A bream delight for anglers at the 2016 Clones Angling Festival…
John Potters of Lisbellaw, Co. Fermanagh hooked onto a bream shoal on the first day of the competition with 36 fish for 163lbs and a likely match record weight this year. To his left was Mick Hare a festival regular who takes part during his annual two week holiday to Ireland from the North of England who was delighted with his 146lb catch, a personal best in Ireland. These first day weights were to be difficult to beat over the next few days but it made for some good competition for the top five places with the leaders eager to hold onto their positions.

John Potter
John Potter

The four day event is well attended by visiting anglers from England and this year saw 11 out of the 37 travel over for the competition on the prolific waters of County Monaghan fishing a variety of venues by daily rotation. The pole and feeder fishing venues included Corkeeran, Bairds Shore and Bream Rock on the Dromore system and by special permission from the Tyrone Guthrie centre the beautiful Annaghmekerrig Lake at Newbliss. TheCreighton Hotel Clones was the base for the anglers where bait from Irish Bait and Tackle Limited was available to buy on site as the competitors made their daily draw returning each and returned to check out the results.
Julian Kendick
Julian Kendick

The anglers were met with warm but showery conditions for the four days over the bank holiday weekend with the fishing tough but enjoyable. The festival as usual provided mixed bags with good nets of quality roach, 4 and 5lb bream and tench and hybrids and perch in smaller numbers. The top weights by venue were;
Annaghmekerrig 163lbs 4oz
Bream Rock 38lbs 5oz
Bairds Shore 36lbs 4oz
Corkeeran 33lbs 12oz
The Festival Winners
The Festival Winners

Congratulations to the Festival Winners;
1st John Potters 201lbs 2oz
2nd Mick Hare 168lbs 14oz
3rd Mark Theedom 144lbs 13oz
4th Tommy Dowd 96lbs 12oz
5th Bas Smith 84lbs 6oz
The organisers would like to thank everyone who took part in the festival this year with special thanks to the landowners, Tyrone Guthrie Centre and the staff and management at the Creighton Hotel, Clones.
Due to the restricted number of match venues in the area this festival has limited entry visit www.clonescoarseanglers.net for more about fishing in the area and details of next years event to take place from the 4th to 7th of August 2017.
Report courtesy of Clones Coarse Angling Club

NCFFI

Coarse Angling Club are affiliated to the National Coarse Fishing Federation of Ireland and are members of the Angling Council, the National Governing Body for coarse and predator angling as recognised by Sport Ireland and Sport NI. www.ncffi.ie