Banagher Angling Week 24th to 29th April 2016
Sunday 24th April saw numerous English and Irish anglers pegged along the banks of the Shannon for the Fred Moss Memorial Match. The field was split between the sections at Portumna Town, Rogers Island, Meelick, Salmon Run and Shebeen. Many of the visiting anglers use this popular competition as a final practice, before the Banagher Angling Week starting the following day.
Warrington based angler Dave Brooks followed on from a successful week previously were he came second in the Portumna Spring Classic, by winning the Fred Moss Memorial Trophy for the third time in five years. Fishing 9 metre poles to hand at Meelick Upper Section he landed 240 small roach for 11kg 900gr.
Overall the quality of fishing at most location was good with plenty of small roach and the occasional hybrids. This put the minds of many of the visiting anglers to rest, as many worried what effect the disastrous floods of the winter would have on the fish stocks.
Monday 25th April saw 42 visiting anglers from across England sign in at Flynns Bar and Restaurant in Banagher for the first day of the Banagher Angling Week, a festival decided by sections points. Anglers would depart from here each morning to pit their skills on the mighty Shannon, visiting one of the following sections each day; Portumna Town, Rogers Island, Salmon Run, Meelick Upper and Meelick Lower.
The first day was won by Darren Sullivan from East Yorkshire who pole fished on peg 8 at Rogers Island for 12kg 950gr of small roach. Second was the peg next door occupied by Neil Humpleby of Leeds, who caught good quality roach and hybrids on the feeder for 10kg 100gr. Third place again came from Rogers Island but this time at the opposite end on Peg 1, were Nigel Beamson of Beverley again caught small roach on pole for a creditable 9kg. The final money place was taken by Rich Pulford of Hull with 8kg 8930gr from peg 4 at Meelick Upper.
On day one 205kg 630gr fish were caught by the 42 competitors, with an average catch of 4kg 896gr per angler. The lowest weight was 1kg 150gr.
The pegs at Rogers Island would continue to dominate the proceedings for the next two days. Day Two was won by North Yorkshire based Steve Williamson, pole fishing to hand from peg 1 at Rogers he amassed over 200 small roach for a winning weight of 10kg 350gr. Lincoln based Chris White was second with a lovely bag of quality roach and hybrids from the ‘stick-ups’ at the downstream end of the Portumna town stretch, his net weighing 10kg 100gr. The ever consistent Rich Pulford was third this time peg 6 on the Town Stretch. Leeds based Roger Ellis was last in the money with quality feeder caught fish from peg 8 at Rogers.
On day two 189kg 140gr of fish were landed by the field of anglers, with an average catch of 4kg 503gr. The lowest weight was 1kg 500gr from peg 1 on Meelick Lower.
Day three saw the early pegs at Rogers Island continue to dominate, peg 3 was home to Liverpool’s Ken Dooley, who adopted pole to hand tactics to catch a large bag of small roach giving a winning weight of 13kg 50gr. Peg 5 at Portumna Town saw Beverley’s Nigel Beamson have a late run of large hybrids on the feeder for a second place catch of 12kg 200gr. Third place went to Joey Farrell of Liverpool fishing end peg 1 at Rogers Island, who again caught small roach on pole tactics, for a net of 7kg 840gr. The last money place on day three went to Neil Humpleby of Leeds who fished peg 7 at the ‘stick ups’ on the town stretch, feeder tactics for quality roach and hybrids was the order of the day, Neil’s catch weighing in at 7kg 650gr.
Day three was the best day of the festival in terms of total weight of fish landed, the still warm conditions allowing many anglers to fish the long pole to hand tactics very effectively. This effective tactic is so often spoilt by the strong winds along the Shannon. Good weather combined with a slowing of the flow of the river saw 210kg 300gr fish weighed in, giving an average weight per angler of 5kg 007gr.
The good weather conditions of the Wednesday were not repeated on day four where strong gusty winds and squally showers spoilt the angler’s tactics. The top four placing on the day were equally shared between the early pegs at Rogers Island and the higher numbers at Portumna Town. Dave Beaver of West Yorkshire drew peg 8 in the noted ‘stick-ups’ on the Town reach to win the day with a net featuring some large hybrids for 9kg 650gr. Second and third on the day came from peg 3 at Rogers were Lancashire’s Jon Fletcher caught 8kg 850gr, followed closely by England International Ladies team member; Helen Dagnall on peg 1 who landed small roach for 8kg 800gr. Fourth was Hull’s Mike Lee fishing the feeder on peg 6 at town he landed 88 roach for 7kg 350gram.
In sharp contrast to the previous day, Thursday was the poorest of the five day festival, however the 42 competitors still managed to weigh in 155kg 330gr, for an average weight per angler of 3kg 698gr.
If weather reports were to be believed the final day of the festival (Friday) was going to be a repeat of the previous day’s proceedings. Fortunately this was not the case, after a few heavy hail showers and spells of gusty wind, in the morning gave way to excellent conditions. Liverpool’s Ken Dooley adopted his favoured feeder tactics to plunder the huge shoal of small roach that had appeared just below Portumna Bridge. Ken weighed in excess of 150 roach for a winning weight of 9kg 850gr. Similar tactics were deployed by Warrington’s Dave Brooks fishing peg 6 further along the Town stretch.
Meelick Lower had been the worse section all week, which in itself is most unusual! However some fish decided to feed on the final day. Mike Lee fishing the board below the dyke used short pole to hand tactics to catch 233 roach for 7kg 870gr and third overall in the match. On peg downstream of Mike, saw Steve Willimson adopt similar tactics to catch a 7kg 300gr all roach net. Steve was tied in fourth place with Joey Farrell, who like his Liverpool counterpart Ken Dooley plundered the small roach below the bridge at Portumna.
The now tired anglers still managed to reel in 184kg 690gr of fish on the final day. The average catch for the competitors starting the day was 4kg 617gr.
East Lancashire’s Jon Fletcher was crowned the 2016 Banagher Angling Week champion, winning his section on four of the five days, his perfect score of 4 could not be beaten. Jon is the ninth different winner of the Banagher Festival in nine years. Jon returned to England with his first place prize of £500 courtesy of event sponsor Eugene Flynn of Flynn’s Bar and Restaurant, Banagher.
Second place was Hull’s ever prolific Rich Pulford, whom finished the festival on 5 points. Third went to Warrington based Dave Brooks, Fourth was Beverley’s Nigel Beamson, Fifth went to Hull’s Mike Lee and the final money place (6th) went to Ken Dooley who had an excellent week, winning two of the five days outright too. In the pairs competition which is decided by total weight was won by Rich Pulford and Steve Williamson with a combined catch over the five days of 63kg 680gr, second was Nigel Beamson and festival organisers Paul Caygill with 57kg 630gr. Newly crown champion Jon Fletcher and partner Mick Fordham came in third with 56kg 660gr.
The total catch over the 5 days totalled 945kg 090gr, giving an average weight per angler per day of 4kg 544gr. The vast majority of the fish caught were roach, followed by roach bream hybrids then perch. Very few bream were caught along with some trout, which were all returned immediately to the water.
The organisers would like to express their thanks to Eugene Flynn for his continued sponsorship of the event, and also to Inland Fisheries Ireland who have greatly improved access to many of the stretches of the Shannon used by the competitors.
The date of next years Banagher Angling Week is set for the Monday 1st to Friday 5th May 2017.
