Dutch anglers present a strong challenge throughout the week but its Ireland’s expert feeder angler, Cathal Hughes from County Galway who prevails to win the prestigious FEEDERFEST 2018 title….
Inniscarra Reservoir nestled in the Lee Valley was looking splendid in its Autumn colours and bright sunny weather leaving the 75 participating tip anglers from England, The Netherlands and Ireland to fish in short sleeves to start the week which ended noticeably cooler as temperatures plummeted overnight on Thursday. The week started with the Fountain House Cup on Sunday an open match to pre-bait the sections. The number of skimmers and bream on the venue quickly confirmed that there was going to be a good weeks fishing ahead. It was a popular win for Dutch angler John Kooij who saw off 87 other anglers with his 24kg to secure the trophy and €500 prize. The main FEEDERFEST event split into five sections and fished by rotation saw 45 anglers on the Greenway daily. Here were the critical sections A and B that you needed to get right to be in with a chance. Section A improved all week and saw superb performances from Tony Hopkinsand Willem Van Der Helm on Friday to secure their runner-up and 3rd positions. D and E saw sections of 10 on the Graveyard and Inishlena, supplemented by 5 pegs on Rooves Bay and the Garden Centre. Skimmer and bream were evident on all sections, but it was catching small roach in large numbers that saw the experts on the tip come through.
The tight match saw Cathal start the week in pole with a 21kg daily win from the Garden Centre with Tony Hopkins leading the field from Wednesday after the day’s top weight of 20kg at Rooves Bay. Willem’s day 4 weight of 17kg pushed him into third which he held onto as Cathal took the winning spot from his second position with 16.160kg at Rooves Bay, less than a kilo ahead of runner-up Tony Hopkins. It was great to see four from the Netherlands in the top seven and the inclusion of 2016 finalist Neil Mazurek. The 2017 title holder Julian Kendrick just missed out this year finishing in 8th position.
- 1 CATHAL HUGHES, Ireland 66.820kg
- 2 TONY HOPKINS, Ireland 65.910kg
- 3 WILLEM V D HELM, Netherlands 62.790kg
- 4 HENK ROSKAM, Netherlands 60.110kg
- 5 LEO KOOT, Netherlands 53.920kg
- 6 NEIL MAZUREK, Ireland 52.490kg
- 7 ARNOUT VD STADT, Netherlands 51.280kg
Irelands premier feeder festival has become the event everyone wants to fish and a real challenger between tip anglers from Ireland, England and the Netherlands. Fantastic sponsorship from O’Riordans Bar,Coachford and O’Callaghans Bar & Guest House and Jackie Lennox Cork contributed to a massive prize fund of €16,900 along with €2,000 of ground bait from Sensas Ireland rewarding the top seven winners with super cash prizes on top of daily and section wins.
Congratulations to Cathal Hughes whose name will now appear alongside Steve Ringer and Julian Kendrick on the custom-made trophy; Cathal returns home with his very own unique hand-crafted feeder hallmarked in Cork silver as commissioned by sponsors Jackie Lennox Chip Shop. The organisers would like to thank O’Callaghan’s and O’Riordan’s Bars in Coachford integral to the event which saw them provide cash sponsorship as well as looking after the anglers from the draw to the evening entertainment which saw different nationalities enjoy the local craic. Organiser Tommy Lawton of inniscarra Lake Tourism Development Ltd would like to thank the sponsors and all those who helped throughout the week an indeed the year to support the angling product that so benefits this rural area of Ireland.
The village of Coachford Co. Cork is at the heart of the angling in the Lee Valley, less then 5 minutes from inniscarra Lake and less than half an hour from Cork City. With its good accessible fishing and range of festivals throughout the year I provides for both the match and leisure angler. Inniscarra Tourism Group Ltd have released a series of events for 2019 which includes a unique ‘continental’ style Pairs competition in June and a number of confined matches for the club angler. The leisure angler can fish at Inniscarra independently with keys available from most B&B’s and O’Callaghans to part behind your peg on the Greenway. For more information on fishing and accommodation in the local area visit www.ncffi.ie/inniscarra-angling. Visit the full gallery of images here http://bit.ly/feederfest
