I Shoot and Fish E-Zine

August 2012 A collection of stories from around the web

I Shoot and Fish E-Zine August 2012 2

Pictured from The Wild Deer Association

Page 13

21lb Cod For The Sarah Marie Page 16

11lb Bass For Johnny Page 17

Buttolo Roe Deer Call Page 18

Team Wild TV Page 20

Fly Rod Actions Page 22

Rise at Birr Castle Page 28

Hywel Morgan Page 41

Country Side Alliance on Line Market Place Page 43

National Country Fair Review Page 44

lunch Time With Grizzley Page 8

Lord Powerscourt Page 10

26lb Ling Page 16

Lawrence Finney Page 37

I Shoot and Fish e-Zine August 2012 3

Davie Mc Phail Page 55

The Basics of Gun Dog Water Training

Page 56

Pearch Fishing On The Pole Page 58

Fields Sports Channel TV Page 59

How to Find Trout To Fl Fish To Page 64

Airgun TV Page 73

Catch of The Week Page 81

Hunter Vermin Page 85

Country Pursuits TV Page 88

The Shooting Show Page 90

Memorial Angling Match On The Burrow Page 91

Power Team Lures Page 46

Kids Are The Stars Page 47

Jumbo Hunt Gone Wrong Page 51

Winchester SX3 Red Performance Review Page 77

I Shoot and Fish E-Zine August 2012 4

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I Shoot and Fish E-Zine August 2012 6

Editors Notes

Another day another dollar or so the saying goes. This year is already 8 months old and not long now till the opening of game season. I am hoping to be back shooting a few bunnies from September as we usually let them breed during the summer months. Last month I wrote about my new CZ 452 and that I had applied for a substitute licence with a modera-tor. I had m interview about 3 weeks ago now and they have posted my licence to me twice both times with the old rifle details on it. As I write I have still not got the licence back with the correct details on it. Here’s hoping it here on time for Christmas! While on this subject I found it amazing that I had to do an interview for a moderator. First off the inspec-tor that interviewed me told me he knows nothing about guns or rifles. How can I explain my reasons for wanting a moderator to someone that know nothing about them? It’s like doing an interview for a job and being interviewed by someone that does-n’t know what’s needed to do the job. Secondly what harm can a moderator do? Maybe if I through it at someone it might hurt. (Though I have been told I through like a girl so maybe it wouldn’t even hurt) My point is wouldn’t it be wiser to have to interview for the rifle at least the first time. It’s the rifle that will cause harm if not handled correctly.

I asked the inspector about why I had to be interviewed and his answer was ‘they are afraid it will be like a sniper on a roof shooting people with no noise’. This shows a real lack of understanding of rifles. So they interview me to see if I am a nut case in which they will deny me the moderator but I can still get my ri-fle?.........Really?.......... What makes it worse is I could just and buy the moderator anyways. Only in Ireland.

On the August bank holiday week we were at the new Game Fair in Borris, Co. Car-low. Read about it on page 44. On the 25

th & 26

th August Irelands largest game and country fair is taking place and

there can only be one place for it Birr, Co. Offaly hosted by the Great Game Fairs of

Ireland. This year with all the cancelation of shows in England Birr to bigger and bet-

ter than ever read all about it on page 28. We will have a stand there drop by and

say hello to Pat, Eoin or myself.

8 I Shoot and Fish E-Zine August 2012

Lunch Time with GRIZZLEY BY Anthony Baggott

Grizzley, the hard-bitten boatman, once remarked that the best appetiser an angler could have is a good mornings fishing. I've often thought of his words now as he no longer fishes ,the years having taken their toll. It definitely adds an edge to your ap-petite to have a bit of sport over you, and the lunch on an island should be a special and leisurely affair. A flask is all right for a cup of tea in the boat ,to freshen you up for the four o clock rise but for the lunch you definitely need a Kelly kettle or some other means of boiling fresh water. Grizzley had an ancient blackened kettle which he proudly told me his grandfather had used on the killing field of the Somme in the great war. I never knew whether to believe him or not, but sometimes I would gaze it as it boiled and thought of the comfort it might have brought in the long terrible nights as the shells burst above the trenches.

Grizzley had a particular rou-tine ,he would run the boat up on the lee side of the island ,leap ashore ,with his tobacco knife unsheathed ,cut a forked stick and with a few bits of dry ten-der ,soon have the kettle sus-pended over a smoking fire .Any time I smell wood smoke now I'm instantly transported to Saints Island ,and I can close my eyes and picture the scene ,Grizzley stretching him-self on his poncho ,which he used a s a groundsheet, and poking at the fire with a stick as he waited for the water to reach a rolling boil. As an aside he

used a poncho to protect himself when driving I into big waves and as an extra cover on those days of solid straight down rain ,when no raingear that I've ever come across can keep you totally dry. I've never seen anybody using one since. He also had a curious way of starting a fire on a wet day, when sticks were damp. From the inside pocket of his ancient fishing jacket he would produce a handful of what I can only describe as the type of horse hair stuffing used in old mattresses. It had a curious smell which leads me to believe it had been dipped in something or other, but it never failed to start a fire even with green wet twigs. Two hardboiled eggs, a Junk (he called it )of cold boiled bacon, and half a cake of

homemade soda bread was his repast ,washed down by a few mugs of super strong

tea. He had a huge mug, chipped and cracked, of which he was hugely protective.

In the early days I made to take it to the lake to wash it with my own, when his growl

stopped me. Leave it he barked ,it would not be good if you broke it. Trembling, I

gingerly handed it back to him as if it was a Ming vase. When his appetite was

sated ,the camp tidied ,rubbish burnt ,he would stretch and produce his crooked

I Shoot and Fish E-Zine August 2012 9

stem and tin of Mick mc Quaid tobacco. I still have a tin which he gave me ,I use it to store dryflies ,splashed with a drop of Mucilin and they are ready to use in the heat of battle. He would soon have pungent smoke wafting skywards, and after a few good pulls he would talk. That was the time I learned most from this man, when he softened, when his guard dropped .Strangely enough, not long after I met him I gave up ciga-rettes,which I had stated smoking at the age of 14 ,and took up a few puffs of the pipe before I go to bed, a practice I unfortunately do at the present time. During this time, lying on his back. puffing contentedly ,he talked ,sometimes animatedly, some-times quietly, and for a while we became equals, me a young lad of twenty, him a man of middle age ,and exchanged confidences ,worries, mutual experiences, and banal small talk which I now realise helped inform my view of life ,and what's really important when you strip away all the small stuff. When he knocked out the pipe and stood up, this marked the end of the lunch break and indeed the therapy ses-sion ,and the slagging would begin again. “Well young feller, are you going to scare them away with more of your Christmas

trees” he would say referring to my home tied flies, or some other putdown. Many

years later he told me he enjoyed.

the game of getting a rise out of me, which happened rarely, as I was too terrified of him. During one of our lunchtime chats he told me he had once boated 22 days in a row one Mayfly, without a break. “I woke up one night and the bed was swaying, riding the waves" he drew deeply on the crooked stem pipe, I knew it was time to quit then.” He never enquired anything about me or where I came from or what I did, but strangely enough one night the phone rang and his gravelly voice was on the line. He described some symptoms which were worrying him, as he was boating in a competition for the next few days .I was in training as a psychiatric nurse at the time and was able, with a bit of consulting of a text book, to diagnose that he was suffer-ing from vertigo and was able to recommend an over the counter treatment. Thanks he said gruffly and slammed the phone down. I scratched my head and thought over it: he knows more about me than he lets on. I looked forward to his lunchtime tales of guys he had boated .Puff of the pipe: “,I had a fellow from London last week, big car ,fancy gear. Asked what he did, he re-plied he was in the city. I said I didn’t ask you where you lived, I asked you what you did for a crust.” Another blast:” funny buck, wore a cap with two peaks, I told him he didn’t know whether he was coming or going!!” “Last week I boated a buck from Dublin, told me he was a surgeon .Might be a great lad with the knife but I’d prefer someone else to sew me up. He lost a good trout, pulled off his tail fly and left a pigtail on the mono.” Another blast off smoke sky-wards. He rose a little from the comfort of his poncho, and a big smile covered his craggy

features ,and he winked at me. Nobodies fool was our rough and ready boatman.

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Lord Powerscourt

The 7th Viscount, the 1st Sika and ……

The 1st hybrid. Powerscourt Park in Enniskerry county Wicklow is over a hundred and fifty years old, at one time the estate measured over 36,000 acres. Today, most of it is owned by the NPWS and makes up a large part of the Wicklow National park. In the early 1850’s only Red and Fallow deer occupied the park. By the late 1850’s Mervyn Edward Wingfield, better know as Lord Powerscourt the 7th Viscount of Powerscourt estate, decided to introduce other species mainly for ornamental purposes. These in-cluded Sambar, Nylghaies, Axis deer, llamas, Elands, Wapiti and Moufflons.

In 1860, renowned as an avid collector of antler and horn game, Lord Powerscourt was offered a number of deer of Japanese origin, a stag and three hinds from a well known London animal dealer named W.Jamrach. These new editions to his collection along with previous intro-ductions apparently all ended up in a small 100 acre park. It was also reported at the time that during one period they were all living together in one single enclosure. Placing Red deer, Wapiti, Sika and Sambar in the one enclosure was not such a good idea as they all belong to the genus Cervus and crossbreeding or hybridisation was inevitable, which Lord Powerscourt was to discover later. But I very much doubt if he was conscious of this at the time. An account of his experiments first appeared in the Proceed-ings of the Zoological Society in 1884 & Whitehead 1964. The Japanese Sika flourished more so than any of the other alien species as conditions in Ireland proved as agreeable to

them as Japan had been. Within just twenty four years of their introduction, the herd ex-

ceeded over a hundred animals, even despite the fact that two or three were shot annually and more were sold or given away. It is believed that during the troubles of 1922 a number of Sika and Red deer escaped from the park into the Wicklow mountains. Lord Powerscourt’s fascination for ant-lers would appear to have been widely known, not just here in the British Isles but much further afield, and it would not have been uncommon for an agent or scout in Europe to relay back informa-tion of amazing heads.

Mervyn Edward Wingfield (1836-1904)

7th Viscount Powerscourt

In 1974 almost the entire interior was destroyed by fire..

Powerscourt house as it stands today.

http://www.irishdeersociety.ie

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The picture shows a set of antlers that Lord Powerscourt bought in 1862, such was the interest in fine deer heads at the time that the “The Field, The Country Gentle-man’s Newspaper” decided to pub-lish an article on it. The head ap-parently belonged to a person who lived in Transylvania and was sold out of his palace, after his death, to a travelling merchant and again to a shopkeeper in Vienna. It was here that an agent of Lord Power-scourt discovered them. Power-scourt insisted that a portrait be done of the head and some critical measurements taken, his agent also decided to stand in the por-trait to give him an idea of their enormous size. I am quite sure that once he received the portrait

of the antlers he would have imme-diately given the instructions for the purchase to be made.

The head had a total of 44 points (tines) and weighed 74lb (33 kgs), the main beams measured 68in. It also had a massive 65in span. Apparently there was considerable amount of de-bate as to whether these antlers were genuine or not, their authenticity would be questioned and challenged even today, even allowing for genetic manipulation this would seem incredulous. However, the trophy is still the number one Western Euro-pean Red stag (Cervus elaphus hippelaphus) on the Rowland Wards records of big game. Powerscourt’s collection was comparable to that of Brooke’s or Whitehead’s and consisted of some outstanding Red stags taken from Germany, Hungary, and Po-land. He also had a large collection of North American Wapiti trophies that he se-cured between the years of 1895 and 1902, he was to bag a total of seven top class trophies during one trip to Wyoming in 1898. Among his fine collection were a number of Megaloceros giganteus (Irish elk) and Prehistoric Specimens (C.e. Scoticus). Another of his trophies, one of exceptional quality, was displayed at an exhibition in London; BRITISH DEER HEADS organised by “Country Life” in 1913, nine years after his death. It was a Red stag with 23 points, the main beams measured; right 38½ inches and left 40 inches. Sadly, in 1974 a fire engulfed the great mansion and along with great loses of fine art and antiquities almost the entire collection of natural history was destroyed.

Lord Powerscourt’s Deer Head from Transylvania and Mr.

Buckland

http://www.irishdeersociety.ie

I Shoot and Fish E-Zine August 2012 12

Well know deer enthusiast Liam McGarry shows one of the hybrid progeny from Lord Powerscourt experiments. The F1 type, Sika/Red cross is dated 1895. The stag is esti-mated to be about 4 years old. The inscription on the skull states that the stag was shot prior to the rut of 1895 be-cause it had killed another stag in a fight the previous year. It is quite easy to see from the antler form how this stag could be a fierce opponent in battle. Although a pure Sika would have been no match for this guy, it is more likely that his rivals were Red stags and these long sharp beams would get inside the guard of any red. The carcass weighed in at 14 stone. This wonderful monument of Victorian crafts-manship was made entirely of iron and is of-ten overlooked by many visitors to the park. It is highly probable that this is where the first Sika stag and three hind were held when they first arrived here in 1860 from Japan. Iron deer fences were quite expensive at the time. It would have been necessary to have at least eleven strands of steel wire. While the upper strands were placed approximately nine inches apart, it was essen-

tial to place the lower strands closer together, usually about six inches apart to prevent deer from stepping through. This style of fencing was much kinder to stags than the box wire used today, in which stags very often find themselves entangled. A century and a half may have passed since their introduction into Power-scourt estate back in 1860. But still, Japanese Sika are very much plentiful in the area today and I suspect that this will be the case for a very long time to come. We also inherited another legacy of Lord Powerscourt “the hybrid”, and as

the Sika population continues to dis-perse, then so will this problem. Japa-

nese Sika in the area can be seen on most days as they become accustom to the many daily visitors to the waterfall. J.M

Liam McGarry shows one of the first Red/Sika cross

Liam is seen above standing in the entrance gate to one of the

deer pens that Lord Powerscourt had constructed.

http://www.irishdeersociety.ie

Pictures from the wild deer associations recent agm courtesy of John Delea

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I Shoot and Fish E-Zine August 2012 15

26lb Ling for German angler onboard the Sioux in Valentia

Siegy Grabher had a great catch aboard the Sioux! Uli from Ger-many caught this amazing ling (132 cm, 26 lbs)!

Congratulations!

Uli with his 26lb Ling. A fine fish.

