of a fisheryfocus, a kind of an angular interview.
(08:07):
So that's kind of more humaninterest. Fly tire as well. Also
maybe a bit of technicalexpertise, insights, tips, that kind
of stuff. And then also withinthat, then there is the environmental
and kind of news worthy type.So what we always try and do is we
try and especially make it ifit's very topical. Because what I
(08:29):
find is that if it's in thenews, if people are reading about
it, people are aware of it,it's a good way to kind of bring
it back to kind of go, listen,guys, I know you've probably seen
this, but let's find out a bitmore. A good example was recently
the Hillary harbor salmonescapees, the farm salmon escapees
there. So we followed that upa week later, like someone done,
(08:50):
we do an intro to everyepisode, kind of talk about the guests
and what's been happening,what's the fishing week been like
between us. And that week wementioned that story, you know, we
said, guys, in case you'reaware of this or, you know, if you
want a bit more information,just so you know, farm salmon escape
from killery consequences ofthis. So then a week later we followed
it up with Billy Smith, who isthe founder and spokesperson for
(09:10):
Galway Bay against SalmonCages. So he was telling us a bit
more about the work that hedoes in terms of against the Farm
Sam. And he brought us back tothe background about the campaigning,
how the organization was setup. So it gave us an opportunity
for about 45 minutes toactually get into the topic. So we
find the environmental stuffworks really well when you can kind
of make it topical andnewsworthy like that. And that's
(09:33):
the best way to do it. So it'sjust trying to get the balance all
the time because, you know,like, you know your outdoors podcast,
tell me, you know, there's somany areas to it. I know we're, I
know we're a niche. Peoplethink, oh, you're just fly fishing.
We're a niche within fishing.But even within fly fishing, you
know, there's the fly tying,there's salmon, there's branch out,
there's sea trout, there'slocks, there's rivers, there's salt
(09:54):
water, you know, so there's somany different branches. And I remember
one of the first things Tomsaid when I was saying to Tom about
doing weekly Tom's like, howare we going to do an episode every
week? Surely we're going torun out of ideas. But the thing is,
once you're in that space ofthinking of ideas, you'll never run
out of them, I find.
Yeah. And the other thing I'dsay there with when you just mentioned
about them, you know,environmental, unfortunately, they
(10:17):
tend to be as they're topical.They tend to be when something bad
has happened. You know, forexample, you know, what lock, nay
hit them. Hit the, you know,hit the headlines. Of course, then.
So, yeah, also as well covereda fish kill as well and the style.
So unfortunately, as I said,it tends to be when there's bad news
(10:41):
about. Well, you know, it goeswell beyond, obviously, as Dara said,
that goes well beyond the flyfishing aspect of us because that
concerns a lot more peoplethan just us fly fishermen. But probably,
maybe we should look at maybedoing a couple of good news stories
on that side. Dara. Justthinking over there, but, you know,
just maybe.
(11:02):
Yeah, exactly.
And this is the thing isorganic, of course, because, you
know, you suddenly think,well, yeah, why not try and offset
it with something good?
The other couple things Iwould say on the time is, you know,
we like to say, as anglerswere custodians of the rivers and
lakes. Okay. So that's, Ithink, a really important point to
hit home for people especiallywho aren't anglers and, you know,
(11:23):
might have a different opinionof it. We're the ones out in the
rivers. We're the ones out inthe lakes, out in the coast, you
know, and it's in our interestthat the environment is kept well
and it's looked after. So tothat extent where the eyes and ears
of what's going on in manyrespects and a lot of these places
where we fish, there's notmany people either. So, you know,
(11:44):
if anybody's going to get upthat no good, you know, they're going
to go to these isolated kindof areas that they're going to try
and affect the fish stocks orwhatever, poaching or whatever they're
doing generally to be anangler around to keep an eye on it.
So I think that's an importantpoint to make. There's a really interesting
point I think as well as, andyou know, with 20 odd years experience
(12:04):
in the media and this goesright back, I used to work in current
affairs and news journalismand live radio and it's changing,
but not that much,unfortunately. And I don't know about
you, Tommy, but I findenvironmental issues do not hit home
with people in the generalsense. And like I said, we first
(12:27):
started 20 years ago coveringclimate change and current affairs.
