Jack Tisdale reports:
The Second round of the Waterway’s Ireland NCFFI Irish Team Qualifiers took place over the weekend 19/20 May on the Inniscara Lake in Cork. The event was extremely well supported with a record turnout of 33 anglers fishing the Float event on the Saturday and 27 anglers fishing the Feeder event on the Sunday. The venue was used for practice on the Friday with 18 anglers fishing the venue in good weather conditions.
The Float Qualifiers which will be used to select Ireland’s three international teams for 2013 fished very well with mainly Roach, Skimmers and Hybrids being caught all along the match stretch.
Winner of the second round was Nick Howell (Erne Anglers) from Kilskeery in Co Tyrone, Nick fished the pole at 13m to catch 17.600kgs. Runner up was Peter Nolan (Kingfisher AC) from Co Dublin who also won his section with 12.050Kgs, in third place was local man Pavel Swistum (South Munster CAC) also won his section with 11.200Kgs.
The final section was won by junior angler Jordan Hall (Erne Anglers) who caught 8.000Kgs. The total catch of fish taken was over 177Kgs another record for the Qualifiers.
The Feeder Qualifier which will be used to select the Feeder team for the World Championships in South Africa in 2013, was fished on the same stretches of the river on the Sunday. Again the catches were very good with a total of 269kgs of fish caught by the 27 anglers.
The Rooves Bay section proved to be the place to draw with David Herron (Erne Anglers) and Tommy Lawton (Fermoy and District AC) both catching 22.700kgs of mainly Skimmers, in third place was Francis McGoldrick (Anglers Rest AC) also with a 22.050kgs weight.
The other three section winners were Lee Symonds (Kingfisher AC) 11.400kgs, Sean Murray (Erne Anglers) 11.700kgs and Vincent Walsh (Erne Anglers) 14.500kgs.
The Ireland team manager was extremely pleased that the new Qualifier format was a success, he thanked the sponsors Waterway’s Ireland for their support. Mark also thanked the members of the Fermoy and District AC and in particular Tommy Lawton who assisted in the running of the event.
The Third round of the Qualifiers will be fished on the River Shannon at O Briensbridge Co Clare on the weekend 02/03 June, please book in if you would like to fish.
Jack Tisdale