Three people on board the Sioux began this week by catching 52 Pollack, 7 Ling, 20 Coal-fish, 1 Cod, 4 Pouting, 3 Cuckoo Wrasse, 3 Spotted Dogfish, 1 Octopus and 1 Sea Cucum-ber Siegy & Billi Grabher Valentia Fishing Phone/Fax: +353-(0)66-9476420 Mobile: +353-(0)87-6871267 E-Mail: info@valentiafishing.com Web: http://www.valentiafishing.com

http://fishinginireland.info

I Shoot and Fish E-Zine August 2012 16

A WHOPPING 21 LB. COD FOR THE SARAH

MARIE OFF BALLYCOTTON, CORK

Skipper of the Sarah Marie, Colm Sliney, operating out of Ballycotton on the eastern edge of the Cork Harbour Angling Hub grounds, reports that his season is really af-ter picking up. Mackerel have now shown up in numbers providing a plentiful bait supply. The biggest plus, though, is the abundance of good cod. On many of his fa-voured marks good numbers of cod are showing and many are of a good size. The best in recent trips has been this whopper of 21lbs.

Compliments of: Pat O’Shea, Cork Angling Hub http://corkharbouranglinghub.blogspot.ie

http://fishinginireland.info

I Shoot and Fish E-Zine August 2012 17 http://fishinginireland.info

Compliments of: Pat O’Shea, Cork Angling Hub http://corkharbouranglinghub.blogspot.ie

FANORE BASS GRABS THE BAIT BUT QUICK THINK-

ING JOHNNY BRINGS HIM ASHORE

An 11lb Bass was caught by Mr. Johnny Cregan from the shore at Fanore Co.Clare. The Bass caught the anglers by surprise when it took

the bait as the rod was pulled off its mount and into the surf.

Johnny Cregan with his 11lb Bass caught at Fanore. Mr. Johnny Cre-

gan Snr standing behind. Photo taken by Mr Pat Moore

I Shoot and Fish E-Zine August 2012 18

Buttolo Roe Deer Call

Take the rubber ball in your hand so that the thumb lies in the middle of the top, as illustration A shows. A slight pressure is sufficient to produce the most natural mat-ing calling of the roe. See illustration B. To produce the terror cry, press with the thumb quickly but moderately till it reaches the bottom of the rubber ball, whereby the mechanism sets itself in motion and so forms the terror cry-decoy, as shown in illustration C. The mating call is reproduced by applying pressure to rubber bulb and thus chang-ing shape from position A to position B (see illustration). The fitted cap has one front and two side holes openings to form the tunes. To produce a tender, natural mating call, keep one or two of the openings shut; if you wish to keep one hand free. Insert small wood pegs through openings on both sides of the rubber cap, and in this way you can keep your gun in shooting position while decoying. If all three openings are covered, the call will sound especially soft and subdued. Mating Call Two blasts with a 3 second pause between blasts (fie . . . fie), then 10 second pause, then three blasts fie with a 3 second pause between blasts (fie . . . fie . . . fie), again 10 second pause, then two blasts, and so forth as before. fie 3/s fie 10/s ———- fie 3/s fie 3/s fie 10/s ———- fie 3/s fie 10/s ———- fie 3/s fie 3/s fie 10/s ———- fie 3/s fie 10/s ———- fie 3/s fie 3/s fie ——– Then two to three minutes rest, where after the whole theme can be repeated. Be-fore beginning to decoy, pay attention that the stand is mounted as noiselessly as possible.

http://www.thehuntinglife.com

19 I Shoot and Fish E-Zine August 2012

Terror Call Take the rubber ball in your hand as is shown on illustration A and, press ball from position A (see illustration) into position C, down to the bottom of the ball, as in the mating call. Thereby a tune is produced similar to a “pia”. If one has obtained the necessary firmness, then the decoying is done according to he following theme, towit: once “pi”, then short pause; then “pia” with 3 second pause, “pia” with 3 sec-onds pause, “pia” with 5 seconds pause, “pia” with 3 seconds pause, “pia” with 3 seconds pause, “pia” with 5 seconds pause, “pia with 3 seconds pause, “pia” with 3 seconds pause, “pia” with 2 minutes pause and so forth. The last tunes are to be made with shaking hand; in this case, the ball is to be pressed quicker. This is as follows: pia —–pia 3/s pia 3/s pia 5/s —– pia 3/s pia 3/s pia15/s —– Roe Calling Tips One should not decoy too much. The less and the more quiet one decoys, the better the results when roe calling. When beginning to decoy, start decoying from out of your pocket or wrap a cloth around the decoy so that the tune can only be heard for a small distance. “when windy weather, omit to decoy” . After the decoying, one should at least remain quietly at the stand for 15 mins, as it may happen, that when leaving the stand too quickly, the roe buck may spring off bleating. A.Buttolo

http://www.thehuntinglife.com

I Shoot and Fish E-Zine August 2012 20

HUNTING MUNTJAC DEER WITH A SAUER 202 OUT-

BACK IN OXFORDSHIRE

http://youtu.be/88wfMlDjXPU

Team Wild TV: Episode 1. Team Wild's Ian Harford goes out after one of Britain's most unusual deer, the muntjac, with Keith Watson of deerstalking agent Cervus UK. They are looking for these fascinating deer in the countryside of the beautiful Chiltern

Hills.

I Shoot and Fish E-Zine August 2012 21

WILDFOWLING IN SOMERSET WITH AN ARMSAN

A612 SHOTGUN

http://youtu.be/StSl6hnlQVI

Team Wild TV: Episode 2. Bridgwater Bay Wildfowlers hosts Ian Harford of Team Wild for a day of fabulous duck flighting, walked-up snipe and springing teal. We're

in the South-West of England, several feet under sea level on fields that are no more than a thin skin of peat that floats on the marsh. Jump up and down in one

corner of a field here and a wildfowler in another feels it.

22 I Shoot and Fish E-Zine August 2012

FLY-ROD ‘ACTIONS’ - WHAT DO THEY MEAN?

I guess one of the more confusing elements of fly-fishing is the hotchpotch of

terms used to describe the “actions” of fly-rods. Hopefully I can dispel some

of this confusion and help making a decision on what fly-rod to buy easier.

Pared right down to basics, the term ‘action’ describes the way a rod bends. But

don’t all rods bend the same way I hear you mutter? Well no, they don’t. It would all

be very easy if rods bent in one constant arc from butt to tip (parabolic), but most

don’t.

They don’t bend in a constant arc because a rod is tapered from butt to tip - the thin

section of the rod near the tip bends much more than the thicker mid-section of the

rod, which bends more than the butt section.

Rod makers are able to control the ‘action’ of a rod, the way it bends and flexes, by

making adjustments to the way the building material is laid-up.

A fly-rod has to perform two main functions, cast a fly-line and help land a fish

once it is hooked.

The casting action of the rod is the prime function, and should be seen as being way

more important in freshwater trout fishing than its ability to help land fish.

The reason is simple, when fly-fishing you do a great deal more casting than you do

fighting a fish. There is a case for calling the sport 'fly-casting' rather than fly-fishing.

To cast well an angler must be able to ‘load’ a rod during the backcast - that is put

the maximum bend in the rod at the end of the backcast, so when the forward cast

is made, the rod, trying to straighten, imparts the maximum acceleration to the fly

line, above and in addition to the acceleration the angler imparts to the cast.

This is where a rod action becomes of great importance – choosing the wrong ac-

tion for the type of casting you will mainly be doing,

and matches your casting ability, can make achieving

your casting objectives difficult.

Back a few years rod actions were generally de-

scribed as having ‘fast’, ‘medium’ or ‘slow’ actions:

A fast action was a rod where most of the bend was in the top third of the rod – the tip section.

A medium action described a rod that bent mostly from the middle of the rod – the mid section.

A slow action meant the rod bent throughout its

length – sometimes close to parabolic

http://www.bishfish.co.nz

23 I Shoot and Fish E-Zine August 2012

So, why ‘fast’ action?

Well because a fast action rod does not load so far down the rod, when the rod

straightens at the end of the cast the tip moves less distance than the tip of a me-

dium or slow action rod.

So the fast action rod is a rod that straightens faster, than a medium action rod,

which straightens faster than a slow action rod.

All that is pretty easy to digest, but things got muddy.

We need to remember that the basic sequence for a good cast is ‘slow – fast – stop

dead’. That is, start the casting stroke (forward or back cast) moving the rod slowly

as it starts to load, then accelerate the rod tip just before the end of the cast, and

come to a dead stop, allowing the rod to unload (straighten) and send the fly-line on

its way.

One of the biggest hurdles to teaching someone to cast is to stop the ten-

dency to put too much ‘power’ into the cast.

Men, especially younger men, are a particular problem here. Some have some diffi-

culty coming to grips with the fact that casting is all about timing and very little or

nothing about power and strength.

But the development of graphite and carbon fibre rods lead manufactures deep into

the marketing jungle of ‘feature-itis’, and miles away from explaining the 'benefits' of

the new rods.

(A quick lurch into Marketing 101 – features are facts - benefits are what the fea-

tures will do for you.)

So we as anglers were assailed from all sides by fly-rod advertising, listing an ap-

parently endless range of features of the new rods. Unfortunately this kind of adver-

tising continues today.

Reading the features you would get the impression that this year’s crop of rods will

allow you to cast from here to eternity, with a rod so light you need to tie it to your

wrist to stop it blowing away.

These advertisements all featuring 30 something macho men, with carefully mani-

cured 3 day old beards, caps pulled way down, and stony stares hidden behind

mega-buck sunnies,(probably gearing up to fish for 5 inch rainbows in a four foot

wide stream). The message is clear – if you are not using the latest and greatest rod

technology – you are a bunny.

Set against their own marketing messages, I think many rod manufacturers started

to run scared of the ‘medium’ and ‘slow’ rod action descriptions, as it clashed with

the tone and content of their marketing.

Rod buyers, new buyers especially, felt a medium or slow rod was somehow less

effective and powerful at casting than a ‘fast’ rod. After all what gung-ho angler

wants a 'slow' rod when there are 'fast' rods on offer.

http://www.bishfish.co.nz

24 I Shoot and Fish E-Zine August 2012

From my experience when I owned my tackle shop – too many anglers bought fast

action rods because they thought it would help them cast further. Faint hope.

So new terms were introduced to make various rod actions more attractive to a

range of buyers and satisfy their real needs and wants. That is where the water can

get really muddy.

New action descriptions started to creep in; “tip-flex”, “mid-flex”, “through-flex”, “tip-

action”, “mid-action”, and “through-action”. There are more. Most of these descrip-

tors were designed specifically to counteract the notion that fast rods were more

‘powerful’ than slower action rods.

Because the fact is no one ‘action’ is more powerful than another.

So what are the key benefits and downsides of each type of broad action category?

(And what follows are generalisations.)

First let’s look at casting.

Fast Action Rods (Includes tip-flex and tip-action et al.)

These rods have most of the bend or flex in the top third of the rod. They load faster

than most other actions, and un-load faster. Because of this, the arc the rod tip

(note: the tip section, not necessarily the whole rod) moves through from loaded to

un-loaded tends to be shorter, and things happen faster.

In the hands of a competent or expert caster a fast action rod can produce longer

casts than other rod actions. But the devil is in the detail, read that bit about “in the

hands of a competent or expert caster” again.

In general faster action rods make learning to cast well for those new to the sport

more difficult than it could or should be. It is harder to get the timing right and timing

is all when casting. The basic casting sequence flows quickly - often too quickly.

In fact, and to their credit, some rod makers do advertise the fact that the fastest

rods are more suitable for ‘expert’ casters.

Some anglers (me included) find fast action rods are good for casting heavy shoot-

ing-heads, on line-weights over 6wt and on up to 10wt and more.

http://www.bishfish.co.nz

25 I Shoot and Fish E-Zine August 2012

But, again, learning to cast heavy shooting-heads before you are a competent caster, on any ac-

tion rod is difficult.

Casting heavy flies (streamers) and weighted nymphs can be difficult to impossible for less than

skilled casters. Heavy flies and nymphs tend to magnify casting difficulties and faults regardless

of the action of the rod, and greatly magnify the problems imposed by fast action rods.

Things just move too fast, timing tanks, and a streamer fly hanging off an ear or smashing

through a rod is not an unusual consequence.

Medium Action Rods (includes mid-flex, mid-action, et al)

Medium action rods bend most in the top two-thirds of the rod, from the middle section through to

the tip. Because of this medium action rods load more slowly than fast action rods, and the tip

moves through a greater arc from loaded to unloaded - and just to re-iterate, I am talking here of

the arc the rod-tip moves and not the overall arc the tip moves as the angler casts, moving the

whole rod.

But in the hands of a new angler this has two distinct advantages over a fast action:

The rod tends to load deeper towards the butt, and this is an aid to making a good forward

and back cast.

The slower action gives more time to the caster to ensure their timing is correct - and as raised

earlier, good casting is all about timing.

Medium action rods are probably the best option for all-round fishing for newer anglers, in any

type of water – streams, rivers and lakes.

But this should not deter skilled casters. Medium action rods perform well in most fishing situa-

tions, from short range casting to thumping out a whole-fly-line-off-the-reel monster casts.

Slow Action Rods (includes through-flex, through-action et al)

Slow action rods bend right through from the butt section, (bottom third), of the rod to the tip. As

the ‘slow action’ description implies these rods tend to load more slowly than other types.

You could surmise that because a slow action rod loads more slowly it would be ideal for a nov-

ice, but it is not necessarily so. Timing when using a slow action rod can be just as difficult as

when using a fast action rod. This is back to the power thing again.

When using a slow action rod the timing of the basic casting sequence is critical. It is very easy

to try and speed things up by applying power before the rod is ready – usually leading to several

loops of line draped around the head, or a pile of line in the water just in front of your feet.

But in the right hands, and this means skilled casters, and many competition casters, a slow ac-

tion rod can belt out line over huge distances.

The slow action gives the caster greater time (and often distance) to accelerate the rod through

the casting stroke, so when the rod is punched to a dead stop the line is moving at maximum

speed, there-by achieving maximum distance.

http://www.bishfish.co.nz

I Shoot and Fish E-Zine August 2012 26

Rod Actions and Playing a Fish

Leaving poorly tied knots out of the picture, it is likely most trout are lost by either pulling a lightly

embedded hook out of a fish, or, snapping a leader or tippet. Both these issues are relative.

Tearing a size 4 streamer out of the lip of a 14lb brown using 12lb leader or tippet is not hard to do.

Just as tearing a size 24 miniscule fly out of the lip of a 10” rainbow is not hard to do even when

using a 2lb tippet.

A fly-rod should provide two prime benefits when playing a fish:

It should provide a cushion, shock-absorber if you will, for the sudden rushes and darting about

of the hooked fish. This shock-absorbs ion helps prevent tippet breaks, and ripping hooks from lips.

It should maintain constant pressure on the line, and onto the fish, to tire it so it can be landed.

So this is where what is called the ‘working curve’ comes into play.

When playing a fish the working curve is the optimal bend in the rod to achieve the maximum

‘cushioning’ while still providing lift and pressure above and below the optimum working curve.