We knew it was a complete turnoff for people. You could now. And
even when we do environmentalissues, it's a case of how can we
do it slightly differently.And Tom, like you said, it's probably
a good idea. Maybe we need tolook at it kind of from a good news
angle as well is a how do youstop kind of repeating yourself?
(12:47):
Because a lot of times theseare like fish kills, farm salmon
escapes. How do you knowyou're banging your head off the
wall kind of saying the samething. How can you come up with a
new message that people willtake on board? But also with environmental
issues, unfortunately, thereality is with fly fishing, people
just want to go tell me whereI can catch fish and how I can catch
them. So you kind of have totake that balance right where you
(13:11):
kind of go, we're going to dothese, those episodes, but we're
also going to do a couple ofissues over here that they mightn't
be big numbers, they might notbe the massive numbers of popularity
that we're hoping for, but wethink they're right in doing them
because we have to raiseawareness to that. So it's trying
to get that balance right andhopefully eventually people will
go, do you know what? I likethe way you're doing that environmental
(13:31):
stuff as well. But I think wehave to kind of keep not hammering
home the message but trying tofind out new ways to do it as well.
And you're listen, I totallyagree. Environmental stuff is incredibly
important and kind of like Ikeep hammering and actually that's
how I found your podcast.Looking for information about problems
(13:52):
with the fisheries and thelocks. But at the same time, yeah,
we are I guess in a bad needof some good news as well. Folks.
Listen, tell us how to getinto your world, how it's best way
to interact with everythingthat you do other than subscribe
to your podcast. What else doyou do and what people can subscribe
(14:16):
to your newsletter or whateveryou have?
Yeah, I suppose. Look, we'reon Spotify, we're on Apple. IrelandFly.com
is the website. We have anewsletter so that goes out every
time there's a new episode.Inland Fisheries Ireland have a weekly
newsletter that goes outgiving you kind of fishing news and
reports. And again, any newepisodes will be there. The newsletter
(14:36):
is probably the best way likeI said, because we'll reach out via
email every time there's a newepisode. And yeah, keep an eye out
for us. Give it a shot. Ifyou're into fishing, fly fishing,
environmental bit ofeverything, flight time, you never
know, you might get interestedin the sport itself and pick up a
fly rod.
I have a special guest for youtoday, Tom and Dara from Ireland
on the Fly. Welcome to theshow, guys.
Hey, Tommy, thanks for having us.
Hey, Tommy, good to talk to you.
Ireland on the Fly isobviously a podcast. And everyone
who is listening to thispodcast should pause right now and
go on the app that you'reusing to listen to this podcast and
find Ireland on the Fly andsubscribe and then you can come back
(00:22):
to this podcast. And so onceyou've done that, Ireland on the
Fly is a podcast. But there'sso much more than just the podcast.
Could you give us a lay down?What is that you're doing?
Well, I suppose I might takeit up, Tom, just by way of background.
I suppose I started itprobably maybe four years ago, maybe.
I think I might have been atthis stage back in the midst of time.
(00:44):
I live in Tipperary, south ofIreland, near Cork. I'm a dove, originally
from the accent. And when wemoved out to Tipperary, I started
fly fishing. River shores nearme. I used to fish as a kid course
fishing lakes and canals andstuff. And I always wanted to take
up fly fishing. The shore soclose to me, it was the river shore
or there was the golf courseand I had plenty of friends who played
(01:07):
golf. So I just figured I'lldo fly fishing. I figured that'd
be a better, better waste ofmy time. I knew I couldn't do both.
I work in the media. I've beena radio producer. I was a radio producer
since 2001. I did my veryfirst podcast back in 2007, would
you believe, and we couldn'teven call it a podcast. We did it
with Leinster Rugby. We had tocall it Leinster Rugby Radio because
(01:30):
people back then wouldn't evenknow what a podcast was. And it was
probably only, I suppose I'vebeen working on podcasts since then
and it wasn't really untilabout 2016 that podcast I think started
really taking off. And as Isaid, I was fly fishing and it was,
became a. Started as a passionproject really. I was fascinated
first and foremost by, and thesubtitle of our podcast is the people
(01:51):
and Places of Fly Fishing inIreland. And for me, you know, I'm
not a very experienced angler.Well, especially when I was starting,
you know, I, you know, I'mnot, I'm not like Tom where I grew
up in the water and I'mimmersed in the life of fly fishing.
