John Chambers Chairman of the Irish Federation of Pike Angling Clubs reports on the International Club Challenge held last Sunday on a small lough in Co. Monaghan
We had hoped to fish a river today but due to all the rain over the last week they were all in flood as were a lot of lakes. We ended up fishing a smallish lake in County Monaghan. We had 4 teams of 5. They were
Poland – Fishmaniak
Lithuania – Go & Catch
Slovakia – Slovakia Fishing Club
Ireland – IFPAC
We fished from 10.30 to 4. When we started a lot of anglers caught on their first cast. At least 10 pike were caught in the first 5 minutes. The only problem was that they were very small with most being under a pound. Up to around 1 pike were being steadily caught all around the lake. The trend of the pike being very small continued.
The Lithuanian guys all used small artificial baits and they were proving very effective at catching the jack pike. Most of the Fishmaniak team also used artificial but bigger baits and they werent catching too many. The Irish guys were using mainly medium sized roach. While they were getting lots of takes most were lost. The Slovac team members were generally using mini smelt. These proved very effective but they also lost more than they caught.
It was unusual to see so many pike under a pound being caught. That said, a few better ones were caught with Paddy Dimbylows 7-05 being the best. Before the final whistle it was pretty clear that the Slovak team would win and that it would be close for second place.
When the results were calculated the 20 anglers caught 85 pike for 140-03. This gave an average weight of just over 1.5 lbs which is around half the competition average. It was good that all 20 anglers caught.
Poland – Fishmaniak
Lithuania – Go & Catch
Slovakia – Slovakia Fishing Club
Ireland – IFPAC
We fished from 10.30 to 4. When we started a lot of anglers caught on their first cast. At least 10 pike were caught in the first 5 minutes. The only problem was that they were very small with most being under a pound. Up to around 1 pike were being steadily caught all around the lake. The trend of the pike being very small continued.
The Lithuanian guys all used small artificial baits and they were proving very effective at catching the jack pike. Most of the Fishmaniak team also used artificial but bigger baits and they werent catching too many. The Irish guys were using mainly medium sized roach. While they were getting lots of takes most were lost. The Slovac team members were generally using mini smelt. These proved very effective but they also lost more than they caught.
It was unusual to see so many pike under a pound being caught. That said, a few better ones were caught with Paddy Dimbylows 7-05 being the best. Before the final whistle it was pretty clear that the Slovak team would win and that it would be close for second place.
When the results were calculated the 20 anglers caught 85 pike for 140-03. This gave an average weight of just over 1.5 lbs which is around half the competition average. It was good that all 20 anglers caught.
Results
1st Slovakia Fishing Club 25 pike 47-01
Marek Ceman, Andrej Duran, Rado Rybarik, Robert Sloboda and Ladislav Rebro.
Marek Ceman, Andrej Duran, Rado Rybarik, Robert Sloboda and Ladislav Rebro.
2nd Lithuanian Go & Catch 30 pike 40-03
Andrius Bikelis, Deividas Firsovas, Anatolijs Sulims, Zydrunas Ausra and Algis Akavickas.
3rd IFPAC 19 pike 36-03
David Murphy, Paul McCarthy, Paddy Dimbylow, Mick O`Connor and Graham Reilly.
4th Fishmaniak 11 pike 16-12
Pawel Orlow, Janis Kucans, Maciej Sikora, Lukasz Kwasniewski and Wojtek
Best Bags
Best Bags
1st Deividas Firsovas 8 pike 14-09
2nd Andrej Duran 7 pike 13-12
Best Pike
1st Paddy Dimbylow 7-05
2nd Deividas Firsovas 6-14
Most Pike – Andrius Bikelis 10
Hope I got all the names right
From the Federation’s website at: http://www.angling-in-ireland.com/