This means that if you were to fix the rod butt in a position that the rod was horizontal to the floor,

and apply a weight to the tip so the rod tip is vertical to the ground, this would be your optimum

working curve. The rod should be able to be bent deeper into the butt section by applying about

25% more weight, but still hold a good curve when about 25% of the original weight is removed.

In practice the working curve is rarely maintained as a constant.

The lunges of a fish will pull a deeper curve into the rod increasing line pressure, increasing the risk

of snapping a tippet or ripping out a hook - or if the fish swims toward the angler the load on the rod

deceases and the curve flattens, decreasing line pressure and increasing the risk of a hook falling

out.

So again, in practice, an angler needs to be confident that the range of curves either side of the

working curve will provide the optimum cushioning while still maintaining line pressure.

The faster the action of the rod, the faster the curve under load moves from within the work-

ing curve to lock-up and another lost fish.

When I first started out fly-fishing I was given a great piece of advice by my fishing mentor – “when

playing a fish you must use ‘soft hands”.

This meant wielding the rod softly and slowly, making no sudden moves, and being prepared to al-

low the rod to follow the fish if it took off, lowering or raising the rod tip as necessary - but smoothly.

Any sudden, hard-hands movement can lead to a hook pull or broken tippet.

There is another set of rod action descriptors, ‘hard action’, ‘medium action’ and ‘soft ac-

tion’.

These descriptions broadly match the basic rod action descriptions of fast, medium and slow ac-

tions. But the hard, medium and soft descriptors are good to keep in mind when thinking about

playing a fish.

http://www.bishfish.co.nz

I Shoot and Fish E-Zine August 2012 27

http://thejodea.com/

A fast action rod (think ‘hard action’) has the tightest range of working curves when try-

ing to a land a fish. It can be difficult to use soft hands when playing a fish, especially

when the fish is over 4 or 5lbs, more especially if you are new to fly-fishing.

Because the range of the working curve is so tight the angler is forced to move the rod

quickly to avoid putting on too much pressure on one hand, and increasing the pressure

on the other hand.

Smoothness goes out the door – and lost fish come in.

So, what rod to choose?

When looking a rack of rods it is imperative that you review what is on offer set against

a very honest self-analysis of your casting skills, and the type of fishing you will do

most.

In small streams for fish under 2 or 3 pounds (nymphs and dry fly)

A medium to slow action rod. If

you are a competent caster move

more towards a slower action es-

pecially if delicate presentation is

important, if new to the sport stay

near medium actions.

In rivers for fish over 2 or 3

pounds (nymphs and dry fly)

A medium to fast action rod. If a

competent caster move towards a

faster action, if new to the sport

stay around medium actions.

In rivers and lakes for fish over 2

or 3 pounds (streamers or heavy

nymphs on shooting heads)

Medium or slow action rod. If a

competent caster move more to-

wards a fast action, faster the bet-

ter, or to a slow action rod. If new

to the sport same as above, but,

and it is a big but, you will need to

get tuition to get you up to speed,

from a competent friend, fishing

club, or paid tuition.

http://www.bishfish.co.nz

I Shoot and Fish E-Zine August 2012 28

RISE at the Game & Country Fair, Birr

Castle, 25th & 26th August 2012

RISE (Rural Ireland Says Enough!), will be very much in evidence at the forth-coming Game & Country Fair in Birr Castle on 25th and 26th August. At 1.15pm on Sunday 26th, a large contin-gent of RISE supporters will assemble inside the main entrance to the Castle and will be lead to the main arena where a short address will be made by RISE spokesperson, Philip Donnelly of the Irish Masters of Beagles Association.

Supported by all the major country sports organisations such as the NARGC, FISSTA, CAI and IFA Countryside it is no surprise that it has not only been chosen as the venue for a RISE demonstration but also that all the sporting organisa-tions are ‘pulling out the stops’ to make this a showcase for the important work they carry out to promote and defend our sports.

RISE came into existence to mount a spirited defence to

moves by former Green Party Minister for the Environment John Gormley’s attacks on hunt-

ing, particularly against the Ward Union Hunt Club whose hunting he banned. Fine Gael, in a pre-general election pact with NARGC, gave a firm commitment to repeal Gormley’s legislation in return for electoral support from all hunting associations but since coming into office the Party has reneged on the deal. In the meantime, other issues which have given rise to further concerns have arisen, such as the admini-stration of firearms licensing and animal welfare legislation. These are seen as the hallmark of a general attitude by Government towards rural Ireland, where sceptic tank charges, closure of Garda Stations and cessation of Hospital services are also giving rise to anti-government sentiment. RISE is seeking to have the promised repeal of the Ward Union ban honoured, the firearms licensing issues addressed and it is monitoring the progress of the animal welfare legislation through both Houses of the Oireachtas. RISE is appealing to all Government TD’s to support the reasonable requirements of its large rural support base.

Photo : Fair Directors Philip Lawton & Albert Titterington with Des Crof-

ton ( NARGC) ; Noel Carr ( FISSTA) and Lyall Plant ( CAI)

RURAL IRELAND SAYS ENOUGH!

I Shoot and Fish E-Zine August 2012 29

Everyone who supports the ethos of RISE is urged to turn up at Birr Castle on Sunday the 26th and show a level of support which will leave no doubt that rural Ireland is alive and watching very closely how public repre-sentatives are meeting our needs. RISE is supported by: National Association of Regional Game Councils NARGC Irish Coursing Club ICC Irish Masters of Fox Hounds Association IMFHA Irish Deer Society IDS Ward Union Hunt Club WUHC Irish Masters of Mink Hounds Association IMMA Irish Foot Harriers Association IFHA Countryside Alliance Ireland CAI Federation of Irish Salmon and Sea Trout Anglers FISSTA Irish Masters of Beagles Association IMBA Irish Game Protection Association IGPA Wild Deer Association of Ireland WDAI Irish Masters of Harriers Association IMHA

The NARGC - Ireland's largest country sports organisation at the Birr Game & Country Fair

Director Des Crofton looking forward to the Fair said "NARGC BIGGER AND BET-TER THAN EVER BEFORE AT BIRR 2012" The NARGC will again be a major exhibitor at the Birr Country Fair in Birr Castle on the last weekend in August. The Association has been gradually increasing its pres-ence at Birr over the past few

years and 2012 will see it's biggest ever display. In fact the NARGC plans to mount the biggest exhibition ever held at any fair in Ireland this year. Many of the usual displays will feature in the marquee, but this year there will a significant number of fresh new items

Crowds enjoy a traditional horse & hound display

Crowds in the NARC marquee in 2011 – this year it’s even bigger

I Shoot and Fish E-Zine August 2012 30

As in previous years, the NARGC merchandise shop will be making unbelievable bargains available to shooting and hunting folk from a significantly expanded range of merchandise. Margaret Neile will again be in charge, assisted by Ernie Beck, Shane O'Connor and John Munnelly and if the Association's online shop-ping activity is anything to go by, business should be brisk. Jimmy Tyrrell will be back with his fly-tying exhibition and his mind boggling range of flies for sale. Jimmy is always a welcome participant in the NARGC marquee where he imparts a lifetime's knowledge of fly fishing to the many visitors, a goodly number of whom are also game-shooters. Jim Corcoran, taxidermist par excellence will once again grace our stand with his magnificent and varied display of the mammals and birds of the Irish countryside. Apart at all from the visual impact of Jim's work, his individual exhibits are in them-selves a wonderful opportunity for members of the public to get close up to ani-mals and birds, which for the most part they could never hope to encounter in such close quarters. Jim's work is really educational. The Boleybrack Red Grouse Project is a new exhibit. The project to restore the local Red Grouse population is conducted on Boleybrack Mountain in County Lei-trim jointly by North Leitrim Regional Game Council, the National Parks & Wildlife Service and Glenfarne Gun Club. It is a wonderful example of successful partner-ship between state and the voluntary sector with the Red Grouse, an iconic Irish game bird as the beneficiary and it demonstrates that properly regulated game hunting which has sustainability at its heart is part of the conservation solution rather than the problem as many would have the public believe. The Project's managers, Eamonn Brennan and game keeper John Carslake from the Grouse moors of Scotland will be on hand to offer advice and relate their experiences to the many people who will be at Birr and who have an interest in Red Grouse. John Kavanagh and his team from the Vintage and Classic Rifle Association of Ire-land (VCRAI) will again make an appearance in the NARGC marquee. The old guns are always a favourite with everyone and evoke memories of decades past, the era of Glen Millar music and before. The nostalgia surrounding these old fire-arms is of itself a good reason to preserve them. Another new feature this year is the NARGC photographic studio where profes-sional photographer George Kelly will be on hand for those who wish to get a good quality A4 size colour portrait photograph of their hunting dog, or themselves with the dog or even a family portrait at an incredible, not to be beaten, special Birr

Show price of €20. Chris Gavican will be on hand at the NARGC Compensation Fund desk to offer advice and answer questions about the very comprehensive level of protection af-forded to club members by the Fund. Despite the fact that the Compensation Fund is in existence since 1984, it is constantly evolving to provide ever better protec-tion. Uniquely, it is an indemnity scheme designed for hunting, by hunters and ad-ministered by hunters. Consequently, it has by far the best record of any scheme of protection for hunting on these islands and no other scheme can boast as much.

I Shoot and Fish E-Zine August 2012 31

We will have a new desk under the title "John's Delight" which will be attended by John How-ard from Cork. John will offer advice to clubs on seed mixtures for game crops and his mixes will be available for sale on the stand. The Predator Control desk first appeared at the 2011 Fair and will be in the marquee again this year in the capable hands of NARGC Predator Control Officer, Paddy McCartney. Paddy will offer advice to anyone interested in managing their shooting ground properly and he will demonstrate the use of the various control aids/traps. NARGC National Safety Officer Jim O'Connor will again conduct a gun coaching clinic where, with the use of the latest technology, he and his team will diagnose flaws and prescribe cor-rective action for game and clay pigeon shooters. The clinic is very popular with shooters at-tending the fair each year. Jimmy Christie and members of Offaly Regional Game Council will mount an outdoor live bird display of a variety of game birds, including a number of Pheasant variations. This display is particularly popular with children who are enthralled with the birds and their colourful dis-plays. Many club members also seek out Jimmy and his crew to seek their advices on rearing and incubation. The game cookery exhibit is one of the most popular exhibits in the entire fair and 2012 will see the return of Game Chef Emmet McCourt from Derry to the NARGC stand. Over the two days of the fair Emmett will cook up delicious recipes of venison, pheasant, rabbit and pi-geon. When it comes to tasting the samples, there is simply never enough to go around. Once tasted, most people who have never tried game become instant converts. It is good wholesome food and Emmet is only too happy to pass on some of his knowledge to mem-bers of the public to help them achieve the best results from cooking game. I should at this point thank Flogas for their assistance with the mobile cooker and oven. Last year saw the introduction of the NARGC shooting simulator and it was in constant de-mand throughout the two days of the fair, operating literally non-stop for the entire period. Such was its popularity that many youngsters were unable to try it out with adults dominating the stand. However, we are pleased to announce that the NARGC marquee will, at the 2012 fair, boast an additional simulator, reserved exclusively for junior shooters - up to 14 years of age. This is simply in keeping with the NARGC's policy of making the sport available to all ages. New to the NARGC stand this year will be the NARGC/City & Guilds Game Meat Handling (Trained Hunter) Qualification information desk which will be manned (or should I say womanned) by NARGC's Paula Malone and East Coast Dog & Gun's Denise Walsh. Here, game shooters will be able to get all the information required to achieve this qualification. They will also be able to purchase the course manual and even book a place on a course at a special Game Fair discount price. A regular exhibit on the NARGC stand is MacEoin General Merchants in the person of Mike Johnson. Mike will have available all manner of equipment and products for clubs whether their interest is game rearing, incubation, feeders, traps and all manner of accessories. Last year NARGC introduced the Best Novice Dog Handler Competition in conjunction with dog trainer, the very entertaining Keith Matthews. This will again be a feature of the 2012 Fair at Birr with a cup sponsored by NARGC being awarded on each of the two days for best han-dler in the adult male, adult female and junior categories.

I Shoot and Fish E-Zine August 2012 32

Nutts About Pets is a dog food company which will make its first appearance at the Birr show on the NARGC stand. Run by Joe Fagan, who will be on the stand in per-son to meet dog owners, the Nutts About Pets dog food range will be promoted as a quality product and visitors to the stand can expect to leave with a small sample bag to try out on their dog. Paul Walsh from East Coast Dog and Gun will be displaying and selling his range of high quality Joker Knives on the NARGC stand and also his non-electronic callers for foxes. Incidentally, we want to take this opportunity to thank Paul for his sponsor-ship of a Miroku 20 gauge shotgun for the NARGC National Clay Shoot in Limerick in July. Ger Burns, the NARGC Game Development Officer, will have his Game desk on the stand where he and colleagues Ray Devine and Tom O'Connor will be on hand to discuss and provide advice to clubs on game, game courses and habitat manage-ment and where game DVD's can be viewed on large screen. As the single largest group of working dog owners in the country, NARGC club members are always looking out for doggy accessories and products. Deirdre Woods of Paws & Claws will be on the stand with a range of goodies for the discern-ing hunting dog. As with last year, the NARGC will make a special welcome for the kiddies who, after all, will take responsibility for the defence, promotion and management of fieldsports in Ireland in future years. I am not going to give the game away here but I can prom-ise that children coming to the NARGC marquee will receive very special treatment. Lastly, Coillte has very kindly agreed to sponsor the supply of potted trees which will be used to dress the NARGC stand and give a particular feel to the displays and we wish to acknowledge this very welcome sponsorship. Finally, I wish to thank the assistance given by Margaret Neile and the NARGC Shows Committee, all our exhibitors - both NARGC and others, NARGC Chairman Sean Doris and Treasurer Simon Devereux for their support, all the NARGC person-nel who will man the various stands over the two days of the fair, Albert and Irene Titterington for their unstinted support not just for NARGC at the fair but throughout the year and last but by no means least, my ever suffering secretary, Paula Malone without whose help many things simply would not happen." And from the ROI's largest Shooting organisation to its premier angling one

The Year of the Salmon & Trout and the best Angling Villages ever

mounted at any Irish game or country fair Every year the fair introduces new attractions, competitions and themes and this year is no exception. Themes such as the 'Year of the Horse' were followed by the 'Year of the Dog' and this year it's the 'Year of the Salmon & Trout.' And this fishy theme is the focal point for the huge 'Angling Village' at Birr Castle with everything one would expect at a top class angling show and more! Masses of tackle and plenty of bargains, boats, angling competitions, instruction and demonstrations, vin-tage tackle, fisheries, sporting art, taxidermy, and even speciality game and fish cookery with Emmett McCourt in the Flogas kitchen. Plus of course John R Moore displaying his iconic painting of 'Salmon on the Glendun river' and other paintings." The painting and a series of limited edition prints has been donated to FISSTA to raise money for their young anglers programme.

