Although its not completely over I can safely say I've had a wonderful season. It started with an amazing session of surface fishing with Jim Hendrick in Wexford in the opening hours after the closed season back in June and has continued on with action, excitement and discoveries right throughout. This season for me though has been mainly about getting deeply into Soft Plastics which has kept my focus right through the summer and continues to be an endless fascination which I predict will go on for some while yet, I will be writing on this over the winter for a series of articles to be published in the Spring. I have so many wonderful memories to reflect on as the temperatures drop and the fishing gets tough, shared experiences, moments of adrenaline alone in the dark, encounters with wildlife, and scary moments when I was reminded that my judgement on safety wasn't as good as it could be !! This season saw more variety in locations with trips away to sublime fishing destinations, Wexford, Waterville the Copper Coast and Galway how lucky am I to live where I do and have the chance to access these areas with an easy drive which gets easier all the time as the Irish road network improves. Lows, hardly any, a "High End" reel that's been back for repair three times is about it. This season although well up on numbers and quality fish, did not produce a double for me but most pleasingly blanks were pretty rare, there's nothing worse than a blank if you're as addicted as I am but you have to expect at least the odd one. By continuous focused effort tide after tide I have learnt a lot about the locations I already know and added new reliable ones also, its very rewarding when another piece of the jigsaw slips into place and inspiring to think that the surface has only been lightly scratched, for sure there's a lifetime of learning still ahead of me.
