The weather has been very unsettled to say the least since last weeks angling report. High winds played havoc on the bigger lakes but still anglers battled the storm and produced some nice fish. Mullingar lad Danny Byrne dropped down from Belfast with pal Dr Chris Hutton and latched onto some lively pike, some which danced with joy when they hit our lures. Daingean coarse angler Julian Kendrick had a cracking day on Lough Muckno recently and bagged some lovely roach and perch. On the trout scene the Nodger came good last week on Owel and won the Dan Mullally Shield. There was little or no fly life on Owel but plenty of trout came online. On Lene, Owen McEnteggart was back in town and had a few lovely days here in Mullingar and told me it’s very important to shop local.
DANNY BOY BACK IN TOWN: Mullingar lad Danny Byrne was back in Mullingar last week and had a few lovely pike fishing with his pal Dr. Chris Hutton. Danny is based in Belfast and Dr. Chris Hutton is a surgeon also up North. On the day we fished, I gave Chris a few pointers on unhooking pike, as he had never fished for these deadly predators. As luck would have it, we latched onto some hard fighting pike on dead baits and they really put on some display for the lads. One pike took flight and jumped 5-6ft out of the water when it hammered our bait. The lads were very impressed with their few hours fishing and plans are in place to bring a group down from Belfast to check out the fishing here in Mullingar. Naturally Danny Boy will show them around Mullingar and have a few beers.
MCENTEGGART BACK IN TOWN: Owen McEnteggart was back in Mullingar last week and had a few lovely days checking out our local angling shops and also eventually hooked up with a Lough Lene trout. Owen from Drogheda has a lot of relations here in town and also many friends from his days delivering Guinness to Mullingar pubs, as he worked for the bruary. It’s an annual trip for Owen and he loves a few days chilling out in the Annebrook House Hotel, which he reckons is one of the best hotels in Ireland. It was also heartwarming to here Owen praising our local retailers and tackle shops. It really pays to shop local as he got some fantastic bargains up in David O’Malleys angling shop. David had a great chat with Owen on his trip to the shop. The fishing was tough to say the least and Berty in the Annebrook gave Owen a bit of encouragement on his last day, and sure enough we boated some lovely brown trout on wet and dry fly. Owen hopes to get back before the season ends and we might try Owel before October 12th.
NODGER TOP ROD ON OWEL: Eventually Lough Owel anglers managed to fish the Dan Mullally evening competition. It had being cancelled in recent weeks due to high winds, but was fished last Thursday, August 11th. It has been a tough peter and murrough season with high winds and chilly evenings having little or no fly like on the lakes. Still, the Owel trout came out to play for the Dan Mullally competition and some lovely fish were presented at the 11pm weigh-in. It was a cracking night for Mullingar anglers and we swept the boards on our local lake. Andy (Nodger) Boyle had a lovely fish of 1.145kg to take top rod. Nickie Shaw of Shaw’s Hardware in Mullingar was 2nd with 1.125kg, and I was 3rd with 1.115kg.
NCFFI IRELAND CHAMPIONSHIPS: Coarse anglers are reeling in some fantastic bags of fish in recent times. The National Coarse Angling championships were a huge success recently up in Ballybay, Co.Monaghan. We are keeping in touch with the NCFFI regarding the upcoming World Lure Championships penciled in for Lough Ree in October. We also got news from the team match competition fished on Lough Muckno recently, where Daingean angler Julian Kendrick had a huge individual win with 17.98kg of roach and perch. Great stuff Julian.
IRISH YOUTHS ON TOP OF THE GAME: Well done to the I.T.F.F.A. Irish youths fly fishing team on winning this year’s international fly-fishing championships. The boys in green were coached by Fergal McKiernan and Sean Dempsey from Athlone and the championships took place on Lough Lene in Killarney. Ireland finished up with 82 trout for a combined length of 1989.5cm. The Irish top rod was Ciaran Flaherty with a bag of 12 fish. Ciaran was also the top individual angler. Jack Egan had the biggest fish at 29cm. Jack also had a bag of 10 fish and Francis Rafferty also had a bag of 10 fish. The team results were; Ireland: 82 fish, Scotland: 64 fish, England: 52 fish, Wales: 35 fish. The overall biggest fish was a tie between Zac Neufeld of Scotland and Sioned Davies of Wales both of whom had a 30cm fish. However Zac received the trophy because he had a bag of 5 fish while Sioned had a bag of 3 fish. Ciaran Flaherty was top individual angler with a bag of 12 fish.
Mick Flanagan
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