And I was fascinated actuallya lot by the people and the culture
and the history to do with flyfishing because there's Such a rich
(02:12):
fly fishing history inIreland. And so if I'd be fishing
around Ireland in any places,I'd always be like, what's that church
rune over there? Or what's,you know, why is the. Why is there
such and such a word for, youknow, trout in the Irish or something
like that? So I was alwaysreally fascinated in the culture
and the history, especiallythe 1800s. When you start delving
into it and you realize thekind of influence Irish people had
(02:36):
on fly fishing and the kind ofripple effect of that influence around
the world. So started thatpodcast was like anything when you're.
I don't know about you, Tommy,but I find when I was doing it on
my own, it becomes difficult,you know, to try and kind of keep
doing it week in, week out andbe interesting to get your insights
on it. And I knew Tom fromfishing, from a documentary I did
(02:57):
on mayfly season and Carb andTommy, you can never shut him up.
He's been very quiet at themoment because I. Because I'm a bit
of a rev gift of the gab aswell. And I always got on with Tom
and I approached Tom, what wasit Tom, about two years ago? Was
it three years ago?
Two and a half years ago now.
I think two and a half. And Isaid, tom, would you be interested
(03:18):
in coming on board? Andbecause Tom, Tom's an international
angler, he's the proper flyfishing angler here. You know, I'm
just the kind of enthusiasticamateur. Tom is the professional,
the guide. And I like to thinkit works. I don't know what Tom says.
We're still doing it. We evenfish together. We haven't fallen
(03:38):
out yet.
Oh, that works too.
So that's. Yeah, so that's byway of it. And you know, I think
most importantly, Tommy, weenjoy it. You know, there's loads
of it. I remember and Tom willtell this story is, you know, we
come up with the ideastogether with so many. We've so many
ideas or bouncing ideas offeach other, but we enjoy doing it.
I think that's the mostimportant thing.
And you covered a lot of mostof it there, Dar. Yeah. So I came
(04:01):
on because my background hasnothing to do with podcasts, anything
like that journalism orwhatever. Tommy, my. I'm. I'm a full
time guide here on lock carbonlock mask. I've been fishing since
I was near to a duck. My dadfished, but my grandparents fished
when I wasn't guiding in my,my lifetime so far, I actually worked
(04:23):
in the angling trade And Iworked for fly fishing company Hardy
and Graze for seven years. Iwas their Irish, Irish sales manager.
So basically all I've known inmy life has been fly fishing, particularly
since I've been working. Soyeah, and just Dara approached me
and I had no clue about itwhatsoever. And I wasn't. We. I listened
(04:47):
to a couple but I think justto cut to it, yeah, it works. What
we do just works together. Imean, you know, Daryl tell you, you
know that he said to me firstoff, and I now know to be true, we
need to be regular. He says weneed to do it every week. And I went,
not a notion. I can't seemyself doing that. And. But I do
(05:10):
know because I understand abit now after two and a half years,
yeah, you do need it to beregular. But the reason I'm regular
is as Dara says, love doingit. Absolutely love doing it. And
it's very true what Dara saysthere, you know. The subtitle as
such is the people and placeswe got to talk to so many different
and such a varied amount ofpeople. I'm like, you know, I can
(05:33):
go on from, you know, fromguys with some really interesting
views about, you know, historyto some really fascinating insight
scientific wise to guys that,you know, just crack me up. We're
just talking there earlier onthere's guys that, you know, I, when
(05:53):
I'm chatting to them, theyjust crack me up. And you know, it's
been so varied and there's avery rich history of fly fishing
all right in Ireland. And, butalso, not only is the, it's so varied
and that's the bit that getsme going and like we were talking
there now today about, youknow, what we have to do now for
(06:13):
the next couple of guestswe're doing now and this is great
and you know, Darren saying, Igot that, that'll be brilliant. And
I actually can't wait to talkto some of these guys sometimes I
really can't. And I'd like tothink it comes across that when we're
talking to guys and maybe youknow that yourself, Tommy, I think
we're certain there earlier onthat you get to talk to these people.
