The Irish Fly Fair

01_Galway Bay Hotel

The 10th anniversary version of the Irish Fly Fair is over. The venue was the beautiful Galway Hotel with a great view of the coastline and there was everything a flyfisher (or spinfsher for that matter) could ever wish for.

02_Galway oceanwiev

03_The stand
The Ahrex stand at the beautiful Galway Bay Hotel.

Håkan and Søren were present both days to talk about hook design and show the products we have in the range. Meanwhile Jackie Mahon was tying beautiful Irish wets at the tying table, accompanied by Owen Trill, who was tying salmon flies – also with an Irish twist. There was a hum and a buzz on our stand – hook talks, tips and tricks were passed on along with beautiful, well tied flies. A big thanks to Jackie and Owen for the time, help, skills and good company over a night time Guiness.

07_Jackie binder
Jackie Mahon at the Ahrex stand tying his lovely trout flies, tips and tricks were flowing from his many years af fishing the big lakes of Ireland.
08_Jackie fluer
A lot of thoughts and well-proven details in some of Jackies flies, they look ‘simple’ but many hours of testing is behind every fly he ties and every detail is important.
09_Owen Trill binder
Owen Trill explaining how to fish his beautiful tied double salmon flies. Stories of salmon are being told…
10_Owens shrimp
The traditional irish style with a modern twist is how Owen prefers to tie his beautiful flies – this shrimp-pattern has proved right many times for Owen in his irish home rivers.

While manufacturers and shops had everything anyone could ever with for on show, some of Europe’s best fly tiers were showing their skills on FlyTiers Row. It’s always a great pleasure to walk around and see the beautiful flies and pieces of art being produced.

04_IDFFA
… flytying materials, fishing gear and flies everywhere at the show – here is the “fly-bar” at the IDFFA-stand.
05_Stack Scoville
Superb deer-hair work by G. S.“Stack” Scoville.
06_Deer Creek - Aimee and Stuart
Aimee Kitchin and Stuart Smith kindly teasing each other at the Deer-Creek stand.

We experienced a great interest in our hooks both days and had plenty of good conversations with fly tiers from Ireland and England about our products. Thank you to everyone who came by for a look and a chat.

11_Poul Little and Stack Seoville
Upstairs at the booth the tyers-row were placed, and beautiful and amazing flies were tied. Here beautiful flies were created by Poul Little (UK) and G. S. “Stack” SCoville (USA) is hawing a great time behind their vices.
12_The Italian Gang
Flytying can be very serious – but the opposite is often a big part of a fly-fair – the faces of “The Italian Ahrex Team” says it all…

And thanks to Elaine and Stevie Munn for having us. We look forward to coming over next year. Hope to see you all – and more – again in 2020.