The Lough Ree international Pike Festival returns for its fifth year and will take place from the 9th – 11th of April this year. The competition has been sponsored by Failte Ireland for the last four years but as the term of their sponsorship has now come to an end this year’s first prize of €1000 will be sponsored by Athlone Town Council.
The pike festival is unique in that prizes are awarded based on the length of the pike rather than the weight and anglers are given a measuring board on which they must place their catch, photograph it, return the fish to the water as quickly as possible and hand in the photo at the end of the day for judging.
The entry fee for the competition is €110 per angler for three days of quality pike fishing and of that fee €100 goes into the prize fund while €10 goes to pay for administration and insurance and at the end of the competition any excess in the administration fund will be donated to the Lough Ree R.N.L.I. With the competition limited to 80 boats which is approximately 160 anglers this will give a total prize fund of approximately €17,000 to be won over the three days.
There will be thirteen cash prizes awarded at the end of each day and the angler who catches the single longest fish over the three days will win the €1000 which is sponsored by Athlone Town Council in addition to their daily prize. The daily prizes are based on entries and going on last year’s prizes the daily winner will take home €1000 and this means that the overall winner could walk away with €2000!!!
In a change to previous years the number of prizes that can be won on a daily basis will be restricted by the number of anglers in the boat. For example if there are two anglers in the boat then that boat may only win two prizes each day and similarly if there are three anglers in the boat then that boat may only win three prizes each day.
The very popular World Cup event also takes place and is awarded to the angler who catches the longest length of pike over the three days. This is worked out by adding together the longest fish caught each day in the boat to determine the overall length and the winner will receive the beautiful silver World Cup along with €1000 for their efforts.
Further details along with entry forms, rules and provisional prize list can be found on www.activeirishangling.com or on www.athlone.ie
