Shane Dunne, of the Suck Valley Angling Hub reports on the River Suck Angling Festival:
The May bank holiday weekend saw a 3 day River Suck Angling Festival take place an the Donemon and Emlagh. Anglers travelled from all over the country including counties Mayo, Galway, Carlow, Roscommon, Cork and Clare but to name a few. This shows how popular the River Suck is nationally for its fishing. Weather on the first 2 days were promised mixed and expected to be better on Monday and so it proved. The venues being used for this 3 day festival were Donamon, where there are 31 wheelchair accessible stands with parking at every single peg, and 2 sections at the newly developed venue at Emlagh. This new stretch was developed by IFI in the latter end of 2016 and has been a terrific success since its development. The development included a new roadway along the river with parking at all the pegs and cutting out the “Trees” section which gives another 8 pegs.
Day one saw the draw take place in the angling centre in Athleague. Getting off to a good start is vital but your rotation is always critical as well.
Day one results
- Shane Dunne 12.460kg
- Bill Cassidy 12.300
- Peter Turner 12.140kg
Top 3 weights all came from the Trees section of Emlagh with Donamon producing a close 10kg weight and good back up weights also. The early pegs on Emlagh didn’t produce at all for those drawn there with just 500grams winning the section.
Day 2 results
- Ian Kelsey 15.240kg
- Cathal Hughes 13.740kg
- Rory Dunne 11.420kg
Highlight of the day was Ian Kelsey catching what could be an Irish record roach at 1.550kg.
All the top 3 on the day came from the early pegs on emlagh where they struggled on day 1.
The other 2 sections both fished well in blustery weather the Trees section on Emlagh recording a 7kg weight required to win and almost 6kg on Donamon.
On day 3 the top 3 fished the Trees section of emlagh which was producing consistent weights all weekend. The top 3 going into the final day were…
- Cathal Hughes 23.640kg
- Rory Dunne 20.320kg
- Ian Kelsey 19.000kg
Weights were tight as the chasing pack looked to make a charge, especially those going to the early pegs on Emlagh where it had produced good weights the day previous.
Day 3 results
- Rory Dunne 10.600kg
- Cathal Hughes 8.880kg
- Sean Tallon 8.560kg
All the anglers returning to Castlecoote Lodge for presentation and terrific food served by Mary leydon the results where announced and section prizes given out for each day also.
Final results
- Cathal Hughes 32.520kg
- Rory Dunne 30.920kg
- Shane Dunne 23.900kg.
A raffle took place for 3 spot prizes which where kindly sponsored by club member Peter Walsh which included a tackle voucher for Anglers Choice in Carrickmacross Co. Monaghan. Your support is much appreciated Peter thank you. Marcus Kirwan won the tackle voucher and Bill Cassidy and Darren greaney both won a Daiwa reel each.
A big thank you to our other sponsors Walter Young Tiling and Flooring, Athleague and Bernard Keane, Athleague, Kepak meats, Athleague and Castlecoote Lodge for feeding everyone ast the presentation. Also to Inland fisheries Ireland for their support and development of the venues in the area recently.
Last but by no means least thank you to Mary Kelly who made tea and coffee in the angling centre on Saturday morning for all. Your support is very much appreciated by all Mary thank you.
Many thanks to all who fished this year and we look forward to our next events in the near future so keep an eye out for events on the suck valley angling hub page.
Go Fishing…
River Suck Angling Hub
Athleague, Co. Roscommon.
Contact: Bill Cassidy [email protected] 086 3356759
The suck Valley Angling Hub was set up to promote angling in the Suck Valley area, and also to organise major competitions and festivals.