I Shoot and Fish E-Zine August 2012 33

The Angling Village has the unrivalled support of the most active Irish angling organisations such as FISSTA and APPGAI Ireland. These and other organisations , government bodies and angling hotels will help the Angling Village at Shanes a place that no serious angler will want to miss. As Noel Carr ( FISSTA) says :

“ALL ROADS LEAD TO IRELAND'S PREMIER GAME FAIR AT BIRR CAS-TLE ON SAT 25th AUGUST

The Chairman of Ireland's Premier Angling body - FISSTA (Federation of Irish Salmon and Sea Trout Anglers) Mr. Paul Lawton, is delighted to announce once again their participation in the Irish Game Fair at the very special venue of BIRR CASTLE on August 25th and 26th August 2012. "This annual event is the highlight of our country sports season where we meet our angling fraternity to discuss and monitor the mid season salmon and seatrout runs and returns from the great salmon and seatrout rivers of Ireland. It is a very special time for FISSTA to promote the salmon youth angling programmes which are run by over 80 clubs on the island. The youth flycasting exhibition at the fair will again feature a flavour of our vol-untary club work with a demonstration from this season's finalists under the guidance of Ire-land's expert flycasters who will kick off the events in the main arena on Saturday 25th at 10am."

WHY ANGLERS WILL ATTEND?

Anglers from all the main rivers and clubs of Ireland now gather in Birr to participate at The Irish Game Fair at Birr Castle to meet and exchange notes on developments in salmon and seatrout angling and conservation. The fair has built up a huge following over the past few years as a venue where clubs and businesses can promote their brand of sport angling to a fast growing market of angling enthusiasts who are planning and placing bookings for the 2013 season. This is where all issues are raised and addressed by club members who travel to what is now Ireland's premier country sports event for in the countryside calendar for anglers. The Great Game Fairs of Ireland partnered with the premier magazine Irish Country Sports and Country Life which features our quarterly newsletter allows us to spread the FISSTA message of angling to a very broad country sports fraternity who support us in our everyday work. We are most grateful to Albert Titterington his excellent team at the fair and magazine for providing such professional fora and for their fulsome support and coop-eration in helping FISSTA to bring salmon and seatrout angling to a wider public.

FISSTA Stand at Birr Fair - Newcomers Fishing Advice

The FISSTA stand is hosting a one-stop advice centre where newcomers can get the follow-ing information and guidance;

1. WHERE TO FISH - where the nearest fishing is available - directions on how to access angling in your area e.g.; salmon and seatrout especially 2. HOW TO START - and what tackle shop near you can supply you with the equipment needed to get started. 3. JOIN FISSTA CLUB LOCALLY - who can advise further - both at the show and in your local area. 4. WHO WILL HELP - where to get tuition - both at the show and in your local area 5. WHAT YOU NEED - what equipment you will need and whose stands to visit at the show 6. READ MORE ON ANGLING - what to read up on where to get the books 7. LEARN TO FLYCAST ON HOLIDAY - where to fish and stay on an Irish angling holiday river 8. CATCH UP ON ALL FISSTA CAMPAIGNS TO CONSERVE AND PROTECT OUR WILD ATLANTIC SALMON

I Shoot and Fish E-Zine August 2012 34

National Salmon and Seatrout Month - September 2012 The Birr Game Fair is one of the principal focal points for this year's National Salmon and Seatrout Month which runs for the entire month of September. The aim of this initiative is to raise the awareness of the life cycle of the salmon and seatrout at a time when they are leaping the waterfalls and weirs as they make their return to the spawning beds. FISSTA hope to create as many opportunities as possible to reach new audiences across the country and introduce the joy and thrill of the wild Atlantic salmon habitat to them. It will do this at Birr Game Fair by hosting the youth flycasting demonstration under Robert Gillespie's expert guid-ance and by hosting some expert 'observations; and 'teach-ins' at a FISSTA club river near you during this coming month of September. Further information: Secre-tary: NOEL CARR, Teelin Road, Carrick, Co. Donegal. Tel/Fax 074 9730300.” And Noel is supported by Damian McElholm from APGAI Ireland :

The Association of Professional Game Angling Instructors -Ireland (APGAII)

APGAII will be attending the Birr Game Fair with a programme of continuous work-shops for casting and equipment plus fly dressing covering the hot topics of to-day's game angling scene. We will have a full complement of experienced coaches to create a number of interactive learning and discussion groups for the serious angler as well as a number of attractions for the young anglers with games and fly dressing competitions plus casting classes for young casters. We will be running a casting competition based around skill as opposed to distance with two levels "professional" and "amateur" with prizes of kit and equipment. From October we are pleased to announce that APGAII and their partner Game Guides Ireland will be offering a set of accredited introduction to game angling coaching will awards at level 1 and level 2 from the Open Col-lege Network. This would be of interest to anglers thinking about a career path in coaching and of particular interest to the many dedicated club mem-bers who train and guide their junior members. These courses have been ac-credited and written so are available to students as of now !! Some of our newly qualified OCN level 3 instructors received their certificates at the Irish game Fair at Shanes Castle.. These new level 3 instructors are the very first ever to receive this award which is the first of its kind in the United Kingdom and Ireland as the award is a level 3 diploma which is equivalent to A Levels in Northern Ireland and the Leaving Certificate in the Republic of Ireland. Do please visit our website for more detail. www.apgai-ireland.ie

Countryside Alliance Ireland at the Fair

Countryside Alliance Ireland's involvement at Birr will once again be significant this year, giving CAI the ideal opportunity to showcase their work while engaging with all those in attendance at this prestigious country sports event. CAI are delighted to host a number of exciting exhibitors on their stand, including Calor Ireland, who working together with CAI are the perfect fit for fuelling rural Ire-land! Other exhibitors include the Wild Deer Association of Ireland, The Irish Deer Society, renowned stick maker Lindsay Carlisle, taxidermist, Kurt Ecker, BADA UK and Trumera/Roskelton Gun Club & Game Protection Association.

I Shoot and Fish E-Zine August 2012 35

CAI Chief Executive, Lyall Plant com-ments "Our vision is of a vital, working and thriving countryside for the benefit of the whole nation We work for every-one who loves the countryside and the rural way of life. Through campaigning, lobbying, publicity and education we influence legislation and public policy that impacts on the countryside, rural people and their activities. The Irish Game Fair at Birr Castle is the perfect forum for CAI to meet and engage with our members and supporters". The CAI stand will be located alongside the show's main arena which is the centrepiece of this two day event set in the magnificent environs of Birr Castle. We would love to see you, so please do come along and show your support for country sports and our rural heritage.

Top Gunmakers & Clothing Stands at Birr

The fair has always offered patrons a fantastic range of hunting, shooting and fishing accesso-ries including an extensive range of country clothing stands from people like Charlie Keenan, Duck Dri , Edinburgh Clothing etc all with several bargain prices. This year they are joined by some new names including Smyths Country Sports – Ireland’s largest retailer of Barbour prod-ucts. The fair at Birr has also one of the finest selections of guns on display : Gun dealers this year include Connolly’s – also with their magnificent range of dog food on dis-play; Casalle 2000Ltd with a great range of Cesare Guerini and other shotguns ( and with a fantastic fair offer of 15% discount for guns purchased at the fair )- Casale are the sponsors of the individual prize of a Cesare Guerini shotgun for the NARGC Club competition. ; Abbey Ma-rine; and Lakeland Shooting Centre. Lakeland Shooting Centre Apart from a wide range of merchandise including quality brands such as Mauser, Blaser and Zeiss Niall and Tom Kirwan have a couple of rather novel attrac-tions including a gunsmithing service and a very special ‘one off ‘ rifle. Gracing the stand will be German gunsmith Bernd Fleischmann a graduate of the gun smithing school and now a master gunsmith from Blaser. He will offer a service facility for all Blaser ri-fles and shotguns at a very reasonable price and he is available to give technical advice and information on the complete Blaser and Mauser ranges. Lakeland Shooting Centre are the sponsors of a Fausti Elegance shotgun for the winner of the Birr Game Fair 50 Bird Sporting Clay Pigeon Championships.

Lakeland Shooting Centre will also have one of the rarest guns in the world on their stand at Birr - The Mauser Anniversary Edition:

To celebrate the 140th anniversary of Mauser rifles, the legendary rifle manufacturer presents a special edition of the M 03 bolt action rifle at the international trade show IWA 2012 in Nurem-berg. The design of this exquisite anniversary rifle pays homage to Mauser's history of excel-lent rifle engineering to the highest standards.

Working in harmony for country sports CAI Chief Executive Lyall

Plant and Des Crofton NARGC with Miss Country Lifestyle at the

launch of the Great Game Fairs of Ireland

I Shoot and Fish E-Zine August 2012 36

The Top Competitions Since the Birr Fair became part of the Great Game Fairs of Ireland the directors have worked hard and invested heavily to make the competitions equivalent to any game fair competitions in the UK or further afield and of a standard one would expect for all Ireland Championships. Full details can be had from the web site www.irishgameandcountryfair.com but suffice to say the All Ireland Game Fair

Championships in Clay Pigeon Shooting ( prize fund c €15,000 including three guns to be won ); gundogs, fly casting, stick making and terrier and lurchers are unrivalled in Ireland. The Fair for the Family As well as being the ultimate event in Ireland for the field sports enthusiast the fair also has a real family focus. Firstly the beautiful venue of Birr Castle Demesne with it world famous gardens and Science Centre is fully open to the public and actu-ally offers a full day’s entertain-ment on its own , this is sup-ported by a huge number of ‘have a go opportunities’ for kids; plus a dedicated children's’ area

and a living history village filled with au-thentic re-enactors; the action packed main arena programme running from 10.00- 6.00 features a rich mix of country sports and living history attractions including a re-enactment of the 1690 attack on the castle with cannon and muskets. And of course the huge tented village – one of the largest at any outdoor event in Ire-land – offers superb shopping opportunities and real bargains for the whole family. The fair is open from 10,00 – 6.00 each day. Admission ( including free parking and

programme) is Adult €15 Families €35. For further details see www.irishgameandcountryfair.com E; irishgamefair@btinternet.con Tel : 048 44839167 The Fair is one of the THREE GREAT GAME FAIRS of IRELAND and is the 51

st

Fair organised by the GREAT GAME FAIRS of IRELAND team.

Main arena crowds watching the carriage driving.

Cannon and musketry at the fair

I Shoot and Fish E-Zine August 2012 38

The Emerald Dabbler by Lawerence Finnery

www.finneysflies.com

It was the third week in May this year when I was at Sheelin tying for the Irish team that this pattern emerged, I had been in the Island view Guest house tying up some green daddies and Georges. After several hours tying I decided to go down to the Lough shore to clear my head and have a go in Crover bay for some fish that I had seen the previous day cruising around 20 metres off the shore. What surprised me was the abundance of good fish selectively feeding on the buttons and obviously disregarding the copious amounts of may sitting on the surface. With a gentle breeze coming in from the North east it was surprising how many fish were showing and soon enough the boats started to make there way to Stony and lined up like a flotilla calmly drifting towards Crover. With chest waders on I gently entered the water making sure to keep any disturbance I the water to a minimum as the odd fish was rising only 30 feet from the shore line and a couple of them were easily in the 3 to 4lb mark gulping down the Buttons. Cast after cast with my deer hair button proved fruitless as the fish cruised by the fly, from a size 10 I changed to a size 12 and still no luck. Again a change down to a size 14 and on my third cast a take at last. Not one of the monsters I had seen , a fish of around 2 lb and a wild one at that had eagerly taken the fly and decided to make for the open waters. With a 5lb cast I was not going to bully this boy as he was a powerful fish and I decided to keep connected to him and let him have his way for the time being. At this point a boat came out of Crover and motored past me and turned about a hun-dred yards to my left and the occupants started to make their drift. I quick wave to me to show their approval of my into a fish was duly returned and after around 5 minutes the fish was at the shores edge. With no net I gently slid my hand down the cast until I felt the hook, a quick twist and the fly was out and the fish released with out so much as a finger coming into contact with him, a method I always try to do when on Sheelin. As I began to make another cast I glanced at the boat doing the drift and I saw what was 2 guys spinning until I saw them making another cast with their line , double haul-ing and putting out an impressive amount of line. Suddenly they were winding in the line as quick as they could until the line was fully on their reel and again they repeated this. This technique they were carrying out was performed for at least 20 minutes until they decided to move to another drift, and again I saw them double hauling and winding as quick as they could, resulting in one of the guys getting into a fish. Not my type of fishing as this looked to exhausting but fascinating to see how eager they were to persist with this method. After around two hours fishing I decided to return to Crover and have a light lunch be-fore heading to Virginia to see my old friend Anto and take him a fresh supply of flies for him. as I was driving up the road I was thinking about a pattern I had done for a cus-tomer in England for Currane which was a dark mackerel dabbler that had worked fairly well on the lough. Suddenly I thought what about an olive version of this?

I Shoot and Fish E-Zine August 2012 39 www.finneysflies.com

After returning from my visit to Anto I went down to the tying room we had set up in

the basement of the guesthouse and started to dress up a few version . Over the

course of 2 hours I had come up with 6 versions non of which I was pleased with.

Looking into my materials box I spied my hot orange badger and decided that this with a chartreuse guinea would look the part. Sure enough 2 variants later and I was left with what I could only say a fly that I was confident with and would pull up a fish or 2. This little beauty would be kept for the next week to be tried out by my friends who were coming down for week ends fishing. Once home the pattern was shown to my good friend Gerry Teggart a fellow fly tying instructor and fanatical fisher of Sheelin. That will work perfect was his comment, lucky enough I had tied up a couple of dozen of these to distribute out for a good field test on Sheelin and also a couple sent over to England to the brother in law to try out on Foremark. Out on the lough we motored up to Inch cup and did a drift virtually all the way to Church Island, 2 of-fers missed a fish lost and 2 to the boat and the 2 to the boat were on the Emerald dabbler. This was the case for 3 more fish during the day , so happy with the results the flies were changed to other patterns to be field tested. With the coming of the rain and the time now around 6 .30pm we decided to call it a day and made our way into Crover. A race back to the guest house shower and a change into dry clothes we headed off into Killnaleck for a bite to eat before going back to Crover to have a night cap. Night cap my bum, 6.45 next morning saw us leaving Crover to go back to the guesthouse to what was to be 2 hours sleep before we rose from our beds to have breakfast, feeling the worse for wear I had originally arranged to fish the morning only as I needed to get back home to get a few urgent orders finished. The fishing did not materialise for me and I decided to take a leisurely drive back home. Happy that the pattern worked was good enough for me and for the brother in law to ring up the next day to say he got several fish on it conformed the pattern worked and is now part of my dabbler selection on the web site. A few tied up on size 8 and 6 have now been posted out to a friend in Canada for him to try out for the steel heads , so hopefully in the next few weeks I hope to get an e mail with good reports. The following is the recipe for the Emerald dabbler, give it a try and see what you can do to improve on it.

