NADA PRO Eddie Long reports on the Waterways Ireland Barrow Bonanza…
Naas and District Anglers held its second annual Barrow Bonanza match in Carlow over the weekend. Murph’s fishing tackle provided fresh quality bait to our anglers and the IADA provided a dipping station – no dip no draw. We don’t want the spread of invasive species in our waterways! Over 40 anglers were registered and after the draw the anglers headed to the Day 1 venues – Knockbeg and Maganey.
The weather on Saturday morning was scattered showers and some wind but like the previous year we didn’t get much rain on the days leading up to the match. The river wasn’t flowing well and was very clear so again it was going to be a tough match. We had loads of time to prepare our gear for the match and at 12pm on the button we called the all in. I knew this was going to be tough but I had no idea just how tough it was to be. I cupped in four balls of groundbait laced with caster at 11.5m and also catapulted some nuggets of groundbait on my waggler line. I tried holding back on the pole line and running though and nothing seemed to work. Again on the waggler line, cast after cast after cast produced little or no bites. At the halfway point I think I had only three fish so I decided to go for a walk up to my right and see if anyone was catching. I think the most anyone had up that way was around 30 fish but most had just a few fish and even some very experienced anglers had nothing at all. I decided to return to my peg and give it another bash but nothing I did produced anything of worth. At the all out at 5pm I had only managed a measly six fish and so I set off to begin the weigh in at peg 1.
DAY 1 RESULTS
KNOCKBEG
1 Ollie Doyle 2.300kgs
2 Brendan Collins 0.925kgs
3 Mick Carr 1.125kgs
4 Andrius Saulys 3.225kgs
MAGANEY
1 Duncan Collins 2.075kgs
2 Owen Lynch 1.050kgs
3 Frankie Larkin 1.250kgs
4Damien Maddocks 3.275kgs
Day 2
On Sunday conditions seemed a little better and the river had risen by two feet but was the fishing going to improve, only time would tell! Again everyone met up in Toughers for breakfast and the draw. Sunday’s match was to be held on two different stretches – Leighlin Bridge and Milford in Carlow. Again after the draw had taken place we left in convoys to our drawn stretch, I was heading for Leighlin Bridge. The river looked very promising, good flow, nice colour and deep and along with the overcast but warm conditions we were sure to see some decent nets of fish caught here, or so I thought!
Again I fished a pole line at 11.5m and cupped in 4-5 balls of groundbait laced with caster and also catapulted some nuggets across the river toward the far side for my waggler line. Again nothing I did, neither holding back or running through produce any fish on my pole line and I managed to winkle out three fish on the waggler but that was it. At the halfway point I lost the will and so left my peg to see how the lads were doing to my right. Of course I had an ulterior motive to head to my right, there was a shop on the bridge and I fancied an ice cream.
Anyway, on my way down I found out that most had very few fish and only the last two pegs were really producing, so I set off to the shop and returned with Cornettos in hand. I dealt out the Cornettos and set off back to my peg to give it one last bash but to no avail. Nothing I did produced anything fish and so with about 45 minutes to go I decided I’d had enough and packed up so as to be able to help out with the weigh in. At 5pm the all out was called and we set off to peg one by the weir where Conor Browne set the benchmark weight of 5.100kgs on a top 5 rig which no other angler on the way down towards the bridge could come close to. Ollie Doyle, Paul McLoughlin and Bowbie O’Connor all had 2kg+ but nobody else really had anything to contend with peg one.
Again like last year rumours began to circulate, the guys fishing the Milford stretch apparently had bagged up all day but we’d have to wait till our return to Toughers to get the final weights totted up!
DAY 2 results
LEIGHLIN BRIDGE
1 Conor Browne 5.100kgs
2 Trev Campbell 1.450kgs
3 Ollie Doyle 2.025kgs
4 Bowbie O Connor 2.725kgs
MILFORD
1 Duncan Collins 3.550kgs
2 Danny Murphy 3.075kgs
3 Dave McNiece 6.775kgs
4 Mick O Connor 6.625kgs
MATCH RESULTS
1st place Mick O Connor 8.275kgs
2nd place Dave McNiece 7.275kgs
3rd place Damien Maddocks 6.300kgs
4th place Conor Browne 6.025kgs
5th place Duncan Collins 5.625
We really hope you all enjoyed the fishing, it was very tough going but that’s river fishing, you can never predict how it’s going to be! Thank you all very much for fishing our match and we hope to see you next year.
Before I finish up I’d like to thank a few people.
Murphs fishing tackle for the bait.
Toughers Carlow for looking after us with the venue for the draw.
The IADA for the dipping station and disinfectant.
Big thanks to Waterways Ireland for the sponsorship and the help with clearing swims.
Thank you to Billy O Neill for all his help over the weekend.
A big thanks to Ollie Doyle for his Trojan help clearing swims from his boat and raking pegs.
Thanks to Owen Lynch who helped myself and Paul with peg cleanups.
Thanks to Padraig O Riordan, Trev Campbell and Aussie Conway for your help with the registration, pools and the peg draw!
And finally to Paul McLoughlin who put in a phenomenal amount of work into this event. From sending out Barrow Bonanza info packs and bait order forms, to procurement of the sponsorship. Paul spent many long days and evenings clearing pegs and hammering in peg numbers for this match and with twice the amount of swims this time round I can tell you there was a savage amount of work to be done and most of it was carried out by Paul on his own, down the banks of the Barrow. He hadn’t even time to prepare any rigs, hook lengths or ready his rods for the match. I know this because I was working with him the Friday night before the match.
Paul, you’re an absolute star and the driving force behind the Naas and District Anglers club.
We really appreciate all you do for the club and were it not for you this club would cease to exist. We can’t thank you enough for all that you do for the club but hats off to you lad, your an absolute legend 😉
Thanks to you all
Eddie Long
Naas & District Anglers Club
Naas & District Anglers
The Naas & District Anglers Club was set up on the 31 August 2012. Our Club is a Social club. The waters around Naas are Home to brown trout, salmon, eels, pike, perch, bream, rudd, tench. Naas and District Anglers are dedicated towards getting kids involved in the sport of angling.
Club Members are responsible for restocking and ensuring that all angling byelaws are complied with.
Membership of the club is always open and we welcome new members with open arms.
