THAT COD PICTURE: We have quite a few sea anglers drifting across Westmeath and they were gob smacked when I published the picture last week of an angler with a huge Cod. It came in from our good pal Stan Ryan of Ardmore SAC who has a few Mullingar members. Stan and his angling pals spend a lot of time fishing Westmeath lakes and rivers once the Sea fishing gets quite. They have featured on Ennell with cracking pike and perch, Derravaragh with super pike and Lene with good trout. Stan and the club members were over in Sandland Brygge up in the Arctic Circle in Northern Norway and had some mouth watering catches including Cod over 20lbs, Coalfish 10-12lbs, savage Wolf fish and some huge Halibut. It was some trip but took 18 hours to arrive with 3 flights, 2 hours on a Minibus, and a ferry crossing. Here in Ireland on the Sea front, Mullingar angler Pauric Martin was fishing Kilbaha with his pals and boated some beautiful Pollack up on 5lbs and also his first Smoothhound. The Pollack were really beautiful, as some ended up in my oven. If you are out on the high seas over the August bank holiday weekend, let us know how your angling adventures went.
PETERS SLOW TO RISE: It was slow on the Peter fishing scene last week, as many anglers struggled to entice fish to surface feed and there was little or no fly life on some lakes. On Owel last Wednesday I spent an evening with Des Byrne and only had a Perch on the dry fly. It was a very dead Owel that night and we fished until almost 11-30pm. On Ennell last Friday, anglers failed to catch a trout during the Jimmy NEA Cup and it will be fished once again this coming Friday night, August 2nd. Fishing once again is 7pm-11pm, start and finish at Whitebridge Bay. New members are welcome on the night. On Wednesday 7th August Lough Owel anglers host the Dan Mullally evening fly-fishing competition. Check –in is at Mullallys and Tullaghan with fishing from 7pm-11pm. New members are welcome on the night. Lene Anglers are also in action next week and host the Larry Mulligan Memorial Cup on Friday night August 9th, this is a club, fly only competition and will be fished from 7pm-11pm. Start and finish is at Fagan’s Point. The Peter fishing should pick up in the coming days and we will have results and photographs from these competitions.
WHITELAKE ANGLERS: Noel McCabe of the Whitelake Anglers tells us the Leo O’ Reilly Memorial Cup was a great success with some cracking trout caught in the senior and junior sections. Jason O’Reilly of Navan won the senior section with a fine trout of 4lbs 6oz, 2nd was Jason O’Connor with 3lbs 14oz and 3rd was Noeleen Finnegan with 3lbs 11oz. In the junior section young Linda O’Connor rattled the scales with a fine trout of 3lbs 7oz, 2nd was Cormac Tormey with 2lbs 13oz and 3rd was Joshua Smith McCabe with 2lbs 11oz.
MIDLAND PIKE ANGLERS: On the pike scene, Midland Pike Anglers hosted a competition on Lough Ree recently, with check in and presentation at Coosan Point. Once again, the measurement boars were in operation and Mullingar angler Barry Darby had the longest pike measuring 104.50cm, 2nd place was Jacek Rafal Gorny with 104cm and 3rd was Robbie McCormack with 103cm. Mick Dalton of Midland Pike Anglers presented the prizes.