Irish Fly Fair

Mike Shanks has been fly-fishing and fly tying for over 50 years, the last 20 years of which he’s lived close to Loughs Corrib and Mask where he now does most of his fishing. Prior to that he was based on the West coast of Scotland so he has experience on many Scottish waters. Mike’s passion has always been fly-tying; it is something he has always loved. He wrote the book the ‘Fly-Tyers Craft’ and has developed some of his own innovative patterns over the years. The best know of these is the ‘Shaggy’ pattern which has taken many a wild trout over the years. He also developed the Hairy Wulf pattern following on from the late Rod Tye’s fantastic work on dry Sedge patterns.

He has been instructing fly tying at his local club, Cornamona and District Anglers, for both youths and adults since he moved there, and was a major factor for two of the youths becoming All-Ireland Youths Fly Tying Champions. In the last number of years, he has got the bug for travelling to other renowned fly-fishing destinations. Locations such as New Zealand, Tasmania, Chile, Cuba, and Turks and Caicos and the Orkney Islands, he fully intends to keep this going.

Mike will be tying some of his patterns at the Fulling Mill stand so do come along and see how to dress them.