Match 9

Well I said in the previous post that we were hoping that the fishing on the Joinery would improve as winter sets in. Unfortunately this was not to be the case (for most of us) and the fishing was patchy. We fished the early pegs and 10 seniors and 2 juniors fished. Most of us set up whips at 6 and 7 metres and also fished the long pole/short line. To cut a long story short Cathal Hughes won the seniors match with over 13 kilo of small roach. Rory Dunne pulled out over 10 kilo with Bill Cassiddy coming in third. Not the big weights we hoped for but a nice day all the same. Cuan McOscair (pictured) won the Junior match with 1 kilo of small roach. They were hard got and he did well to get them as he has only been fishing in the club for a while.

Next match 22nd November on the Joinery again. Its the last match in our league this year. At the moment I am winning but when we drop our worst 2 results Arunas Mlecka will be ahead, so it looks like he will take the cup off me and to be fair he deserves it.

Adrian O'Sullivan Memorial Match

We fished this annual, invitation only match on Saturday 17th October. This match really is the highlight of the year for many in Galway and sees a lot of old faces coming out of the woodwork and raising money for charity in memory of Adrian O'Sullivan.

A few pwople have to be thanked initially for their help in organizing this event - the O'Sulllivan family, Cathal Hughes, Danny Goldrick and the staff in Reagans Bar Moycullen. Thanks are also due to the lads in the Western Regional Fisheries Board who cleared paths and helped get the venue ready.

The water levels were exceptionally low for the match this year. However we still had 24 anglers, each having to raise a minimum of €50 for charity to enter the match. The end result is that we have raised a minimum of €1200 for the O'Sullivans nominated charity, Sonas.

Results wise it fished poorly and it was very patchy. Cathal Hughes won it (again!) with 17 kilo, Kenny Ince (a foreign angler who travelled from a place called 'Cork') was second with 0.5 kilo, Arunas Mlecka came 3rd with 10 kilo, a good result for him as he is also winning the club league this year and I came 4th wiht 7.5 kilo. Peter Charlton from the UK, won the heaviest fish competition with a 3lb Bream.

All in all a great day was had while raising money for charity. And to cap it all off we had a good night out afterwards.

we are back on the Joinery again tomorrow, so I am getting gear ready as I write. Hopefully it will be back to form and I will be reporting on good weights next time.

J

Club League so far in 2009

We have fished 5 matches so far this year, the lat of which was today at Parkyfaherty. Martin Davitt has all the results but so far the league is tight enough with different winners for almost every match.

The fishing has been hard though. Our first match on the Joinery went well and as usual our venues fish well in winter and in mid summer the fishing is poor.

So far:

Match 1 Joinery - Won by Arunas 8.560 kilo

Match 2 (changed from Ross Lake to Parkyfaherty) Won by Arunas again

Match 3 Fished as part of the 2 day Roscommon Festival on the suck in Athleague - Won by Rory Dunne

Match 4 Ryans shore - won by Doni McWeeney

Match 5 Parkyfaherty - Won by Jason Leavy

Match 6 is scheduled for lough Down but may be changed as access is difficult and some trimming needs to be done.

So far I have run 3 junior tuitions - one on Ross Lake with 14 anglers and EVERYONE blanked despite fishing hard and doing their best. A disaster and the litter was a disgrace.

The second tuition was part of fisheries awareness week and was on the canal in town. Unfortunately the Roach that move in there every summer had not arrived and the 10 anglers caught only 1 trout between them.

Tuition 3 was on Ryans shore before the match we had scheduled and a few fish were caught, mostly small hybrids.

There have been good turnouts from the juniors this year with a good few sticking at it and improving. But with the fishing so difficult its hard for them to see the improvements. I can see that they are getting more confident though.

Arunas has been bagging up in Anglegrove in Woodford as usual and did some big weights there early in the summer. Pictures to follow but I believe he officially has the record there for the largest bag of fish caught in a session.

Dale and Dave are also doing well fishing strange unknown venues all over the west that they wont tell us about and catching lots of bream and tench.

More to follow when we get some exact weights off Martin but as far as I can tell I am winning the league with Arunas in second. However when we drop our worst results (best 7 results count) I think Arunas may be ahead.

Other news is that 5 club members are applying to the Fishery Board to be appointed as water keepers and hopefully this will help us in addressing some of the illegal fishing and littering problems that are very prevalent at the moment.

map for tuition on Sat 30th May

Ryans shore Map 6km from westwood house to turn off main road and about 3km before moycullen

Club Match Calendar for 2009

The match dates for the 2009 league are as follows:

Best 7 Results to count.

 

Date                Venue        Draw

March 8th          Joinery          9.30 a.m.

April 5th               Ross Lake  9.30 a.m.

May 17th             TBC             TBC

June 21st            Ryans Shore  9.30 a.m.

July 19th               L. Parkyfaherty 9.30 a.m.

August 23rd          Lough Down 9.30 a.m.

September 20th   Ross Lake    9.30 a.m.

October 11th         TBC             TBC

November 8th       Lough Down 9.30 a.m.

November 22nd Joinery          9.30 a.m.

December 13th Joinery          9.30 a.m. Fur& Feather

The Adrian O’Sullivan Memorial Match will be in October on the Joinery, date to be decided.

The top 3 anglers on each match day are paid a share of the optional pools (if they have entered).

The first placed angler is awarded 20 points, decreasing down to the last placed angler. Non attending anglers receive no points.

Junior anglers are entered into overall club championship and the Junior championship.

Junior anglers must be over 12 years of age. Juniors under 12 must be accompanied by a responsible adult.

No littered pegs will be weighed in and all anglers are expected to take home litter found on their pegs for proper disposal even when it is not their litter.

All fish must be returned unharmed after weighing and dead fish will not be weighed in.

Results of 2008 League.

We had 10 matches this year of which 8 counted towards the club league. As 2 matches did not go ahead the best 6 results counted towards the championship. Our second match had to be cancelled due to flooding and our match in Woodford did not count towards the league as there were not enough anglers fishing. All in all it was a  poor year for match turnouts and hopefully this will improve for this year. We might have something to thank the recession for if it means more people are out fishing. Results for the annual league are calculated on the best 8 match results with 20 points being awarded to the first placed angler and 19 to second and so on.  The championship is open to all club members and there is a separate league for juniors.

Fishing wise it was also a poor year and club members now feel that they would prefer to stick to fishing fewer venues for this year but concentrating on the venues that fish best. Our heaviest match weight in the league this year was in Balinasloe marina with 3.6 kilo. We returned there for the final match of the year and it was a different story with very few fish feeding and Arunas targeting (and catching) minnows.  Anglegrove fishery fished well for Martin, Arunas and Medo but with only 2 seniors fishing it did not count towards league points.

The seniors league for 2008 was won by me with 117 points from my best 6 results with Martin Davitt second with 112 and Arunas Mlecka third with 110 points so it was close enough in that 7 points separated the top 3.

The Juniors league was won by Daniel Whelan with 99 points beating Medo Sultan, the 2007 Junior Champion with 46 points. A newer club member, Paul Boreham came third with 32 points.  We had 10 juniors in the club who regularly turned up to fish matches which is very encouraging and in the entire league only 1 junior blanked meaning they all caught fish in every match they attended.

The AGM will be taking place soon and I hope to have a post soon after with our new match dates and details posted for 2009. We hope to get the 2009 league off the ground in late February.