Frankie McPhillips - how he was nearly lost to newspapers instead of fly tying - a podcast by LastCast Media

We’re turning our attention to fly tying for this week’s episode and our guest is a bit of a legend in Irish fly tying circles it has to be said and yet his flies might never have graced our waters and caught so many fish if it wasn’t for a sliding doors moment in the life of Frankie McPhillips when he was looking for work…..

 

Frankie describes a different time in the 1970s and 1980s when good, quality flies were hard to come by and how after 45 years he’s still as much in demand.  Don’t forget to visit www.frankiemcphillips.com to see the flies for yourself.

 

Looking back on his fly fishing life, Frankie talks about friendship and fishing with Ted Malone who was still casting and catching on Lough Corrib up until the age of 96. 

 

Frankie has also written a poem called, ‘Under Tattenweir Bridge’ which he reads out for us on the podcast.

 

‘I cast my fly under Tattenweir Bridge

And as it floats back to me,

overhead, I hear a forty tonner roar

carting packed pallets of “best before”

to vast warehouses of plenty

I cast my fly under Tattenweir Bridge

and as it floats back to me

I hear the sighs of famine men

lift stone after cut stone

clacked into place

to form the perfect arch…

I wonder, to stave the hunger

did they ever take a rising trout in May

or grape the November salmon on his lie

 

I cast my fly under Tattenweir Bridge

And as it floats back to me

I see you, crouched in the long bank grass

flint spear by your side

no catch and release then

for salmon, trout or thirsty deer…

river food, brought back to rath or home

beside the standing stones

of Ballyreagh or Topped

As darkness falls under Tattenweir Bridge

The little trout swim side by side

hunger squawks in the redwood nest,

the heron begins his river glide.’

 

 

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