Ronan Cusack reports
There is plenty of excitement around the shores of Lough Mask this week as anglers squeeze in any spare hours to practice for the up-coming World Cup at the weekend.
Overall fishing on Mask has been slow in recent weeks, as anglers focused their attention more on salmon or family holidays. Reports over the weekend show an improvement with some good fish coming from the deep.
Ballinrobe and District Anglers held their annual club competition on Sunday last with a total of 62 anglers participating. First place went to Kanturk angler Michael Twohig with 4 fish for 6.85 lbs. In second place was Ronan Cusack who also had 4 fish for 5.86 lbs and in third position was Neil Foley from Cork with 3 fish for 3.47 lbs. Denis Kelleher from Ballinrobe had the heaviest fish which weighed 1.94 lbs. There was also an inter club competition between Kanturk and Ballinrobe on the day which was won this year by Kanturk.
Ballinrobe anglers Neil Smith and Kevin Bettie had a good day in the shallows last week. The lads finished with 4 keepers plus a number of undersize after the day (Best fish 3 lbs. all returned). Tom Haskett and Sean Dixon fished together out of Cushlough on Saturday and they had 5 fish (Best fish 1.5 lbs.).
Well-known lady angler, Dorrie Gibbons, organised the annual “Cast a line for Autism competition” on Saturday last which was supported by 60 anglers from across the country. Anglers had the choice to fish either Mask or Corrib for the event. There was a total of 24 fish caught on Corrib weighing 19.68 kg and 25 on Mask for 12.54 kg. First place went to Derek Madden from Roscommon with 3 trout for 3.25 kg (Corrib). In second place was Basil Shields with 4 trout for 3.13 kg (Corrib) and in 3rd position was Michael McDermott from Castlerea with 2 trout for 2.37 lbs. (Corrib). The best lady angler was Mary Millar with a trout of 1.55 kg (Corrib). There was also a secret weight prize which went to James Cummins from Ballyshannon. James had 3 tout weighing 1.54 kg (Mask).