Peter O'Reilly - RIP

It was with great sadness last week that I learned of the passing of angling instructor, fly tier and author, Peter O' Reilly.

I personally had never met the man, but his book, "Trout & Salmon flies of Ireland", has had such an impact on my life as an angler and fly tier, that the news of his passing touched me deeply.

I remember buying his book in 1998 in a small private bookshop off Bishop's Street in L'Derry call The Bookworm. My cousin was in looking for books for her studies at university and I happened to see the book, which I had never seen before.  I remember picking it up to look at it and being truely amazed at the number of patterns and the materials lists to tie each individual fly in the book.  I had never seen so many flies.  I had a few books with trout and salmon patterns listed in them but with no picture to compare my attempts with, I really struggled.

There were many local patterns in "Along the Faughan Side" by Olly McGilloway and I also had E.J. Malone's book, "Irish Trout and Salmon Flies", which had a few 'plates' of flies shown in the middle pages but only a handful compared to the number of patterns listed in Peter's book.

This was before the days of social media, internet forums, or a lot of other online information that is available today with a quick search of google.  I had a few patterns stored away in old copies of "Trout and Salmon" magazine and other fly tying magazines but it was a real chore flicking through 50 copies of old magazines to find a particular fly I liked and wanted to try.

Even the magazines contained flies that were more Scottish in design rather than the Irish Shrimp patterns that were being used more locally.

Peter O'Reilly's book was something else.  Here were pages and pages of salmon flies, most of which I hadn't heard of before, many of which I now almost take for granted.

Up until that time I really only tried to tie, and failed miserably, flies like the Curry's Red and shrimps people had given me along the river. I was buying more flies than I was tying and buying them because I liked the colours more than anything.

Then I read Peter's fantastic book.  Not only lists of materials but pictures of 'plates' of flies to get some idea of how the fly should look, rather than trying to picture it in my head and not knowing if this thing I'd tied bore any resemblance to how the finished fly should look.  Also some information about each pattern.  How it came to be and who tied it if the information was known.  What time of the year they should be used and what type of water they worked best in or what light suited them best.  The book didn't just help me to know what a fly pattern should look like but also made me a far better angler.

When I look back through my old angling diaries, when I kept them, from the late 90's and early 2000's, most of the successful flies had come from O'Reilly's book.  It was really the first time I'd seen the Foxford Shrimp or the Bann Special.  I know most anglers and tiers of today will laugh at that, as they are such common and well known patterns today, but it is true. The number of fish that I have taken on those two flies alone over the years, in various sizes, I simply cannot imagine my angling life without them. 

Bann Special

My attention was drawn to the two patterns above as Peter had listed his 10 favourite shrimp flies in the book.  The Bann Special was number one and the Foxford, number two.  Can anyone really argue with that?  If I could only fish with two flies for the rest of my life, I'd have one on the point and the other on the dropper and would catch salmon all season long and not feel, in any way restricted.

Foxford Shrimp and Bann Special - The top two in the list of flies

The Red & Gold shrimp is quite simply my most successful end of season fly ever and another that I didn't know about until reading through O'Reilly's book. I remember reading through it one day in September around the year 2000 and seeing the Red and Gold shrimp and reading the remarks that it was "...a truly excellent Autumn fly. Those who use it claim that late running grilse and autumn fish cannot resist it." That was all the incentive I needed and tied one right away.  The next day, my neighbour and I went to fish in 'McGuinness's Stream' on the Faughan.  He had a fish on the flying C as I was setting up.  I came down the stream behind him.  The water was colouring and was almost sandy looking.  I thought I was wasting my time when I got near the tail of the pool and saw a fish turning at the fly.  I was about to call out that I'd missed one when the line went tight and I landed a sparkling silver autumn salmon.  It is impossible to count the number of fish I landed on that pattern over the following seasons.

Red & Gold Shrimp

The Foxford Shrimp, Bann Special and the Red & Gold Shrimp are just three of the many flies that have caught me fish that were tied from O'Reilly's wonderful book.

If the news of his passing saddened me, just from reading his book. Those who knew the man, his family and friends, those who had lessons or instruction from him, those who he fished with, etc. It must be a terrible loss to them all.

Thank you Peter.  May you Rest in Peace.