ENNELL’S LAST DAY: On Saturday October 12th the trout season closed and competitions were held on Owel, Ennell and Derravaragh. It’s hard to fish all venues so I opted for Ennell along with my pal Marty Smith who was over from England for the last few days of the season. We certainly kept the best wine until the last day as I boated a beautiful Ennell brown trout of 3.416lbs to take Top Rod and win the sweepstakes. Marty was on camera duty and got a cracking picture of our prized catch. Pat Sweeney of Dublin finished 2nd with 2.534lbs, Ciaran Newman from Mullingar came 3rd with 1.250lbs and Sean Goulding of Dublin took 4th with 1.156lbs. There was a great turn out of anglers on Ennell, including Mick Dunne originally from Rochfortbridge now living in Tourmakeady on the shores of Lough Mask. Mick is well known on the angling scene and actually won the World Cup Fly Angling Championships on Mask back in 2012. At the presentation of prizes in Whitebridge, John Tyrell thanked all who supported the Ennell competitions in the 2019 season and their many sponsors.
DARBY & O’KEEFFE: We certainly have some fantastic anglers here in the Midlands both young and old. Recently young Jack Darby was out pike angling with his dad Barry. They were struggling on the pike scene, which is strange as Barry is one of our top predator anglers in the country, having won many major pike competitions in his time. Anyway, the Darby boys switched tactics and started lure fishing for trout with great success. Jack is pictured this week with a personal best trout we are told measuring 68cm. On Owel I caught up with Danny O’Keeffe who hails from Dublin but has been living in Mullingar for years. Danny is nuts on the fly angling and is actually the runner of the Dickie Rock Show Band. I had great chat with Danny on Owel and it’s hard to believe the Dickie boy was 82 last week and is still Rocking & Rolling.
INNY CRACKER: Willie Digan had a belter of a pike recently from the River Inny. Willie hails from Mullingar and was dead baiting a hot spot on the river. His prized catch took a smelt deadbait and weighed in at 14lbs 3oz. The fish was in great condition and was released after a quick photograph. Willie’s son Ross told us the river was quite high and that they were lucky to get such a good fish.
ARCHESTOWN ANGLER: Another piker angler making waves in the Angling World is Martin McCabe of Archerstown out by the Delvin area. Martin was doing a spot of lure fishing and banked a huge pike of 20lbs 13oz. The fish was in great winter condition and we hope to hear more from Martin’s winter angling sessions.
GORMAN WINS ON ENNELL: Lough Ennell Anglers hosted their club pike competition last Sunday. Top prize was the Con Hope Perpetual Cup. On the day, Mullingar mechanic Tom Gorman was top rod with a pike of 10lbs, John Grimes of Ginnell Terrace was 2nd with 6lbs 8oz and local postman Alan Tyrrell was 3rd with 6lbs 4oz. The presentation took place in Whitebridge Bay with Brendan Murray presenting Tom with the cup.
PLAIN SAILING: International sailing judge Gordon Davies was back in Mullingar last week and did a bit of pike fishing. Gordon travels the world judging international sailing events and when he’s back in Ireland he loves dropping down to Mullingar. Last week we had some nice pike on lures with perch patterns working best. Some of the paddle tails shads we picked up in Wild Total Outdoors also worked. Brian Conlon has a huge range of these shads and they will work well in the coming weeks on the pike scene. Some of the smaller shads will also be ideal for wobbling across the Royal Canal.