Muckno has been playing host to a number of headline festivals in the last week…
Irish Open Garda
A tight finish to the Irish Open Garda event saw a dead heat at the top with Tony Hopkins UK and Andy Leathers UK sharing top spot on 8.860kg followed by last years IADA Open champion Philip Jackson in third.
IADA Irish Open

The IADA Irish Open was fished over 2 days at the weekend with 100 anglers taking part. on all of the Festival sections, now expected to improve as bait will bring the large shoals of roach, hybrids and skimmers on the feed.
Today’s results are as follows and cumulatively they shared a grand prize fund of €3500 when sponsorship was included.
1st Neil Mallinson 13.860kg
2nd Darius Karaliunas12.850kg
3rd Nicky Harrison 10.610kg
4th J Keith 10.290kgs
5th Vidas Jagela 9.280kg

July Festival
On Monday there were 50 anglers ready for the first “all in” call at the July Festival on Muckno. The top 3 anglers all had over 14kg, but with many others in double figures there was no room to draw a breath in this 5 day event. Disastrous results from Concra wood on Tuesday, caused by the change in air pressure and a tidal pull along the narrows, created what is surely an irrecoverable setback for a number of the top contenders, many of whom ended the day with less than 5kg. Those who were lucky to be fishing other sections still had a chance of even better weights than yesterday and bags of 15kg and 16kg were recorded.

If that were not enough, it was from this very section on the third day of the competition, that Craig Ellis made a significant charge, netting a high 15kg of quality roach hybrids and small skimmers, to catapult himself right up into 2nd place overall. The ever reliable Kevin Johnson made the most of a very modest draw on 159 on Black Island to bring to the weigh net a great 10.500kg of long and short pole caught roach and hybrids, in his inimitable and incomparable fashion. Ray O’ Sullivan is holding on in there and should not be discounted by any means while another to watch is Les Thompson who is now making this venue his own and is getting ominously comfortable in these fantastic surroundings.
The field at this juncture is still relatively bunched and the draw will be a crucial factor for some on today and Friday, if they are to hang on or indeed make a crucial breakthrough and gain a decent slice of the grand prize fund on offer.
1st overall €2,000
2nd €1500
3rd €1,000
4th €750
5th €500
6th €250
7th €150
8th €100.
Added to the lucrative individual prizes above there’s €50 per 5 man section each day and also Just under €3000 being shared out in daily and overall pools.
Finally a netsman draw for €50 is what we have on offer for the section weigh men each day and we thank them sincerely for their efforts on our behalf.
On a lighter note it was nice to see the wives and girlfriends of several of our visiting competitors enjoying themselves with some good shopping in the lovely towns of Carlingford, Carrickmacross, Monaghan town and of course locally in Castleblayney, while Elmo clearly benefitted from the close attention of his better half, who basked in the beautiful sunshine at the lakeside behind him.
Report Courtesy of Dick Caplice at https://www.facebook.com/Lough-Muckno-393107817429399/