Irish Fly Fair

Arthur lives in Carryduff near Belfast, Northern Ireland and is a retired Head Teacher. He is a member of the Association of Professional Game Angling Instructors (Ireland) and is Training Officer for that group.

Arthur’s area of expertise is in tying and demonstrating traditional Irish lough flies although he enjoys dressing the whole range of Irish trout and seatrout flies including the more modern and innovative patterns. More recently he’s been dabbling in predator patterns and has been catching occasional pike, perch and pollack. As an ex-teacher, he particularly likes working with young people and beginners to the world of fly dressing and demonstrates and teaches in this area at all the major Irish Country Fairs and Shows each year as well as selected overseas events such as the Dutch Fly Fair and the FFF Conclave in Montana.

When not tying, Arthur sometimes finds time to actually go fishing. Local rivers and streams for wild browns in spring-time, then the big western loughs for trout at mayfly time followed by a seatrout odyssey on the lakes and rivers of Connemara to end the season. Since the Irish are not fortunate enough to have grayling as a native species, an annual pilgrimage (or two!) is necessary to England, Scotland or Wales each winter. Each summer Arthur usually takes a flyfishing visit abroad, often to Montana and Alberta but also to various destinations in Europe including Slovenia and Romania and within the UK.