It's fantastic. It really is.And you know, also as well, I know
(06:36):
sometimes we have questionsworked out beforehand and it goes
way off the script because youknow the guy will tell you something
and you go, wow, that, that isso amazing. I want to find out more
about that. And you know, allthe scripted questions are out the
window and you know, you'redown, you're down a rabbit hole.
And it's fascinating. Butyeah, that's, that's, yeah, that's,
that's my side of it.
(06:57):
I agree totally. And sometimesguests are coming like, oh, do you
have a questions for me? And Isaid like, hey, I can send you bullet
points, but there's like noguarantee. We just not good after
second one goes somewhereelse. And guys, I gotta ask you,
I gotta ask you a question.You're, you're talking about fly
fishing. And what is theproportion of talking about technical
(07:19):
aspects of fly fishing orfishing on a certain body of water
and how big of a portion istalking about general environmental
issues and the state of theenvironment? Because obviously again,
before we hit the record onthis short interview, we talked about
this aspect of things. Socould you tell us a little bit like
(07:43):
how these two topics aremeshing in your podcast?
Well, I think we like to getthe balance, is what I'd say, Tommy.
So we don't, you know, in ourhead when we're looking at the Excel
sheet and planning out theepisodes we want to do, always a
mix, say in the next sixweeks, you'd always try and get a
mix of kind of a fisheryfocus, a kind of an angular interview.
(08:07):
So that's kind of more humaninterest. Fly tire as well. Also
maybe a bit of technicalexpertise, insights, tips, that kind
of stuff. And then also withinthat, then there is the environmental
and kind of news worthy type.So what we always try and do is we
try and especially make it ifit's very topical. Because what I
(08:29):
find is that if it's in thenews, if people are reading about
it, people are aware of it,it's a good way to kind of bring
it back to kind of go, listen,guys, I know you've probably seen
this, but let's find out a bitmore. A good example was recently
the Hillary harbor salmonescapees, the farm salmon escapees
there. So we followed that upa week later, like someone done,
(08:50):
we do an intro to everyepisode, kind of talk about the guests
and what's been happening,what's the fishing week been like
between us. And that week wementioned that story, you know, we
said, guys, in case you'reaware of this or, you know, if you
want a bit more information,just so you know, farm salmon escape
from killery consequences ofthis. So then a week later we followed
it up with Billy Smith, who isthe founder and spokesperson for
(09:10):
Galway Bay against SalmonCages. So he was telling us a bit
more about the work that hedoes in terms of against the Farm
Sam. And he brought us back tothe background about the campaigning,
how the organization was setup. So it gave us an opportunity
for about 45 minutes toactually get into the topic. So we
find the environmental stuffworks really well when you can kind
of make it topical andnewsworthy like that. And that's
(09:33):
the best way to do it. So it'sjust trying to get the balance all
the time because, you know,like, you know your outdoors podcast,
tell me, you know, there's somany areas to it. I know we're, I
know we're a niche. Peoplethink, oh, you're just fly fishing.
We're a niche within fishing.But even within fly fishing, you
know, there's the fly tying,there's salmon, there's branch out,
there's sea trout, there'slocks, there's rivers, there's salt
(09:54):
water, you know, so there's somany different branches. And I remember
one of the first things Tomsaid when I was saying to Tom about
doing weekly Tom's like, howare we going to do an episode every
week? Surely we're going torun out of ideas. But the thing is,
once you're in that space ofthinking of ideas, you'll never run
out of them, I find.
Yeah. And the other thing I'dsay there with when you just mentioned
about them, you know,environmental, unfortunately, they
(10:17):
tend to be as they're topical.They tend to be when something bad
has happened. You know, forexample, you know, what lock, nay
hit them. Hit the, you know,hit the headlines. Of course, then.
