Eddie Long reports on the Naas and District Anglers Intermediate Pairs match 2016 which took place last Sunday 24th April on Lough Muckno…
As usual we all met up outside the Old Coach Inn where everyone dipped their nets and then registered their pairs team with Padraig O Riordan. It was actually a beautiful morning and everything looked good for the match. We were delighted to see so many anglers turn up to this event, the numbers had increased greatly on last year with 26 pairs registered to fish the match and not a single drop out from the list. Also Irish tackle and Bait were on hand to provide us with fresh bait to our anglers, thanks Peter!
First up at 9:15 am was the draw for White Island and anglers selected by their pairs team for White lined up to draw their peg, followed swiftly by those who would fish Yellow island. The draw went smoothly and immediately after Paul McLoughlin gave a run down of the normal Lough Muckno rules.
With all bases covered everyone set off to their pegs to get set up for the match. We had decided on a 12pm start which left all anglers plenty of time to prepare themselves and there would be no dramas enroute to their drawn peg. If you had listened to the weather forecast during the week of the match then it should have been Baltic conditions but as I said before, the weather good, reasonably warm with a slight breeze putting a little chop on the water. I was sure we were in for a good days fishing.
Cries of “all in” sounded around the Lough at 12pm sharp and we all set our minds to the task of winning the coveted NADA Intermediate Pairs trophies.
I had drawn peg 216 and was confident I could wrangle out a few fish so I cupped in five balls laced with caster, hemp and some chopped worm. I let it settle for a while and went out on the feeder to 35 turns and got a bed of bait down. I had tied up a free running feeder rig in the hope that the shy bites would be more visable and I waited patiently for a bite……….Nothing, not a tap! Then Ron Durkan to my right asks ‘did anyone feed chopped worm?’ as he was unhooking a hybrid in his landing net. His fish had just spat out my worm. I put the feeder away and went back on the pole. I was fishing at 13 meters and at first I used a .75g Drennan roach shot rig. I managed to get a roach on the first or second put in and as I brought the fish to the net I had a rather large and hungry pike lunge at the fish only three or four feet away from my platform. It failed in its attempts and my clicker moved to 0001 😂. Bites dried up on that rig so I decided to change to a 1.25g Rive Didier Delannoy olivette rig. Still nothing stirring. I did manage to get the odd fish over the next few hours but they seemed to be sitting off my groundbait as I never got a bite from my baited area. Over the course of the match I had been switching between pole and feeder but neither method was producing and knowing that most anglers were also doing equally poorly I decided in the last hour and a quarter to go bream or bust at distance. I chopped what must have been about a pint of worm and lashed feeder after feeder out to 75turns on my distance rod and waited. Not a single tap did I get on that line and at 5pm with cries of “all out” my dream of lifting the coveted NADA INTERMEDIATE PAIRS trophy were smashed into tiny little pieces 😢
Peter Walsh began the weigh in at peg 220 and Chris Moore set the weight to beat at 2.960kgs but unfortunately as we went down the line the weights didn’t improve until we got to pegs 202-195 where a couple of 4kg weights were had. The match was tough going but as I’m sure you’ll all agree there’s nothing better than getting out on Lough Muckno with good friends doing what we love, fishing!!!
Anyhow with the weigh in completed, we packed our gear away and headed back to the Old Coach Inn for the match results. Peter Walsh (match referee) was furiously totting up the weights and we all waited with a tasty beverage in anticipation of the match results.
RESULTS
- 1st: Rimantus Kondrackas, Robertas Zilaitis
- 2nd: Gravidas Karalius’ Lukasz Kolkiewicz
- 3rd: Declan Gumley, Stephen Leddy
- 4th: Chris Moore, Alan Doyle
- 5th: Philip Harten, Mike Perry
Junior winner was Austin Conway and Paudie Cusack took the novice section.
Well done to all! I’d like to thank Raymond Watters for allowing us do the count and awards in the Old Coach Inn. Also l’d like to thank Peter from Irish bait and tackle for providing the bait. A big thank you to Peter Walsh for refereeing the match and also to Paul McLoughlin and Padraig O Riordan for all their Trojan work in making this event happen. I really hope you all enjoyed yourselves and hopefully we’ll see you all at next year’s match.
Thanks again to all that made this event happen and to all you anglers that turned up to fish with us.
Cheers 😃
P.R.O
Eddie Long
Naas & District Anglers
The New 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.
