Joe Kenna of Irish Trout Fly Fishing Associations reports:
Hats off to Team England who won the Graham Munroe Hall Memorial Cup for the top team using conventional rainbow patterns and tactics. This year’s Spring International Match was hosted by the Irish Trout Fly Fishing Association and was held at Lough Owel on 30th May 2014. Teams from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales arrived at the Bloomfield Hotel Mullingar, on 25th May to commence preparations for match day. With a settled week of bright sunshine and very little wind Lough Owel proved difficult crack, with none of the traditional patterns and methods proving to be consistently effective.
Match day was mixed with occasional cloud cover and very little wind which made angling for these illusive trout extremely difficult and demanded great skill on the part of the angler. It was Team England who struck gold using conventional reservoir rainbow angling methods to catch 59 trout for just over 75lb. The Brown Bowl for the best overall angler went to English angler, Phil Longstaff with a very impressive basket of 10 trout for almost 12lb whilst the Officials Trophy was won by England manager, Stephen Peart., who had 4 trout for just over 5lb. Irish angler Robert Reilly came up trumps when he decided to fish deep with booby and cormorant patterns winning him the Harry Lafferty Cup for the best Irish rod with five trout for just over 7lb. This was Roberts thirteenth time to represent Ireland following his success at the 2013 International Team Fish Off.
Team Ireland, who were captained by Brian Stanfield (Down) and coached by Joe Quinn (Mayo) finished a very respectable 2nd, with 3rd and 4th places going to Team Wales and Team Scotland respectively. Other members of the Irish team included Andrew Duncan (Westmeath), Seamus Kelly (Mayo), Laurence Gibb (Down), Mick O’Farrell (Tipperary), Barry Fox (Sligo), Johnny Murray (Westmeath), Kenneth O’Keeffe (Cavan), Paddy Ward (Westmeath), Robert Crichton (Cork), Patrick Carson (Fermanagh), Gary Binley (Mayo) and Brendan Murray (Westmeath).
The Irish Trout Fly Fishing Association would like to congratulate Team England on their win, and we extend our thanks to Lough Owel Trout Preservation Association and Inland Fisheries Ireland who made this competition a great success.
Joe Keena
Irish Trout Fly Fishing Association