So, yeah, also as well covereda fish kill as well and the style.
So unfortunately, as I said,it tends to be when there's bad news
(10:41):
about. Well, you know, it goeswell beyond, obviously, as Dara said,
that goes well beyond the flyfishing aspect of us because that
concerns a lot more peoplethan just us fly fishermen. But probably,
maybe we should look at maybedoing a couple of good news stories
on that side. Dara. Justthinking over there, but, you know,
just maybe.
(11:02):
Yeah, exactly.
And this is the thing isorganic, of course, because, you
know, you suddenly think,well, yeah, why not try and offset
it with something good?
The other couple things Iwould say on the time is, you know,
we like to say, as anglerswere custodians of the rivers and
lakes. Okay. So that's, Ithink, a really important point to
hit home for people especiallywho aren't anglers and, you know,
(11:23):
might have a different opinionof it. We're the ones out in the
rivers. We're the ones out inthe lakes, out in the coast, you
know, and it's in our interestthat the environment is kept well
and it's looked after. So tothat extent where the eyes and ears
of what's going on in manyrespects and a lot of these places
where we fish, there's notmany people either. So, you know,
(11:44):
if anybody's going to get upthat no good, you know, they're going
to go to these isolated kindof areas that they're going to try
and affect the fish stocks orwhatever, poaching or whatever they're
doing generally to be anangler around to keep an eye on it.
So I think that's an importantpoint to make. There's a really interesting
point I think as well as, andyou know, with 20 odd years experience
(12:04):
in the media and this goesright back, I used to work in current
affairs and news journalismand live radio and it's changing,
but not that much,unfortunately. And I don't know about
you, Tommy, but I findenvironmental issues do not hit home
with people in the generalsense. And like I said, we first
(12:27):
started 20 years ago coveringclimate change and current affairs.
We knew it was a complete turnoff for people. You could now. And
even when we do environmentalissues, it's a case of how can we
do it slightly differently.And Tom, like you said, it's probably
a good idea. Maybe we need tolook at it kind of from a good news
angle as well is a how do youstop kind of repeating yourself?
(12:47):
Because a lot of times theseare like fish kills, farm salmon
escapes. How do you knowyou're banging your head off the
wall kind of saying the samething. How can you come up with a
new message that people willtake on board? But also with environmental
issues, unfortunately, thereality is with fly fishing, people
just want to go tell me whereI can catch fish and how I can catch
them. So you kind of have totake that balance right where you
(13:11):
kind of go, we're going to dothese, those episodes, but we're
also going to do a couple ofissues over here that they mightn't
be big numbers, they might notbe the massive numbers of popularity
that we're hoping for, but wethink they're right in doing them
because we have to raiseawareness to that. So it's trying
to get that balance right andhopefully eventually people will
go, do you know what? I likethe way you're doing that environmental
(13:31):
stuff as well. But I think wehave to kind of keep not hammering
home the message but trying tofind out new ways to do it as well.
And you're listen, I totallyagree. Environmental stuff is incredibly
important and kind of like Ikeep hammering and actually that's
how I found your podcast.Looking for information about problems
(13:52):
with the fisheries and thelocks. But at the same time, yeah,
we are I guess in a bad needof some good news as well. Folks.
Listen, tell us how to getinto your world, how it's best way
to interact with everythingthat you do other than subscribe
to your podcast. What else doyou do and what people can subscribe
(14:16):
to your newsletter or whateveryou have?
Yeah, I suppose. Look, we'reon Spotify, we're on Apple. IrelandFly.com
is the website. We have anewsletter so that goes out every
time there's a new episode.Inland Fisheries Ireland have a weekly
newsletter that goes outgiving you kind of fishing news and
reports. And again, any newepisodes will be there. The newsletter
(14:36):
is probably the best way likeI said, because we'll reach out via
email every time there's a newepisode. And yeah, keep an eye out
for us. Give it a shot. Ifyou're into fishing, fly fishing,
environmental bit ofeverything, flight time, you never
know, you might get interestedin the sport itself and pick up a
fly rod.
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