The Lough Ree International Pike Festival & World Cup was held last week and it saw a couple of hundred of Ireland’s top pike anglers descend on the lake for three days of hot competition. The festival is usually run in the spring but had to be postponed due to the Covid travel restrictions in place at the time. Luckily the fish were not put off by the delay and there were plenty of +100cm pike landed over during the festival.
It’s a team event and anglers have to register their best pike each day over the three days of fishing. It is run on a Catch & Release basis with each fish being photographed on a measuring mat. This year Anthony Scanlon and Ollie Gilleran came out on top with lengths of 105, 110 and 103cm giving a combined length of 318cm. The longest pike of the festival went to Karol Schmiel with a cracker of 110.5cm
The festival will revert to its usual spring time slot next year so competitors won’t have too long to wait before they are back on the water again!
