This weeks special feature is on the Patti Doolin Memorial Shield. The late Patti was well known in the Angling World here in the Midlands and Jack and Michael Doolin still have a fantastic boat hire service on Owel, where the competition was fished. It was a very tough day for fly-fishing with brilliant sunshine and flat calm conditions. Anglers from all across Leinster dropped down to compete on the day. One of the main sponsors Marty Smith also was in town, but unfortunally his angling pal joint sponsor David Hinkles could not make the trip. Marty is from Macklesfield near Manchester, and really loves the Midland lakes. The competition was fished from 11am-7pm with presentation and weigh-in at Mullallys.
Prior to the competition I had trawled the lake for a day with Marty and seen quite a few trout pitching, and also feeding hard on very small stickleback minnow (See Pic). The trout were having a ball trashing these small minnow, and if you covered a feeding fish you had a good chance of hooking up with it. As the boats drifted out Sunday Morning anglers were busy rubbing sun block in and covering the old bald spots on the head. Many boats started fishing out from Portloman, with more heading to Brabsons Point, and also quite a few belted down to the Rookery. It was here Lough Owel Chairman Brendan Murray and Andy Boyle landed 6 trout, and also releases quite a few more. As the day progressed we had some cloud cover from time to time, not a lot but when it came a slight breeze made the fishing a bit easier. I did manage a small fish and actually featured in the prizes. The trout latched onto a Claret Dabbler on the point. Marty also had a few chances on Dry Peters, but unfortunally did not land a fish. As we dined at Portlomas news of a good fish landed by Dublin angler Martin McGorian reached us. Also Local angler Barry Lennihan and Gerry Cleary had fish in the morning session, as did Carol O’ Toole of Southside Angling Centre in Dublin. The fry up on Portloman Shore was priceless, and I took quite a few photos of Diners tucking into some cracking steak.
Soon we were back out on the water, and it got no easier as we tried our best to fish in calm conditions. We packed in just before 7pm and headed for Mullallys Shore for the weigh-in. Many anglers had already stopped fishing, and we had a good gallery of anglers waiting for the fish to be weighed. Sure enough a nice few fish were presented and a total of 9 prizes were up for grabs. Martin McGorian topped the day with a fine trout of 1.32kg, 2nd Barry Lennihan .965kg, 3rd Carol O’ Toole .840kg, 4th Brendan Murray .625kg, 5th Larry O’ Sullivan .585, 6thAndy Boyle .565
