Some bastard went and stole my brother´s boat.
The boat was called Mojo and my brother Sean built it himself from marine ply from a template he ordered from the internet. He did a fine job. It was a beautiful boat.
Like any fishing boat, her design was a compromise between being heavy and stable enough to drift well, light enough to transport and launch single handed, and sufficiently fast and easy to handle to get around easily using only oars. The perfect boat does not exist and the compromise Sean made between these inherently conflicting demands was as good as he was going to get. And she was pretty to boot.
Why Mojo? The name was given in recognition of the first of his four kids to put in an appearance and incorporates part of each of their names. His oldest child is Molly and her younger brother is John. The other children, Dan and Nancy, came in the wake of the boat´s launch.
Mojo is a fine name. It is an Americanism meaning the art of casting magic spells or an object considered to carry some kind of magic.
I fished from the boat only a couple of times and her magic yielded me a small pike. But Sean has taken much better fish, one of which can be seen in the picture below. But the boat was more than just a fishing platform. It was also a source of adventure for Sean´s kids and my own.
Sean took the loss of his boat philosophically. He did, of course, use some pretty heavyweight expletives at the time he discovered it had been stolen. That is only natural. He is only human,
The plus side, if there is one, is that he will go ahead and build a successor to Mojo when the kids are a little bigger and he has some more time on his hands. In the meantime, I would like to pay my own little tribute to the boat and to the man who built it.
Mojo
A fly-caught pike taken by Sean from Lough Inniscarra. The fish was not weighed but Sean reckons it is 15 pounds or better.
fishydreams 
Yo Pablo,
Thank you for your kind tribute.
I noticed the red nymph you used to catch carp and gypsy barbel. I wonder do they take it because it mimics a bloodworm? Did you see that bloodworm pattern in FF&FT? September or October. I think it there was an article about a lady fly tyer – might be that one. Basically just three or four pieces of red wool with a bit of peacock herl tied at the end of each one. Very simple. Very clever. Find it. Tie it. It should work. I would like to catch something on such a fly.
Saturday I hope to try for a pike with the two boyos in a nice spot I found. They can spin away and I’ll try the fly. Sunday, I can convince Katie to bring the lads to hurling, I hope to try for a bass – at that causeway spot where the tide geos under the road. I have caught bass there before on the fly and the voices in my head are telling me to go back.
It occurred to me whilst walking Meg this morning that it might be worth joining a pike club here in Cork. Would bring a man to the choice spots and save much trial and error. The lads could join too. Whether I have the time to do it is the thing.
seamus
Why not? A pike club would save you a lot of leg work and you might come across some interesting people. I will try the fly you mention. I will have to find it first! I think simple and slim is maybe the way to go.
Cheers,
P