It was still all to play for at the final days fishing in the 25th Irish Winter Shore Angling Festival took place on Saturday 26th January at Ballinesker in Co. Wexford. The expectation was for a better day weather wise, at least in the forenoon. The forecast had given it good for the morning but dis-improving from mid-afternoon onwards with increased winds and rain. The session was being fished from 12 till 5pm with the first hour or so on the last of the ebb and the remainder on the flooding tide.
The topic of conversation amongst the anglers was still the atrocious conditions on Day 2 but attention soon turned to the days tasks of winning zones and either maintaining or improving current positions in both individual and team events. When the “all-in” was called, fish appeared almost immediately at a number of pegs. Lots of small fish were being taken (mainly flounder) from the start with most anglers fishing short into the gullies. Moving down the zones it was ones and twos for many anglers and at 11.37 Budge Booker from the UK recorded a lovely double hook-up with two flounder of 27cm and 30cm respectively.
At 12.10 Sean Ivory had four fish to 30cm fishing very light traces in the gully. At 12.30 James Ryan had 6 fish to 30cm but edging out ahead was Chris Clark with 7 fish to 28cm. It was now 1pm and Chris was looking for his third straight zone win in a row. Chris commented that the flounder were really plump and in great condition. By 1.40pm Courtown based Joe Byrne had 6 fish. Joe like many other anglers had been having a fish a cast but unfortunately many of them were undersized. Gordon Thornes from the UK had reportedly released over twenty undersized fish. Fishing for Dave Roe had been a bit slow from the start but then circa 2pm he hit a single and a nice treble to put him on 7 fish. At 2.10pm Paul Tyndall had a nice 21cm rockling which might be good for the round fish category. By 2.15 JP Mulloy had three fish a nice 20cm rockling and a 35cm flounder. Saul Page from Kent in the UK had 7 fish including a 32cm flounder by 2.21pm. Things slowed for the remainder of the afternoon Dave Roe finished on 9 fish and Joe Byrne finished on 8.
A great effort by Joe and Dave might now have them in the running for the 2 man team event and improve their standing in the 4 mand team event but we would hav eto wait and see. Chris Clark managed his third successive zone win which together with his fish tally and points must assure him of the individual title. The team events were still wide open and a late run by some anglers overturned the overnight positions. It was all back to Sean Ógs in Kilmuckridge to get the final results.