I Shoot and Fish E-Zine August 2012 40 www.finneysflies.com

http://youtu.be/kXK0IbDmnBY

HOOK= KAMASAN B175 SIZE 10 SILK =16/0 VEEVUS THREAD TAIL =CLARET COCK PHEASANT WITH THREE STRNADS OF PEARL FLASH BODY= CHARTREUSSE HOLO-GRAPHIC TINSEL BODY HACKLE =CHARTREUSSE DYED GRIZZLE RIB= CHARTREUSSE UTC WIRE UNDER HCKLE= HOT ORANGE DYED BADGER OVER HACKLE= CHARTREUSEE DYED GUINEA

CLOAK AND WING BRONZE MALLARD

I Shoot and Fish E-Zine August 2012 41

Hywel Morgan attended the G.A.C. open weekend and interviewed some of the producers and

stars that come along to meet the public.

Be sure to check out the Glasgow Angling centre's website for details of the next opening day so

you can join in.

Glasgow Angling Centre

http://www.fishingmegastore.com

Guideline

Don't forget to check out Hywel's website and social media.

www.hywelmorgan.co.uk

http://youtu.be/KJKRvTd68kI

BREAKING NEWS!!! HYWEL MORGAN, HANGS UP HIS

WADERS!!

Ballyhass Lakes is located near Mallow, County Cork. It is Ireland's best known still spring water trout fishery, with 11 four star holiday homes and an activity centre for groups, schools and corporate team building. Fish: The fishery has two separate lakes. The main lake is 12 acres of spring water some 35 feet deep and is reserved for fly fishing only. It can be fished by boat or from prepared fishing stands on the bank. On lower lake, worm spinning and bubble and fly methods are permitted and extensive safe fishing stands surround the lake. In general we strongly support a catch and release policy. On a Day ticket an angler can keep two fish up to 3lbs weight. All adult fish and all brown Trout are on a catch and release basis only. Once the bag limit has been taken the angler can continue to fish on a catch and release basis for the remainder of the pe-riod. The fishing lodge has an extensive tackle shop for fly and bait, and rod hire. The fishery is open 09.00 to dusk 364 day per year. Tuition on fly fishing is available.

Salmon Beats: The Cork Blackwater runs just four miles from Ballyhass Lakes. We have available beats on a private stretch of double and single bank in the upper reaches of the river. Many of the beats are set well back from any roads and give a variety of good fly and spinning waters. State Licence can be purchased at the Pavilion. We stock a supply for Salmon flies and baits. A ghillie can be provided with prior notice. Rest: There are 11 Holiday homes on the 36 acres site at Ballyhass. The houses have either 3 or four bed-rooms and are exceptionally well appointed with wooden floors throughout and natural fireplaces and natu-ral wood furniture. All houses have a decking area leading on to landscaped lawns. They are available for rent for periods of 2 days or more. Play: The activity centre at Ballyhass makes full use of the natural environs with kayaking, raft building and trout fishing on the spring clean water, rock climbing and abseiling on the limestone rock faces, and specially constructed low ropes courses, archery and team building games on the lawns. Our resident instructors plan the activities to suit each group be they family outings, school groups, or corporate team building.

Cecilstown, Mallow, Co. Cork, Ireland Tel:+353 (0)22 27773 Email: info@ballyhasslakes.ie

Cecilstown, Mallow, Co. Cork, Ireland Tel:+353 (0)22 27773 Email: info@ballyhasslakes.ie I Shoot and Fish E-Zine August 2012 43

COUNTRYSIDE ALLIANCE LAUNCH ONLINE MAR-

KET PLACE

The Countryside Marketplace, brought to you by the Countryside Alliance, is the

place to shop if you want to support the countryside.

Every purchase made us-ing the new online shop raises valuable funds to-wards campaigns aimed at maintaining the values, so-cial infrastructure and tra-ditions of the countryside. These campaigns help to promote and protect the rights of individuals taking part in country pursuits such as hunting, shooting and fishing. “This has been a ghastly summer for countryside retailers, they have lost so many opportunities. I am delighted this new online shop will give them the opportunity to reach many thousands of customers." "It is so important we all support them; web-based businesses are one of the life-lines of our rural economy," explains Barney White-Spunner, Executive Chairman, Countryside Alliance. The Countryside Marketplace offers a unique range of products supplied by businesses hand-picked for their pro-countryside ethos. The Countryside Marketplace offers high profile brands such as Hunter and Tottering by Gently plus superb independent manufacturers including Cole Henley and George Fisher. It stocks a wide range of products; just one click to the site and you can browse deluxe barbeque sets, prestigious oak dog beds, hen houses, jewellery, DVDs, clothing, footwear and you can even order a personalised rugby shirt. In addition, you can purchase a range of Countryside Alliance merchandise including Christmas cards, ties, mugs, tea towels and posters. "We want the Countryside Marketplace to become the hub of all pro-countryside busi-ness," says Abi Harding, Sales Director of the Countryside Marketplace. Buy online at: www.countrysidemarketplace.co.uk to help save your countryside.

44 I Shoot and Fish E-Zine August 2012

It was with great anticipation that I hit the road for Borris in Co. Carlow. New show, new grounds. On the motor way on the way down it was like having all the seasons in one. At one time the wipers were going flat out the next minute I had my sun glass on. When I got to Borris the weather wasn’t ‘too bad’. As I was setting up my gazebo I realised I had forgotten the back of it-not a good start! I got the tent pitched sat down with a glass of wine and toasted the weather gods in the hope of some sun over the coming days. About 3am I woke to some of the worst weather I had ever seen. Maybe the weather gods didn’t like the type of wine I was drinking! Saturday was as wet a day as ever I had seen in a long time. There were rivers running down outside our gaze-bos. In fairness the crowds still came all be it like myself a little under dressed for the occasion. The sale of cheap willies sky rocketed. The fair had a lot of new and local traders which was great to see. The rain finally eased in the late afternoon and plans were afoot to sort out some of the walkways for the morning. At about 6.30pm I headed over to the bar for a nice relaxing pint and have a chat. While there I had a few pints with Michael Yardley this isn’t the first time I have met Michael but he never ceases to amaze me at what a genuinely nice fella he is. The way he talks passionately about our sport the upcoming ban on lead shot it is great to have him on our side. Sunday morning came a little quicker than I had hoped (stayed a little too long in the

bar). The diggers were out and bark was being spread all over the walk ways to try

and help it at least a little. At last the sun came out and for most of the day it was

roasting. I say most because at about 4.30pm the heavens opened and it was like a

wall of water and some lightening. I packed up and tried to drive out-no good not

even my wee car could get through it so the tractor had to come and tow me out.

Thankfully I left a little early and didn’t have to wait long. So what are my thoughts

on the Borris game fair? This would have been a great fair if the weather was better-

Unfortunately no one can control that. In fairness it still had a good crowd of people

both days. It does need work to get it right but for a first time fair in a new location it

wasn’t bad at all.

National Country Fair, Borris, Co.Carlow

Just a little muddy!

45 I Shoot and Fish E-Zine August 2012

David Irwins Taxidermy Display

46 I Shoot and Fish E-Zine August 2012

POWERTEAM LURES FINICKY TICKLER

The PowerTeam Lures 5" Finicky Tickler is finesse bait that is just the right size to receive strikes from the finicky bass in warm water temperatures. It also has a texture and flavour that make the bass hold on for a solid hook set.

Construction

The 5" Finicky Ticklers are shot with the high quality soft plastic and impregnated with a special blend of scents and salt during the injection process. This special blend, known as Sow Chow, contains the right amount of salt that gives the bait the perfect level of buoyancy to create a tempting action that helps draw strikes from finicky bass. One taste of the "special blend" and the bass cannot let go.

Appearance

These finesse worms have a textured design that imitates a live forage presentation. The lifelike texture of the bait helps to keep bass from expelling the bait once taken. The Finicky Ticklers are available in fifteen colours to suit the needs of any condition, in any water clarity, depth or cover that the fish may be holding in. The small profile design is ideal for tough conditions when down-sizing and slowing down are a must to catch bass.

Usage

Summer is definitely the season for the subtle horizontal quiver of a 5" Finicky Tickler on the end of your drop shot hook to entice a bite from the most stubborn bass. They are also very enticing on a shaky head. This versatile miniature worm shows promise to load livewells no matter how it is rigged.

Conclusion

In field test using Smoke with black, purple and gold flake, the bait performed well on a dropshot rig in eight to ten feet of stained warm water on a blue bird day, which is not the best of condi-tions. The bait was catching finicky bass when other baits just did not produce. The scent and salt combined with the action of the bait added to the catch in less than favourable conditions. The generous amount of 12 baits in the package added value to the already impressive quality of the product, making this angler more than satisfied not only with the creel but the cost savings as well. With the Finicky Tickler being available in all many popular colours, you will know when you hear someone say, "the fish just weren't biting today," that they had been throwing some-thing else.

http://www.worldfishingnetwork.com

47 I Shoot and Fish E-Zine August 2012

Kids are the Stars of the Week at Carrick-macross Coarse Angling & Junior Develop-

ment Club, Angling Summer Camps

Kieran Roche PRO of Carrickmacross Coarse Angling Club reports that the pictur-esque setting at Lisanisk Lake in Carrickmacross has been the centre of some very intense Angling Tuition for juniors, beginners and novice anglers for the last two weeks. The success of the events have highlighted a need for an alternative sport for those who may not be interested in playing other, more traditional, team sports. The stars of the week were undoubtedly the kids. They listened eagerly to their pre-fishing talks and then applied the theory of what they had learned with precision; the number of fish caught bears testament to their successful applica-tion of their leaning. One young angler Ryan Crosby caught a whopping 147 fish for his week. A big well done to Ryan and to all of the other participants on their success! All the anglers received certificates from the organisers on completion of their week’s tuition. A big thank you must go to Inland Fisheries Ireland for their Sponsorship, to Liam Murray and Gerry Callan, Inland Fisheries Ireland, Development Creevy, Carrick-macross and to Brook Cottage Angling. Professional Angling Coaching was deliv-ered by Geoff Quinn and his son James Quinn (also a Junior Angler). Grateful thanks is also due to the members of Carrickmacross Coarse Angling and Junior Development Club who gave of their time and expertise. The future of an-gling looks very bright indeed due to the sterling efforts of all concerned.

http://fishinginireland.info

48 I Shoot and Fish E-Zine August 2012

49 I Shoot and Fish E-Zine August 2012

FROM THE BEAUTIFUL CLARE COASTLINE NEIL

GOES, BUT LEAVES US WITH A LEGACY OF WON-

DERFUL TALES

It is with regret that I read Neil from Baitdiggers Blog is leaving the beautiful Co Clare to head further afield. Neil has given us some wonderful, well written and in-teresting accounts of the joys and tribulations while fishing on the Clare coast. He captured us in his various battles with the fish, some he won ……..and some he lost !

Here are some snippets of Neil’s arti-cles and photos… As I write my grief is immeasurable and I guess on this day of loss that I was also to lose the only fish I hooked, and I could kick myself for not paying more attention. When I was looking to get some lures for this season Graham Hill suggested that I should try a Lucky Craft Gunfish but to change the hooks when it arrived. Did I listen? In around two feet of water a good fish slammed into the gunfish but was gone in three shakes of its head. I had headed South West from home in search of some action, the delay from my last post wasn’t caused by a lack of ses-sions but by a lack of action. Sadly North Clare is not fishing, the water is dull, the sky is

empty but hopefully this change in weather may just give me the send off I need until I return next summer as a tourist. I tramped around the coast in a bereft self-pity and stu-pidly mourned my loss rather than celebrated the almost unique lifestyle I have been able to live…. how many an-glers can say they have landed fish close to fifty pounds from the shore? I came across these marks on some flat rocks well below the tide line and I believe it is the work of mullet hoover-ing the algae off the warm rocks. the marks were nearly two inches across so the mullet would have been mas-sive.

http://fishinginireland.info

I Shoot and Fish E-Zine August 2012 50

I have much more to say and hope I get the chance before I leave this wonderful land but it has all happened so fast and at the wrong time(if there is ever a right time) this little blog seems to have caught a few peoples eye and over two thousand people have read it this month alone (imagine that) and there is still ten days left. I have found family here, family I never knew I had and to be honest the similarity between myself and my second cousin is startling, we look like twins(sorry Ciaran, you must have had a hard life.) I met them finally when they were on a stag night so the pints were flowing but I promised I would use my name after constant “cad is ainm duit” (sorry if that is not quite right) So after years of anonymity here my family tell me my name is Neil O’Sceallain A selection of Neil’s Fish….

