Roy Christie, born Northern Ireland 1953
I grew up by the river Flesk, a tributary of the river
Bush, which flows through Bushmills, where the world's
best whiskey comes from, and into the Atlantic near
the Giant's Causeway on the north coast.
I started fishing with worms when I was about five,
and I'm sure I caught a fish by the time I was seven.
Started flyfishing while I was at primary school, am
self taught in casting and fly dressing. My first
original pattern was a black gnat! Later to my
surprise I found my pattern was not the first!
When the river was dredged for two miles alongside my
house I was horrified, but on advice from the late Mr
John Shaw, I rebuilt the river so it would be self
cleaning through small pools. Thereafter the fish
average weight improved by fifty percent. My easiest
day's fishing here produced fifty six trout averaging
ten ounces in a two and a half hours. Then we went
home bored.
I have fished in rivers and lakes across Ireland and
England and in the rivers of the Olympic Peninsula,
Washington State, USA. where I caught a Chinook about
25 lbs (average for the Quileute river in October)
I live in Harrow, on the outskirts of London UK with
my partner and mentor, Julia, who is learning to fish
fly and is already an accomplished flydresser, besides
being a healer and psychic. Our first six fish of 2002
were due to Julia's observations and application.
My ego has been massaged by publication of my articles
in Flydresser, the magazine of the Fly Dressers Guild
and in Trout and Salmon magazine.
Favourite flies:
a very skinny nymph made from black copper wire and
Hare's fur 16 or 18 - also Mr Skues' Little red sedge.
Other hobbies: restoring and driving the Citroen DS