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Gnal Ga Cas Sa Tackl
48 Irish Angler September 2013 49September 2013 Irish Angler
CoverSTory
The more he develops as a guide, the more Ji Hndick learns
to listen for that certain something in a client’s voice.
AT Home‘The more I do ThIs job The more I hear ThaT
speCIal ThIng.’
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Gnal Ga Cas Sa Tackl
T here is a deep satisfaction in acquiring knowledge
of a place and the things t hat live there. You become
familiar with the stones that lie along the inner
estuary shore and the way they have been laid in
patterns by forces that you can’t gure, forces over
time that must have shaped those patterns. You become
reluctant to walk on those stones to avoid disturbing them. The
subtle nuances of late September light, the stark hardness of
a cool April north westerly blowing grey curtains of showers
across lilac skies whilst spring geese V their way home, the
uplifting sight of the rst swallow when shing for sea trout, the
silence after the last tern has gone, the smell of summer rain on
dry rocks and sweet sea pinks refreshed like some bejewelled
Italian ice-cream nodding their heads in a summer breeze tothe twinkling song of a skylark high in the sky. One-legged
oystercatchers limping along a mirrored strand take off and
land again and little waders run quickly in groups backwards
and forwards in the shallow waters. The curlew’s startled
cry as you walk back a late October estuary the sky already
darkening.
All th ese thin gs breed into your skin, i nto your person in to
what you are, into what you have become over years – north
winds, south winds, east winds, sunshine, frost, blue skies,
rain, salt and sand. The shape, the colour and the sound of the
sea the waves that break on the shore into white bass water
where you know it will happen, you can sense it, and you know
it instinctively.
All these things have bu ilt in me over many years – from
these countless repeated and yet different experiences and
messages I have a sense of where I am – I am home.
And in to thi s you must add the shing. What you know is
what you know because it has been forged in this instinct and
experience. You see the gulls struggle against a grey drizzly
sky and you get the heavy rod, the 10-wt, and your heart is
racing because it’s happening and you can be in the middle of
it and you move so quickly you hardly remember getting there
and you almost run to the location to get a cast off. This is
where I am happy, this is what I understand, have understood
for a long time.
The shing and the shing and the sh ing. You wait for spring
to come and you see the way the winter waves have bent the
sand and the sandbars, the new entrances the new exits the
different ow and where it was once safe is now dangerous oris now a new sh holding spot. Maybe this year the sh move
differently into different places at different times, maybe not.
And the familiar anxiet y and excitement around the arrival of a
new season begins.
Bringing people to this environment, to this place to catch
sh is what I do. That can be a dangerous thing of course and
I have learned to listen for something special in a customer’s
voice or in the way he or she writes an email. The more I do this
job the more I hear that special thing. Now don’t get me wrong,
I don’t have special powers of perception but I have learned to
listen better. Very often I hear a lot of noise and then I hear a
different sound and that’s the one I’m often most interested in.
Both John and Paul make that sound. Starkly different
people, they are both very strong in their own ways. Where
John is noisy Paul is quiet. Where John is a raconteur Paul
50 Irish Angler September 2013 51September 2013 Irish Angler
CoverSTory
‘maybe ThIs year The fIsh movedIfferenTly InTo dIfferenT plaCes
aT dIfferenT TImes, maybe noT.’
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Gnal Ga Cas Sa Tackl
is a listener, and where John can be found shing
Paul can often be seen sitting and staring, taking
his time.
Early during 2012 I got a plethora of emails from
John, one after the other in quick succession, more
questions in each. John wanted to y sh for bass in
Wexford. I liked the emails immediately. They were
like a torrent of excited questions from someone who
has just found an answer but doesn’t know quite
what to ask. Paul would lure sh whilst John was
strictly a y sherman. What lines, what ies, how
far, how big, is the wind strong, when can I come,
is there current, do you have any time in April? John
expressed a bubbling enthusiasm that emphasised
all the right things I liked to hear and I knew he would
be in Wexford shortly. He’s that kinda guy!
We had a tough time of it during 2012, that you
already know! John at 58 is tough and wiry and
resilient and demands a lot from himself, but there
was nothing we could do in the face of a miserable
summer on the y. He went home tired but far from
beaten. In fact – here’s the thing – he never lost any
enthusiasm in the face of the difculties we faced.
He expressed constant satisfaction about the
environment within which we shed, the challenges
which we faced at the time, the sights and the
sounds of where he was was something that he
enjoyed immensely whilst obviously challenged by
the possibilities of the shing. His end of day (in fact
end of three days) was shless but he tol d me he had
never stopped learning from me, from what he was
doing and how and where he was doing it.
And this is where it’s at in the guide/clientexperience – John doesn’t give a ddler’s about
who is using what y or line or rod or reel. He has
his equipment, which is very good, and in which he
has a lot of condence. He was shing with classic
deceivers, Clousers and atwings, all of which were
available in some basic colours – there were some
darker shades and some differences in sizes too –
one box only. Perfect.
This is what impressed me – whilst he had thought
about his gear and clothing carefully and his leaders
ies and knots were tied very well and he had
invested time here, all of this was just a small part of
the total experience. This stuff permitted both him
and me to engage in something far more valuable
than the anxiety and pseudo consequences of not
having the latest greatest thing. In other words, we
got on with the shing and what was involved at the
time. We both felt quite at home.
52 Irish Angler September 2013 53September 2013 Irish Angler
Then John came back with Paul in 2013. Paul is
not like John. He just shes when he can, which is
rarely. Paul is very relaxed and listens intently and
goes and does it as best he can. Last year Paul
caught some sh. In fact last year was the last time
that Paul had shed. So here we were again on the
water in Wexford under the sun in a tight head band
of summer heat not witnessed since the fabled ’76.
With a little tweaking every now and again Paul was
getting better and better. With a little slowing down
John was getting the pace to last in the 25 degree
temps – stop and start, easy does it.
In a day born from a light that makes everything
special, the sh came on. Crystal clear water ran
the estuary, sandeels tightened and hardened to
any structure they could, while from the surface
terns picked up eels lost in the rip of currents boiling
and bubbling over the tide. Skylarks hovered high
overhead almost invisible, their summer song
twinkling down to us and somewhere in the distance
was the drone of a paraglider. Paul had done exactly
what we had discussed earlier and the rst s h came
to the surface lure like train intent on destruction.
John took his sh moments later on a transparent
atwing.
It was a day of light and magic made special by
the sh, the company and feeling at home with great
people.
‘In a day born from a lIghT ThaT makes everyThIng speCIal,
The fIsh Came on.’
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