The Mountmellick Angling Association on the River Barrow hosted the T.A.F.I. Leinster River Championship on Sunday 14th April 2013. The competition was held on a catch and release basis with a minimum size limit of 20cm’s to the fork of the tail.
The competition was divided up into two beats. The fishing on beat 1 was from Bay Bridge down to Portnahinch Bridge while beat 2 continued on from Portnahinch Bridge and on down to Kilnahown Bridge. It was decided that each angler would get an opportunity to fish both beats, and half way through the competition each angler changed beats.
Forecast for the day from Met Eireann predicted very windy conditions with sunshine and scattered showers. Strong to near-gale force south to south-westerly winds would gust 90 to 100 km/hr and anglers were not disappointed, as this prediction was fulfilled.
Mountmellick is located at the foothills of the Slieve Bloom, and allot of rain fell on on the mountain, this had quite a knock on affect on the water levels and from 2pm onwards, the River Barrow in all it’s glory, changed from gin clear to a chocolate brown and begin to rise quickly, bringing down stream allot of river debris..
In some parts, wading was difficult but was required in order to hunt down fish on the opposite bank, that took shelter from the strong currents.
In the latter part of the competition the changing river conditions played a pivitable part in the final results, where some anglers struggled, other kept the head and still found fish in such harsh adverse conditions.
Anglers needed to be quick with changing tactics as the river coloured and began to rise, those that did, were rewarded.
The Top 3 Anglers
- Eamonn Conway (Dundalk, Co Louth) 9 trout
- Robbie Phelan (Mountmellick, Co Laois) 9 trout
- Shane Callen (Dundalk, Co Louth) 8 trout
The largest trout – Eamon Conway (Dundalk, Co Louth)
Robbie Phelan
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