Bon voyage Neil.

http://fishinginireland.info

I Shoot and Fish E-Zine August 2012 51

Jumbo hunt gone wrong

This is a story that was never going to be told. I wanted to forget the whole thing as soon as possible. After struggling with my thoughts for a long time, I am compelled to tell it. To share it with fellow bow hunters so that someone can understand and learn from my mistakes. I am not proud of it or of the part that I played. Posterity though, demands that the story is told and I shall tell it as truthfully as it happened. We were along the Matetsi River in the north of Zimbabwe. The Hwange National Park was to our South and also our boundary. To the North was the mighty Zam-bezi. It was extremely hot and the bush was dry with hardly any food for the ani-mals. We were overlooking a herd of elephant that was trying to feed from the green reeds growing along the river. The food was so scarce and un-tasty that the ele-phants were chewing more than swallowing. My client (Mr X) was from the big country on the other side of the world. He wanted a Jumbo. According to him, he has hunted a lot with his bow. White tail, Mule deer, Moose and Elk have fallen to his arrows. The previous year he hunted a Buffalo with another outfit. I presumed that he enjoyed it as he spoke about the hunt often. His setup was great. He had an Elite GT500 set at 90lb with 1100gr arrows and 210gr German Kinetics. This was going to be a difficult hunt as the area was devoted of good food for the browsers and the big bulls were all moving deep into the Hwange so as to find energy for their great bodies. The breading herds could not follow as the small calves would never be able to walk 70km from the river to the next avail-able water and then another 80km to the next. They stayed along the river and sur-rounding hills and waited for the rain that was due mid October.

http://www.africahunting.com/

I Shoot and Fish E-Zine August 2012 52

Looking at the heard below us I could clearly see no big bodies and knew that there was nothing to follow. This was day 6 of a 12 day hunt. We covered +- 15 20km every day and I could see that it took its toll on my client. His 60th birthday was a month before and this was his party. There was some more movement in the reeds and we could not clearly see the size of the lone jumbo, so we decided to go down and check. The reeds were way over our heads and the wind was swirling all over the place as we went into that stinking hot river bed. The visibility was 10 feet so we were extra careful. I could hear the closest jumbo less than 20m away but could see nothing. A rustle close to me made me look to the left. I nearly jumped clean out of my boots when a Bushbuck ram barked 3 meters away. The elephant stuck his trunk in the air and sniffed the breeze. He came forward pur-posefully to inspect the intrusion. At 10 yards I waved my gun above my head to get his attention and make him aware of us. He pointed at me with his double barrel trunk and lifted his head high. (Don't move) I said to my client in a low voice. By now I was aiming for a brain shot should he decide to push us. My friend and Zim PH were ready next to me. Three things happened at the same time. There was a crashing sound behind me. The elephant flattened his ears, lowered his head and came. We dropped him a mere 4 yards from us. He was a small bull that was not even out of his teenage years. His tusks looked like bananas. The noise behind me was the clients nerve that broke and he made a run for it. The result was a dead elephant that was sup-pose to grow into a tusker 25 years from now. National Parks sent a scout with us and his report said that it was self defence. It did not make me feel any better. After we found the client that the trackers had to locate, I gave him a good dressing down. He had some excuse that I was not interested in. I was mad as hell. Back at camp he was his old self again. His family just sat with big eyes when he told them of his experience. I should have known then. That evening I explained to him again what he could expect on the hunt. I told him that with all the leaves of the trees on the ground, we would be doing well if we could get a 30y shot. I wanted him to practice at 40y just to make sure he could hit a target as big as a dustbin. He was adamant that he was not going to shoot further than 20y because that is how it is done. I just sighed and hoped that we could do it. Late in the afternoon of day 10 saw us walking back to the truck from a distant wa-terhole. We all froze when we heard the tree branch break not to far away. Where did he come from? I knew that it was a bull because he did not make a sound. Cows make a lot of noise the whole time and you can hear them from far away. He was not perfect but he was there and we were running out of time. Mr X wanted him badly. He wanted to rush in and shoot before the bull moved off. We had a tough time to get him to relax and do as we say. We stalked him carefully so as not to spook him. Time was what we did not have with dusk less than 2 hours away. He was in a clump of Faiderbia Albida trees or Anna boom as we know it. There were Ilala palms all over the place that made getting a clear shot difficult. At 30 yards we could see his back but nothing else. He moved a lot and never settled at one tree. This made us retreat our steps a lot.

http://www.africahunting.com/

I Shoot and Fish E-Zine August 2012 53

Suddenly he came walking straight to us. He did not know that we were there and came to a tree 10 yards from us. Mr X came to full draw as the bull shook the tree to make the pods fall. I moved him 2 steps to the right to get a clear shot at the lungs. (Shoot) I whispered as the whole target opened up. My .416 was ready just in case. The game scout disappeared as was usual. My friend/PH was crouched behind a bush and could not see the bull clearly. Mr X stayed at full draw and did not shoot. I still do not know why. Just then the bull saw us and spun around. As he turned Mr X released the arrow. I did not hear him shoot. I only realised that he did when I saw a yellow fletch disap-pear a foot in front of the elephant's back leg. The bull was swallowed up by the Lala palms in an instant. It happened so fast that I could not get a shot of. As the bull turned when he saw us, I lowered my rifle and looked at the client to see what the problem was and I never expected him to shoot. I ran to catch up with the bull but it was of no use as he went flat out and I had to zigzag around trees and bush. In my gut I knew that he was wounded but hoped that with the angle, the arrow would have penetrated the liver. My first priority was the client and I went back to him. He was smiling proudly and wanted to know why I ran after the elephant. I told him what I saw and that we have a wounded jumbo with only about an hour of light left. He thought that I was dreaming and said that the shot was good and that we will find him dead soon. Just at last light we took the spoor. There were a few drops of blood and then noth-ing. 300 meters further, we could not follow the tracks anymore and decided to re-turn to camp and be back before first light. Everyone in camp congratulated him when he told them how easy it was. I sat with an aching feeling in me and could not sleep that night. I re-lived the episode over and over in my mind but could not come to think that we would find him close. Myself and my Zim friend discussed our op-tions deep into the night. This was his first bow hunt for Elephant and he was not what to expect. At lunch the following day, we were 18km from the place where the elephant was shot. We only found three drops of blood and not once did the bull stop. He ran for +- 2km in a dead run before he settled into that fast gaiting walk that just eats up the miles. He drank while crossing the Matetsi. An hour before sunset he crossed into another concession and we had to call of the pursuit. This was 31km from where we started according to the GPS. The client could not keep up the fast tracking pace in the scorching heat and returned to camp at lunch. This suited us fine as we could cover ground faster without him nagging at me for being on the wrong track. I knew that our trackers would never follow the wrong track but he was convinced. We spent half of the next morning to get permission from the other concession to follow the wounded bull. The client flew out that same day and it was hectic. I prom-ised him that I would find the bull and send him the tusks. We followed that bull for 3 days and a total of 84km when a scout from Parks contacted me on the radio and told me that they located him in thick Jess bush about 10km in front of us. We rushed there as my driver brought the truck to us. Seeing the spoor, the trackers in-formed the scouts that found the elephant that it was not our bull. The Parks scouts argued with us and said that they saw the arrow wound on its left side close to the back leg. Because they were in charge of this follow up, we could not argue too much.

http://www.africahunting.com/

I Shoot and Fish E-Zine August 2012 54

http://thejodea.com/

We went into that Jess hell and quickly came upon the elephant. I could only see parts off him at 15 yards as the bush was horribly thick. The scouts instructed me to shoot when I get a gap. Moving slowly I got a glimpse of his eye as he stood broadside and put a bullet through his brain. It was not our bull. Now we have shot two elephant bulls that were not supposed to die. Parks just shrugged their shoulders and said that we must keep following the tracks. We wasted so much time after recovering the elephant that there was no light left. The next day we followed the tracks for only a short time before we lost it in a very rocky area with hundreds of other elephant around that obliterated his tracks. I could not believe that we lost. This was the first Big 5 animal that I could not find after it got wounded. I had to abandon the search as another client was flying in for his hunt. Parks kept looking for our bull while Yawan and I were hunting Leopard and I was hoping every day that they would call me with good news. It never came. I know that somewhere in the thick bush of North Western Zim-babwe, lays the skeleton of an elephant bull that I guided and that died a horrify-ing death. He shall never be forgotten and I wish that I could ask forgiveness from him. He and two others never de-served to die in such a way. What mistakes did I make? In my opin-ion?? PLENTY! You be the judge. *PS. Three months later, we found him where he died. There was nothing left of the body but the tusks were intact and the broad head was amongst the bones. Fritz Rabe. Askari Adventures

http://www.africahunting.com/

I Shoot and Fish E-Zine August 2012 55

http://youtu.be/ORK-eDbWQbk

TYING FLIES WITH DAVIE MCPHAIL TYING PHEASANT

TAIL NYMPH

I Shoot and Fish E-Zine August 2012 56

THE BASICS OF GUN DOG WATER WORK

BY JEREMY HUNT

http://www.shootinguk.co.uk

Water work: It can be a daunting prospect, but water work does have to lead you to

drink.

Water work: Training young gundogs to work in water often presents a new set of chal-

lenges. Summer is the perfect time of year to iron out issues that aren’t so easy to deal

with in an icy lake on a shoot day in December.

There is an assumption that all dogs love water. By and large they do – but some more

than others. Like us, some are good swimmers and some are not – I have even come

across a labrador that couldn’t swim at all. In this case the young dog almost drowned

after jumping into a lake unexpectedly. So it’s important to make sure your dog is able to

swim, and that they are working in water from which they can be readily extracted should

they get into difficulty (without endangering your own safety, of course). It is essential you

make a careful assessment of any area where you are undertaking water training to en-

sure any unseen currents or other hazards will not put your youngster at risk.

Location is key on water work

Hopefully the summer will provide plenty of warm water opportunities for training young-

sters. Our own pups have the chance to paddle in shallow water from just a few months

old, but it’s in a very controlled situation where they can’t get into difficulty. I have seen

many potential disasters where young dogs being trained in water get quickly distracted.

It only takes someone else’s dog splashing around or a moorhen skirting over the surface

to steal a youngster’s attention and draw them out into deeper water.

The last thing you need is for water to be associated with panic and fear, so it’s important

to tackle water work with the same degree of control you apply to other training. Try to

locate a place that’s quiet and where the water is shallow and shelves slowly to avoid the

youngster inadvertently getting out of their depth.

Any reluctance to enter the water can be overcome in the very early stages by tossing a

stone into the shallows to make a splash and engender some encouragement – or even

by wading in yourself.

Taking an older dog to bolster confidence is often very useful, but it is essential that the

more mature animal doesn’t take off into the deep water for a swim, otherwise the young-

ster may well follow and soon get out of its depth.

Swimming is a very vigorous exercise for dogs: they have to learn to breathe differently,

keep their legs active, be mindful of the direction they’re travelling in, keep an eye and

ear on you for instruction – and eventually retrieve the game.

I Shoot and Fish E-Zine August 2012 57 http://www.shootinguk.co.uk

The aim is to steadily build up the dog’s confidence in water so the physical jobs of keeping afloat and not taking in gulps of water become automatic and they can con-centrate on what they are being told. Take it easy on water work Only by giving a youngster time to perfect the art of being in water and emulating those synchronised swimmers rather than a paddle steamer that’s lost its way will you be able to start working on the level of control you have. Do not work from the premise that the dog will literally sink or swim. Once the young dog is clearly happy about being in water, try a few retrieves from the shallows – remembering that the dog must deliver the game and not stop to shake. Follow this with a few retrieves that entail a little swimming, but make sure the dummy isn’t going to get washed far-ther away than you intend by an unsuspecting current. The aim is to attempt a few short retrieves from water that do not put the dog under too much pressure. Don’t gild the lily by doing too much retrieving directly from wa-ter or you will create a problem for yourself when you need to send the dog over wa-ter to retrieve game from the far bank. I try to reach this stage quickly so the dog doesn’t become fixated on the assumption that the dummy is always floating some-where on the surface. Select a location for a marked retrieve where the swim across to the bank isn’t too far. You must be happy that your dog is well trained enough on land for you to push them on over the water to the far side. Most dogs will get halfway across and even though they have hopefully marked the retrieve, will start spinning in the water as they look for the dummy. That’s where you have to make sure the dog trusts you and will follow your instructions to keep on swimming until the bank is reached. If it has been well thrown, the dummy should be easily seen and retrieved, and the job must be accompanied by ample praise and encouragement – focus more on getting a dog across water than retrieving from the water. As you extend the distances worked across water, a dog may veer off the line on which he’s been sent or become distracted. Using the stop whistle to attract the dog’s attention and put them back on course is the way to deal with this problem, so it’s important that the dog is focused on the whistle on land before being let loose on a larger expanse of water. You should always make allowance for the fact that stop-ping mid-swim isn’t as easy to achieve with the same precision in the early stages of water training as stopping mid-gallop on land. It may appear that training a dog in water means little more than duplicating the methods used on land – but that’s where most of the problems arise.

I Shoot and Fish E-Zine August 2012 58

CARL FISHES THE CARP FREE POOL AT TANYARD FISHERY, AND

MANAGES TO CATCH A FEW DIFFERENT SPECIES AND A COU-PLE OF PERCH.

CHECK OUR WEBSITE HTTP://CARLANDALEXFISHING.CO.UK

http://youtu.be/xWikcy8y-L4

PERCH FISHING ON THE POLE WITH CARL SMITH

I Shoot and Fish E-Zine August 2012 59

http://youtu.be/pv6FR1rFzCs

We're protecting mustard from pigeons in Kent with the redoutable Andy Crow. Meanwhile, Roy Lupton is after a roebuck and having some trouble finding one. And

Nigel Allen from Airgun TV is talking about a breakthrough in modern airguns: the Daystate Air Wolf. Plus we have News Stump, Hunting YouTube and even an

amusing cartoon to introduce our new member of staff - James. (Talk to James). Fieldsports Britain - like Wimbledon but we do it in wet weather too.

PIGEONS, ROEBUCK AND AIRGUNNING TIPS

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Northern Ireland deputy first minister Martin McGuinness has been an angler all his life. Right in the middle of the peace negotiations of 1998, he took up flyfishing and, on his second cast, he caught a salmon. As he opens the Irish Game Fair 2012 at

Shane's Castle, Co Antrim, he tells his story. That's not all. We're in the Highlands of Scotland fishing for trout with Byron Pace from Sporting Rifle magazine and we

have all our usuals - News Stump and Hunting YouTube. You won't see Fieldsports Britain cancelled because of the weather!

http://youtu.be/N2nxMtm7f3s

MARTIN MCGUINNESS ON FISHING IN NORTHERN IRELAND

I Shoot and Fish E-Zine August 2012 61

http://youtu.be/4FZILW5v4zs

Wild boar under the moon in Croatia, how to set a clayshooting Grand Prix course with world champion George Digweed, all the latest shooting kit from Scandinavia:

we have lots of new stuff for you this week. We're also comparing shooting to tennis and bicycling as a sport for anyone to take up with the Schools Challenge. And we have two dazzling new items: Calendar and Kit Special - both will put you in touch

with the latest in hunting, shooting and fishing. And hardly any former terrorists!

GAME FAIR ALTERNATIVES AND WILD BOAR IN CROATIA

I Shoot and Fish E-Zine August 2012 62

We're shooting pigeons in a London shopping centre and we are prawning - the summer sport of choice for anyone on a bucket-and-spade holiday. We're also at

the Oxford Gun company's 'alternative' game fair on what would have been the CLA Game Fair weekend. And we bring you regulars including News Stump, Calendar and Hunting YouTube. Rock legend Brian May and Hollywood star John Wayne

both feature!

http://youtu.be/3mU4HZVvdXY

SHOPPING CENTRE PIGEONS AND BUCKET-AND-SPADE

I Shoot and Fish E-Zine August 2012 64

HOW TO FIND TROUT TO FLY-FISH TO AFTER A

FLOOD, HIGH WATER OR RUN-OFF

Waters receding after a flood, run-off or high water offer good fishing opportunities if you know where to look.

It is one of fly-fishing's less than memorable experiences. You travel to the river, ar-rive at your accommodation, and try to sleep with your head full of the fish you are going to catch tomorrow... Well you would catch them tomorrow if the river was not recovering from a flood, very high water or run-off. In the morning you are greeted with brown water swirling down the main channel, and spilling out over the banks. Time to pack up and go home? Well you might, but you could be missing out on some great fishing. It is all a matter of how you look at things.

But before going any further I must issue a warning - a warning you ignore at your very real peril:

Fishing as described in what follows must only be attempted when flood or high-waters are receding, and have receded significantly from the full height of the flood.

