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Also with support from Failte Ireland, Steller, and the Outdoor Writers Association of America

Show Notes

Piscari Fly

River Nore

How Peter got into Fly Fishing

I grew up in the mountains in County Wicklow in a small village called Rathdrum. And in the village, we had a river running through called the Avonmore River. It’s probably one of the most spectacular rivers we have in Ireland for scenery and beauty. It’s absolutely stunning, but the whole community was kind of based around the river, and fly fishing was huge in that community. But my dad and all his brothers would’ve been a big fly fishermen and big competition anglers back in the day when I was only a wee boy.

The Inspiration for Piscari Fly

It was a simple thing, I was really struggling on getting high-quality tungsten beads over here in Ireland. Here you’re buying ’em from here and there and they were Ok. They were coming in different sizes, different colors, different coats, and different weights. And it was really frustrating for me as a Competition Tyer. Sort of on the second time around that. So, I contacted some Tungsten bead companies in China and you know, over a six-month to a year period, we kinda came up with our own chunks of beads and I had to buy ’em in such large bulk that it made sense just to start selling some and, it just started from there and it just built and built and built.

Tell us about the guiding side of your business

So we do a lot of guiding here on the rivers. I guide for a company down on Munster Blackwater for “Blackwater Trout & Salmon Fishery“. I also guide on the Nore and Avonmore.

It’s busy. It can be as busy as I want to be, Rick. Our season runs from March to September. That’s our season here in Ireland. I do a lot of competition coaching as well as just normal guidance. So a lot of guys would come to me that want get to the next level, or they’re at a certain level and they just want get to the podium. Or a guy comes to me, He’s doing a bit of fly fishing or, he just wants to get the real grips with it. I’m a psychologist by trade as well, so I apply a lot of psychology to competition fishing. I am very particular on details, very particular details. So, a lot of guys come sort of ready for that end of it.

You know, we’re at a certain level, we wanna get into the competition team or we’re in the competition team and we wanna get to that next level. So I’ll put ’em through their places for a certain amount of time. I’d have a lot of international teams come over as well. I’d have a lot of people come up from Europe and US that would want to get to a good level.

And I’ve just got people that just wanna go out and catch a fish. That’s fine with me too.

I’m also a professional fly tyer, so I have to tie flies every single day to fill the orders. All the flies we sell on Piscari Fly are all tied by my hands.

Tell us about the shop

We sell a whole shebang. Whatever you need for fly fishing or fly tying we got it. If we haven’t got it we’ll, we get it. But we do have one motto. I’ve always kind of built the business on a personal thing that if I’m not gonna use itself, there’s a good chance I’m not gonna stock it. You know, we’re very particular about what we stock in the shop. We do have a range from all over the world.

Do you have time to participate in any other Outdoor activities?

I do a bit of hunting as well. I love the outdoors, we have a lot of mountains, and we’ve got some beautiful scenery over here. So during the winter season, we do a lot of Pheasant Hunting, Pheasant season started the first of November. That will go on through until January. We get out and do a bit of hunting. Not as much as I like to do, but we’ve got the dogs out and stuff like that.

Do you have any suggestions or advice for folks wanting to get into the fly fishing business?

I think set your style out early. It’s like any business, Rick, you gotta try to find your niche. You know, you gotta find where there’s a gap in the market. No matter what your market is, look at your consumer base, know your find your customer base, and target that customer base. You know, for us it’s nymphing, competition fishing. We branched a lot over the years but we really honed in on that competition end of it.

What’s your favorite piece of gear under a hundred dollars?

Skafars indicator wax

One of the other things that I bought that I would not fish without is my knee pads. A good set of knee pads or shin guards, they have saved my life so many times. And you can find em here for 50 euros.

Follow up with Peter

check us out at Piscari fly is the main handle for everyone. So if you put in Piscari Fly on your Facebook or your Twitter or your Instagram or anything like that, it’ll bring you to us. Or just go straight to our website www.pescarifly.com and take a look around. I say our live shows go every Saturday night at 8:30 PM Irish GMT time and, then it goes onto our YouTube channel every Saturday and every Sunday morning.