Welcome to the reel world

ANGLING is one of those activities that tends to divide people into two groups; those for whom it is an all-consuming passion and those who consider sitting on a cold rock with a worm on the end of a long stick as complete folly.

Many women in particular seem to subscribe to the latter opinion and thus the world of angling tends to be dominated by men.

One female angler who has bucked the trend is Glenda Powell, the proprietor of Blackwater Lodge on the Cork/Waterford border and Ireland’s only qualified female angling instructor. She is also one of the best qualified female salmon angling instructors in the world. To succeed in this competitive world takes considerable determination; a quality she possesses in abundance.

“I grew up in Co Down and starting fishing when I inherited fishing rods from my uncle,” Powell recalls. “I spent a lot of my childhood fishing for trout in local streams and two weeks before my A levels I informed my family that I was leaving school to make a career out of fishing. My father, as you can imagine, was not amused and, as there was no salmon fishing in that area, I headed for Scotland.”

To makes ends meet she initially worked in nursing homes, and also took a job in the winter as a stalking ghillie for red deer stags in the Cairngorms. By this process she saved enough money to rent a section of a salmon river and was able to start her own freelance tourism fishing business. But acceptance for a young and inexperienced female instructor from Ireland was hard won.

“I would occasionally turn up to guide and the clients would be looking over my shoulder wondering when the real ghillie was going to arrive,” she says. “In those circumstances you either fold or fight harder. Competing in angling competitions was definitely a way of getting noticed and gaining respect and I became the youngest member to have ever fished for the Scottish Ladies International Fly Fishing team.”

Powell returned home when her father became ill but remained involved in the angling world and finally settled in her present location close to the Blackwater River. She became the first woman in the world to achieve the standard of APGAI-Irl Salmon (Association of Professional Game Angling Instructors Association certificate) and was the world champion for overhead salmon distance in 2006.

“As it happens, I had been asked to do a bungee jump for charity and the sponsors kept asking me why I wasn’t competing,” she says of the world championship win. “In the end I was kind of railroaded into it. I had six weeks to prepare whereas the other competitors had been preparing for 18 months. The American team even had their own coaches and specially built fly rods and I thought I was going to make a complete fool of myself with my bog standard fly rod.

“I was as surprised as anyone when I won it. I remember standing there with my green tracksuit with the other competitors glaring at me wondering to myself exactly how I had ended up in this situation. I realised that although I enjoyed the discipline of training in the gym and even the frosty mornings practising on the local GAA pitch, I actually don’t really enjoy competing.”

Although Powell may not enjoy the competitive element she remains as enthralled by angling as she was as a child.

“After 30 years of fishing and 18 years of guiding I still shake with excitement when I catch a fish,” Powell says. “When I get a fish on the line I am still surprised, I still feel that I will lose it at any second and I still get that huge adrenaline rush when the fight is over. There is still a sense of awe at the beauty of the fish and once I have released it, I need to sit on the bank for 15 minutes to calm down. It is the same feeling whether it is big salmon or a small trout.”

Part of the allure of fishing is that it is invariably carried out in beautiful surroundings and for many people it is an opportunity in the midst of our modern, chaotic lives to interact with the natural world. Just being on the river provides an opportunity to see otters, herons, kingfishers and bats, but angling encourages a deeper relationship with the natural world than a riverside walk.

The angler becomes completely immersed in the act of fishing, in trying to understand that particular species and its behaviour and environment. In that sense angling re-enacts not only the hunting behaviours of our early ancestors but also the everyday interactions between predator and prey which are an integral part of the natural world around us.

“Non-anglers often perceive that angling is boring; they may have a mental image of sitting around for hours waiting for something to happen,” says Powell. “But an angler fishing for trout or salmon is always moving and always thinking. They are focusing on the current, on the light, trying to figure out what the fish are feeding on, trying to decide whether the fly is right or if the lure or bait should be fished deeper or slower.

“I think it can be hard for people to go from working hard to doing nothing such as lying on a beach and fishing bridges that gap. It is completely relaxing but requires alertness and focus; it is not at all passive.”

Fishing, it should be noted, can be an unforgiving occupation, particularly for beginners. Success depends on the catching of a fish and it is easy to become dispirited in the early stages. However, the adrenaline shot which comes when a salmon is finally caught makes the waiting worthwhile. These days it is the process of teaching people to fish that gives Powell the most satisfaction and she is particularly keen to get more women and children involved.

“About five years ago we invited a group of women to come and fish on the Blackwater for free, with donations going to Action Breast Cancer. We have continued this in Wicklow in recent years,” she says.

“I would love to see it running nationwide. It is a fun day out with all the gear supplied and no pressure. Women often feel they will have to thread a worm on a hook or beat a fish to death but none of that is required. Nearly all fish are released unharmed and for some participants it will open up a whole new world of possibilities.”

For Powell, fishing is as natural as breathing and without it her life with be considerably poorer. “This is what we were designed to do, to be immersed in the outside world,” she says. “When we are not grounded in the natural world we end up with too many things going on in our heads. Everyone needs to escape from material things, to be solitary but not lonely. When winter comes and the fishing season ends I will go back out on the river and practice casting just to be out there. Just to escape from the office and get my fix of the real world.”