My own unbreakable rule is never wade in water more than mid-thigh deep, and most often knee height or less.

Always carry a wading stick. Dirty water will make it hard to see the bottom; you need the stick to "feel" your way. Keep as far back from the main river bed as possible, and never, ever, not even once, try to wade in the main current, even in small streams. Look for trout in all the unusual places In a flood the prime need for a trout is shelter from the strong currents and flows. At the peak of a flood many trout will die or be badly injured when caught in the main flows and dashed against rocks, sunken timber, etc. Much of the time shelter will be found out of the main river, in the water spilt over the river banks. But lies in this overflow water are not always obvious, because they do not neces-sarily equate to normal lies when the river is not high.

http://www.bishfish.co.nz

I Shoot and Fish E-Zine August 2012 65

I have attempted to show in the illustration above the possible lies where fish may be holding after the flood but still in high water spilling over the usual banks. The dark blue colour is the main river, the usual river bed. The lighter blue colour represents the water spilt over the usual banks. The spirals represent the current direction behind obstruc-tions. Nothing is drawn to scale. The over-spilled water may be a few meters wide, or tens of meters. Lies 1 and 1a The green represents, well, greenery. It could be bushes par-tially or completely under water. It may be a tree, it's lower trunk un-der water. Maybe it is a clump of weed or long grass. All these will provide shelter from the main

flow. Greenery provides a number of advantages to a trout. The leaves or grass can help to filter out sediment, sand and grit which irritate gills. The greenery will also help to slow currents and provide good shelter. The greenery also has another advantage - it will filter out nymphs that have been washed away in the flood, and deliver them to the waiting, and by now, hungry fish. Trout may hold behind the greenery, or right in amongst it, depending on the density of the foliage. Lies 2 and 2a Any obstruction that juts out into the current from dry lad can provide shelter from the flow. The obstruction could be a large rock, a natural ground formation, or a big log, etc. The thing to note here is that behind any obstruction of this type there will be a 'back eddy'. The current curls around the end of the obstruction and forms a eddy. In these eddies trout are likely to be facing apparently downstream - but they are in fact facing into the current forms by the eddy. Food being carried by the flood will begin to sink in eddies as the water slows.

http://www.bishfish.co.nz

I Shoot and Fish E-Zine August 2012 66

Lie 3 This formation could be a large rock, a tree, a large log, etc. that is surrounded by water. This formation will also form an eddy behind it in the strong flows of a flood. While it would appear to be a good lie - it is usually no good at all. Being in the main, or close to the main current, the water will be dirty and full of sediment, sand and grit etc. All pretty much bad news for trout. This lie is probably only filled by trout escaping from the main flow, and resting till they can move away from the main current and to the other lies shown. Lies 4 These lies are usually only small and carry only a few fish, more often only one. Now by small, I mean a mere scoop out of the ground around it, and often overhung by grass or bushes. In these 'scoops' a fish can hold in virtually no current, and be-cause there is no current the water is clear of sediment. It is in these lies that I usually hook most fish. Casting to Flood Fish When fishing to flood fish it is well to remember that the dirty water can be to your advantage - you may not be able to see the fish, but you can be pretty certain they cannot see you. It is not unusual to get within a rod length of a fish and still not be spotted. In my experience trout seem to hold higher in the water when it is dirty, than is usual when water is clearer. I guess that this is because in flood lies we are looking at water that is flowing slower than the main currents and therefore sediment and such falls to bottom more swiftly. So always fish the top third of the depth first. In many cases how you cast and where you cast is dictated by the position of the fish. For example if the fish are holding in amongst sunken shrubbery you have lim-ited options. But a little thinking outside the square may open up some options. Lies 1 - alternative action If a fish is holding deep down in shrubbery, grass or weeds, or holding close behind, drifting a big foam fly over them may bring a rise. These fish have been in a flood and have had little opportunity to feed - they will be hungry. A big bug drifting overhead may bring spectacular results. Water overflowing banks pick up all sorts of terrestrial insects and carries them along.

http://www.bishfish.co.nz

I Shoot and Fish E-Zine August 2012 67

Lies 2 - go with the flow Try and cast as shown. Get in the outer edge of the eddy and allow the fly to be pulled around by the current. Now it goes against usual wisdom, but do not strip in line as the fly is pulled round towards you. allow the line to swing round in the current and then pull away as it moves away from you. Keep the rod tip low to the water, and your line-hand holding the line up near the first guide. If a fish hits, sweep the rod tip parallel to the

water (never up, ever) and pull down with your line hand till all comes tight, then, and only then, lift the rod tip. If you are nymph fishing use an indicator, or a big dry fly as an indicator. In this type of fish-ing you have little or no idea where you nymph is, as, what is happening at the surface often bears no relationship to what is happening below. An indicator at least gives you a rough idea what is going on below. Lies 4 - Dapping and other monstrosities Fishing to lies like numbers 4 is my favourite (well almost - see later) way of fishing dirty wa-ter. You can usually get so close to fish you could touch them with a rod tip. I use two main methods to reach to these fish: 1. Fish downstream using something like a dark and weighted 'Woolly Bugger'. Fish it on a 3' to 4' leader, and only from about three rod lengths upstream from the lie, while standing out of the water. Let the fly drift back a little behind the lie, no need to cast, then twitch re-trieve the fly back past the lie - repeat as necessary. If you do not get a hit add a little weight and try again till the fly is hitting the bottom. 2. You can use this method using a dry fly especially a big terrestrial. But this time use flicks of the rod tip to release line to allow the fly to drift over the lie. A mouse fly works super well fished this way. Trying to use a nymph in this situation is often problematical. It is, well in a word - stupid, to try and wade out to a position where you cast up and across the fish. Besides the fish are usually holding right up against the edge of the flood bank. You need to be an exceptionally accurate caster to get your flies close enough to the bank.

But you can try aanother version of dapping - standing just a little short of a rod length from the lie, flick the nymph on a short leader (3') above the lie and follow it down with the rod tip. You need a well weighted nymph, it must sink quickly. Actually you can use dapping with a dry fly too. Other Opportunities One of the opportunities that sometimes pops up in floods or high water is a side channel filling up and providing shelter for trout. Sometimes this side water can be an old channel that is cut off from the main river at normal levels. You can use any of the methods described above to cast to fish or likely lies.

http://www.bishfish.co.nz

I Shoot and Fish E-Zine August 2012 68

In my experience fishing these side channels is made for terrestrials and mouse imi-tations. Often these channels are draining the low lying ground around them and carrying these creatures to the fish holding there. If you don't want to go to fly fishing heaven a worm imitation can be lethal. Playing a fish in high water Playing a fish in flood or high water conditions is not a lot different than playing a fish in normal water, but for one major issue. If the fish makes it into the main cur-rent you can most often kiss that fish goodbye. Get used to spending a lot of playing time putting side-strain on the fish - that is holding the rod parallel to the surface to try and keep the fish heading toward the shore not out toward the main current. On this note, you will find that you can go up in leader breaking strain several notches above that which you might normally fish. The key here is to get the fish in as fast as possible for release. Be careful out there! Fishing dirty water after a flood or high water can be very rewarding and it is safe if you are careful and follow the basic rules I outlined at the beginning of this article. Please follow them to the letter.

http://www.bishfish.co.nz

http://www.lowcostlifecover.ie/

I Shoot and Fish E-Zine August 2012 70

HALF OF ALL FISH

CAUGHT

IN THE NORTH SEA

ARE THROWN

BACKOVERBOARD

D E A D http://www.fishfight.net

Fishing in British Columbia, Canada

Exclusive Escorted Salmon Fishing Trips to Canada BC with Qualified Game Angling In-structor Stevie Munn & Gordon MacLeod Scottish Spey caster and guide.

British Columbia, Canada, has some of the most phenomenal and exciting sport fishing opportunities the world has to offer. Every year the salmon runs, number in the 10's of millions. The sturgeon fishing is world class, and if that's not enough,

they also have a fantastic steelhead and trout fishing. Simply speaking, British Co-lumbia and it rivers produce an awesome year-round fishery that's tough to beat.

Combine this great fishery with spectacular scenery wildlife and tips and help from a qualified Hardy Academy Instructor, and you have the opportunity to experience the trip of a lifetime! Fishing in British Columbia, Canada is nothing short of world class. Whether you are a die-hard or an occasional fisherman, we will spoil you

with excellent fishing.

Sturgeon & Salmon - British Columbia - Fraser River -

The mighty Fraser River constitutes the back-bone of one of the world’s great salmon-

yielding systems, comprising countless tributaries that have been spawning sites since time

unknown. Amid breathtaking scenic beauty you’ll find yourself fishing the region’s local

rivers - the Fraser, the Chilliwack, the Vedder, the Harrison and the Chehalis - for Chi-

nook, chum, Coho, pink (running every other year, including 2011) and sockeye salmon

plus steelhead, trout and the massive sturgeon (the latter being catch/tag and release only).

I Shoot and Fish E-Zine August 2012 71

There are few places left where you can genuinely be surrounded by superb fishing and stun-

ning scenery. The legendary Fraser River system, which to this day remains un-dammed

throughout its 850 mile course, ranks as one of the world’s last great salmon producing rivers

and still has no rival in its migratory salmon runs. There is no doubt about it sturgeon of all sizes

are exciting - most adversaries leap upon feeling cold steel and 60-180lb. specimens are every-

day catches on the Fraser and Harrison Rivers.

Normal Itinerary

This Year we are offering a deluxe trip with all meals but dinner. 5 days guided fishing with Jet boats, 1 day walk and wade fishing, 8 night’s accommodations, 10 day trip, Airport Transfers. Lunches for your fishing days, Return flights from UK/Ireland Accommodation Breakfast at hotel. 5 x 8hr day jet boat guided fishing Shuttle to and from fishing Rest day or fish the Vedder River Any tuition needed. Most people like to bring their own gear but tackle can be hired We like groups that are not massive 6-8 is a nice number though we can do bigger groups, sometimes others do very big groups but we like to provide good service.

Advantages

Fully qualified instructor, Local knowledge of the area and river. Discount on all tackle for your trip bought at www.anglingclassics.co.uk Fly-fishing guides on all boats Meeting like minded anglers Breakfast at hotel. & Lunches for your fishing days, most trips don’t do this and charge. Best Hotel in Area. HAVING A GOOD TIME.

Your angling adventures can also include

Improve on your fly casting techniques

Double Hand Traditional Spey and Skagit casting techniques

Single Hand Casting techniques

Tackle talk, the basics required

Learn how to tie fly leaders and attach flies

Importance of fly selection Top Salmon fishing & Sturgeon fishing Top Class Salmon Fishing With Top Class Guides, Hosted By Top Class Instructors. The fishing is spectacular. The thunderous roar of the mighty rivers fills your ears, as you gaze up towards the sky you are greeted with breathtaking mountain views and towering formations of chiselled rock. Known as! The Great Outdoors! Located just 1 hour east of Vancouver offering visitors a liberating and exhilarating experience. Stevie Munn is a proud member of the Hardy Greys Academy, and APGAI- Ireland which com-prise of instructors, who actively promote the best instruction service for anglers wanting to im-prove their technique. Stevie has been teaching game angling for many years and is devoted to fly angling at its best.

Testimonial: "I can't say enough. You gave me the best fishing trip I have ever had. I can't thank you

enough." Robert Hayes

We use Registered Top Canadian Guides in compliance with Canadian Law Email anglingclassics@aol.com

I Shoot and Fish E-Zine August 2012 73 http://nigelallen.blogspot.com

A brand new PCP in a brand new airgun calibre - .303 caliber! Nigel Allen gets his hands on this incredible new five-shot supergun from Daystate and brings you an

in-depth review on its features and awesome performance. Watch out for Air-gunTV Xtra at the end... http://www.daystate.com

http://youtu.be/Ysvz378Ttjw

FULL TEST: WOLVERINE 303 CALIBER 100 FT/LB

AIR RIFLE

I Shoot and Fish E-Zine August 2012 74

For a subscription, click www.airgun.tv – or to buy an e-zine version (single issue), click

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Dog transporters made to measure. 2 to 4 dog units available. Simply lift on and off to provide secure, smooth transport for your dogs. No more wet dogs in the car or trying to reverse trailers on narrow lanes. Made from durable, maintenance free aluminium sheeting. Included in price is mounting plate for hitch (Flange type hitches recom-mended for this product). For full details contact Brian on 087 2604060

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I Shoot and Fish E-Zine August 2012 75

I Shoot and Fish E-Zine July 2012 76

About Mike and POSITIVE SHOOTING Hi and welcome to www.POSITIVESHOOTING.com. I'm Mike Yardley and I've been shooting and studying it for over 40 years - ouch! I love the sport be it with shotguns, rifles, pistols, or airguns. I'm delighted you've found this web-site and I really hope you find it useful. The goal is to get as many people into the sport as possible and to get them shooting as well as possible - maximis-ing all their potential. Thank you for your support. Safe shooting. Michael Yardley was born in Denmark and educated in England, Switzerland and the US. He has a psychology degree from London University, conducted post-graduate research into direct action and terrorism at the LSE, and is also a graduate of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.

Mike Yardley

Michael is well known as a sporting journalist, shooting instructor, and hunter and has written and broadcast extensively on all aspects of guns and their use. His articles (2000+) have appeared in many journals as well as in the national press. He has appeared as an expert witness in cases which relate to firearms and firearms safety. He is a founding fellow of the Association of Professional Shooting Instructors, and has formal instructing qualifications from a variety of other bodies including the British CPSA, BFSS, NRA and NSRA. Michael began competitive shooting with 11th County of London HG Btn. Rifle Club. He won ‘Colours’ for shooting as a member of the shotgun and pistol teams of the Royal Military Academy Sandhust (being a member of the winning GB IMAGE match team in 1980). He has been a special advisor to the Police Federation, and others, civil and military. He has shot for sport for more than 40 years and hunted birds and larger game on four continents (making more than twenty safaris to Africa hunting both dangerous and plains game). He is a multiple county clay pigeon shooting champion, British Side by Side Champion 2004, and, has won hundreds of ‘High Guns’ in open competition with his faith-ful Beretta 303 semi-automatic and Lyalvale (Express) cartridges. He is listed one of The Field’s ‘Top Shots.’ He retired from the press competition at the CLA Game Fair after winning it three times.

As well as his shooting activities he has written books on other subjects including an account of the independent Polish trade union Solidarity, a biography of T.E.Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia), and a history of the Royal Military Academy Sanhurst itself. He is a contributing author and ‘Special Researcher’ to the Oxford History of the British Army (in which he wrote the concluding chapter and essays on the army in Northern Ireland and the SAS). He is also a frequent broadcaster and has made and presented documentaries for the BBC on ‘The Media and the Monarchy,’ ‘Kill one: frighten Ten Thousand (a History of Terrorism),’ and phi-losophical doubt. He has also been involved as a specialist ballistic consultant, and presenter, in many productions for various TV companies including the Dis-covery and History Channels. He has re-enacted on location worldwide the death of the Red Baron, the Trojan Horse incident from ancient history, and some of

the most infamous assassinations, including those of JFK, RFK and Abe Lincoln. Michael has worked a photojournalist and war reporter in Syria, Lebanon, Alba-nia/Kosovo, Africa, and Afghanistan. He was seized off the street in Beirut in 1982 (before Terry Waite and John McCarthy) but released shortly afterwards having befriended one of his captors. In 1986 he made 3 clandestine crossings into Afghanistan with the Mujahedin putting his cameras aside and working as a medic on one mission with a group called NIIFA. In the late 1990s, he ran aid con-voys to Kosovan Refugees in Albania and on the Albanian/Kosovo border. The charity he co-founded, ‘Just Help,’ was honoured for this work which took 300 tons of relief to desperately needy people.

I Shoot and Fish E-Zine August 2012 77

Winchester SX3 Red Performance Review by Mike Yardley

I have shot some very impressive relatively low cost clay guns recently – the new Browning 525 sporter in 30” configuration, the 32” Beretta Silver Pigeon 1 Opti-bore, and now, I have another truly outstanding gun at the right price: the Winchester SX3 Red Peformance. This was previously known as the Flani-Gun in long magazine form after US trick shooter Patrick Flanigan (who was able to shoot five shots in just over half a second with his - Mr Flanigan has now been tempted away to Moss-berg). The SX3 reviewed here has a 30” tube and standard 2+1, section 2, magazine to comply with our firearms laws. Well known British clay shooter, Tony Manvell (now a Winchester sponsored shooter too) has done extremely well with his – a special 32” version. In mainstream competition Tony has notched up a string of high-level wins to his credit including the Dutch Masters and German FITASC Grand Prix and a sil-ver medal in the Pan African games last year and a silver medal in Portugal.

This is what he has to say about the SX3: “I think that the SX3 is truly amazing for the price that it is pitched at. It is very fast cycling and extremely reliable. It eliminates the ‘clunk-clunk’ of many autos which can put some people off them... being lighter than the aver-age is another positive, the handling is great, and the ballistics are excellent as well.”

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This certainly sets up high expectations. Let us look at the rest of the specification of the SX3 in a little more detail. This colourful synthetic stocked gun is back-bored at 18.7mm and has long Invector Plus chokes of Briley Signature pattern (5 of which are supplied). It is fleurs de lys steel shot proofed. And, for the record, it is notable that Tony won in Holland and Germany using mandatory steel shot in with ¾ choke fitted – more than is usually advised though matching my own preference for longer range work with steel (provided the gun is suitable for use with tighter constrictions and steel). I certainly noted that the chokes really seemed to suit the barrel – kills (with lead) were most impressive even at forty plus yards. The gun seemed to have that for-giving quality which is seen in other back-bored Winchesters and Brownings, and, which I have also noted in Beretta Opti-bored guns. The fringes of the pat-tern seem to be more efficient than with more conventionally bored guns when barrels are bored to this sort of plan. As for the aesthetics – and they could hardly have escaped your attention – the SX3 has a bright red receiver and alloy forend nut with a black synthetic stock. The latter has an adjustable shim system for cast and drop – unlike the Beretta one, though, there is only an interchangeable shim at the front, not at the rear. Nevertheless, it allows for considerable and useful variation (though a little more movement upwards would be wel-come). This gun which so obviously stands out from the crowd is also available in plainer form as the black action SX3 Composite. That SX3 does not, however, benefit from the Briley Signature chokes (standard Invector Plus chokes are supplied). But, the less eccentric model has the same back bored barrel, with slightly raised rib and a similar stock system. I might also mention at this point the excellent Browning Maxus – which came out a little later than the standard SX3 – and which has a slightly (but only slightly) different oper-ating mechanism with a longer stroke and different valve. It is another budget semi offering excellent performance from the same stable. The action mechanics of the SX3 are quite interesting. It is a gas operated gun, working on the short impulse system developed by Browning Winchester a decade or more back. The piston – and two are supplied with the SX3, one for light loads and one for heavy, (unlike the Maxus which manages with one and can still handle a wide range of cartridges) has especially large gas ports. It is an enclosed design to help bring down felt recoil. The makers claim that this plan also offers improved reliability and cleaner operation (though you would be well advised to keep the pis-ton clean in any semi).

I Shoot and Fish E-Zine August 2012 79

www.positiveshooting.com Michael Yardly

Felt recoil recoil is also helped by the back-boring (18.7mm) barrel. This is proofed for 3” loads (though I doubt you would want to put them through the gun) and has a slightly raised rib. These are not usually my favourite pattern, but I got on well with the one here. At the muzzle, apart from the red-ringed, Briley choke there is a Tru-Glo front sight (with interchangeable fibre optic ‘lite-pipes’). They are not too broad which is a bonus. Overall, I think that the styling of the gun is great. The red anodised action contrasts with black plastic stock. It’s not OTT but most unusual (and I noted several manufacturers are now offering colour anodised receivers on their semis) – ideal for the more extroverted clay shooter! More prac-tically, I also liked the shapes. The stock comb and nicely radiused grip are very comfortable. The whole gun looks streamlined with a rounded rear to the receiver rather than the hump-back seen on some autos. Shooting impressions I could wax lyrical here. Like Tony, I have long enjoyed using a semi. Gas oper-ated semi-automatics are light recoiling and reduce fatigue – especially if they are light to the front as the SX3 is. It weighs in at 7lbs 5 ounces in 30” form and the weight seems ideal for the gun. I found it very instinctive to use. It was lively, poin-table and all things good when I shot it with Andy Norris of Browning International (Winchester are, of course, part of the Browning stable now). Can I fault it? At this price not really. It offers really good value for money. Rumour in the States has it that a similar model will be available next year with an adjust-able comb. Meantime, my only advice is buy an SX3 if you are in the market for a semi, I doubt if you will be disappointed – the gun cycles with incredible rapidity, it’s fun to shoot, and you will find it a talking point with your friends if you get the Red Performance. It’s also nice to know that with a typical selling price under £1,000 it is still capable of winning in serious competition. Finally, with the lack of front weight and low felt recoil it might make a very good gun for younger shooters and women as well.

Winchester SX3 Performance - Technical Specification Action type: gas-inertia Bore: back-bored 12 Chamber: 3" Chokes: Investor Plus (R supplied) Rib: raised Weight: 7lbs 5oz pounds RRP: £1037 (including VAT and ABS case)

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Prospector-1/254466664636603

I Shoot and Fish E-Zine August 2012 81 http://www.fishinginireland.info

Catch of the week 03/07/12

After lovely May and beginning of June, fishing went really bad because of high water and cold nights. I’m addicted to long, night fishing sessions for Tench and Bream so cold weather wasn’t any good for me and high water wasn’t good for tench at all. All the fish were released at the end of the sessions in excellent condi-tion.

Michael Wrobel with a fine catch of tench taken in Cavan Michael Wrobel with a fine Cavan Bream

Michael Wrobel about to return two lovely bream back to the water in Cavan last weekend.

LOVELY BREAM AND TENCH FISHING FOR MICHAEL WROBEL IN THE CAVAN AREA.

I Shoot and Fish E-Zine August 2012 82 http://www.fishinginireland.info

Catch of the week 10/07/12

TWO IPSWICH ANGLERS BRAVE THE ELEMENTS IN LONGFORD AND ARE REWARDED WITH A FISHING BO-

NANZA INCLUDING A SPECIMEN TENCH

Geoff Wilson and Graeme Sargent from Ipswich were on their annual fishing trip to Ireland and Melview Lodge in Longford, when they arrived they were welcomed by heavy rain and high winds so high most of the time they were unable to use keepnets in fear for the safety of the fish. However we did manage a few pictures of some of their catches, Kevin said the guys fished in conditions that some anglers would not have got out of their beds for. Water levels were raising by the hour and still they fished on, they caught some cracking Bream along with Hybrids, Roach and Tench. Graeme caught a fine specimen Tench of 6 lb. 3 oz and wins our Catch of

the Week. Well done lads in what can only be described as fishing madness.

Kevin Lyons Melview Lodge Drumlish Road, Clonrollagh, Longford, Co. Longford. Tel : +353 (0)43-33-45061 Mobile : +353 (0)87-268-7441

Email: info@melviewlodge.com Web: www.melviewlodge.com

I Shoot and Fish E-Zine August 2012 83

Catch of the week 16/07/12

http://fishinginireland.info

18 LB. DOLLAGHAN TROUT TAKEN ON FLY ON THE RIVER MAINE AT SHANES CASTLE

Sam Andrews, Shanes Castle Demesne, sends us this photo of a specimen 18 lb. Dolloghan Trout from Lough Neagh, he caught on salmon shrimp fly on River Maine at Shanes Castle. Sam tells us that he quickly measured the fish on the handle of his landing net at 33 inches and that the fish was a rare strain of “Bodagh Dollaghan” which run the river from Lough Neagh and he quickly re-turned this magnificent fish of a lifetime after a very dogged fight to the net.

Sam Andrews, APGAI Ireland, Fishing Guide Northern Ireland Location: Co. Antrim, N. Ireland

Email: samandrews100@hotmail.com Phone: +44 7889423965

I Shoot and Fish E-Zine August 2012 84

Catch of the week 26/07/12

http://fishinginireland.info

TWO BIG TOPE CAPTURED BY A KAYAK ANGLER IN SUCESSIVE DAYS FISHING OFF THE WICKLOW

BEACHES

Gary Robinson in an e-mail sent me the following mail and photo

“I had a cracking catch off one of the Wicklow beaches while kayak fishing last night. the fish was unweighed but has to be well beyond specimen size. For more information check out www.kayakfishingblog.com

I Shoot and Fish E-Zine August 2012 85

http://youtu.be/IiOdiTd4oMU

AIR RIFLE HUNTING, NITESITE NS200

REVIEW 2012

This is a review of the NiteSite NS200. For more information on the NiteSite click on the link here http://nitesite.co.uk/

The NiteSite is a night vision camera that fits to the eye bell of your day scope and transmits the image to a LCD monitor with built in infra red illuminator mounted to

the top of your scope. You are able to record the scope cam footage with the use of a recording/viewing device with a Line in 3.5mm video jack socket and a 3.5mm 4 way video cable.

But the footage you see here is nowhere as good as what you will see in the Nite-Site's LCD monitor as the footage had to be edited and converted before upload-

ing to You Tube.

I Shoot and Fish E-Zine August 2012 86

Get your copy of Hunters

Vermin ‘Air Rifle Control in

Northern Ireland’ today. A

perfect Christmas gift for

any air rifle shooter.

Call Blaze Publishing on

0044 (0) 1926339808 Cost

£14.99.

Or on line at

http://www.virtualnewsagent.com/corvid-chaos/

I Shoot and Fish E-Zine August 2012 87

Explore the Burren with on one of our guided walking tours, then soak in our outdoor hot-tub & Spa with

views of the magnificent Mullagh Mor.

Prices start from €35 pp Bed & Breakfast

www.burrenretreats.com

Call Burren Retreats today

+353 (65) 6827749

www.burrenretreats.com

Corofin, County Clare

Enjoy a personalised mini-break in exceptional accommodation, overlooking The Burren National Park & the picturesque fishing village of Corofin with access to Lough Inchiquin, Ballycullinan

Lake & Atedaun Lake

I Shoot and Fish E-Zine August 2012 88

http://youtu.be/_M3mFr-22Ak

Dave Welham and I are invited to shoot some fox at a building development in central London. We have to use a .22 rimfire with sub sonic ammo so not to disturb neighbours or draw any unnecessary attention. We shoot 5 over

two nights so all in all I don't think we did too bad.

NIGHT VISION FOX CONTROL (PULSAR N550

DIGISIGHT)

I Shoot and Fish E-Zine August 2012 89

http://youtu.be/05YJFiTG4Xo

DAYSTATE PANTHER INDOOR ACCURACY TESTING

A new member joins country Pursuits TV. We test the Daystate Panther at Pete's Airgun Farm and much more....

I Shoot and Fish E-Zine August 2012 90

The Shooting Show is back with presenter Peter Carr, editor of Sporting Rifle, in the hot seat. Together with Sporting Rifle's Byron Pace, they get closer than they have ever got to a roebuck (outside the rut). And Byron is trying out the new .17 Hornet

from Hornady and Savage.

http://youtu.be/Bkh8y6TdveY

THE SHOOTING SHOW - 15-YARD ROEBUCK AND

THE NEW .17 HORNET

I Shoot and Fish E-Zine August 2012 91

Memorial Angling Match on the Barrow A Huge Success

The Annual Michael Lyons Memorial angling match for people with disabilities was held recently on the river Barrow in Bagenalstown, Co. Carlow and was a com-plete success with groups travelling from Carlow and as far as Dublin. In total fifty four anglers competed in the competition which is in it's eleventh year and seems to be growing bigger and better every year with loads of fish being caught. The competition is put together by the Lyons family in particular Michael Lyons every year in memory of their father Mick a keen angler. Fish caught on the day ranged from Perch, Eels, Roach, Trout to Dace the most common caught fish on the day, most anglers caught on the day and thoroughly enjoyed the day out on the Barrow. The Carlow Coarse Angling club looked after the biggest of the groups from the Central Remedial Clinic in Dublin which had twenty five participants in the Compe-tition all of whom caught on the day and managed a second and third placing us-

ing various techniques which in-cluded Feeder fishing, Whip fishing and Float fishing. A special thank you must go out to all sponsors of the event which there are a lot and the volunteers who gave up their time to help manage the event along with the Lyons family. All participants on the day received medals and most got prizes donated by various local busi-ness and well wishers. There was good representation from the Carlow Coarse Angling Club, The Leinster Coarse Fishing Federation, The Angling Council of Ireland and the National Coarse Fishing Federation of Ireland

(N.C.F.F.I.) the national governing body for coarse anglers in Ireland amongst oth-ers. Chairman of the Carlow C.A.C. Gerry McStraw thanked all for helping both on the day and Irish Bait and Tackle in Ballyconnell, Cavan, Murphs in Carlow town and Main Irish Angling, Blanch-ardstown, Dublin for helping and donat-ing lots of equipment for use in such pro-jects. If you would like any information re-garding the up and coming King of the Barrow one day festival which is to be held on Sunday 19th August 2012 please do not hesitate to contact Gerry on 085 2844566 or by e-mail on ger-rymcstraw@yahoo.ie

Large attendance at the event.

Carlow C.A.C. member and volunteer Thomas Kin-sella from Graiguecullen with anglers

Want to see your story and pictures in our e-zine e-mail to info@ishootandfish.ie or call Anthony

on 087-6690796

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