Following an epic weekend of hardcore pike fishing at the Lough Ree King of the Lake competition, where 82 teams battled it out for the title ‘Kings of the Lake’, it was the Powells – Steven and Andy – who took the title with a top 3 fish of 300cm.
It was a spectacular sight to see on both competition days, as the 80+ boats lined up outside Ballyleague Marina to await the starting siren – then throttling down to all corners of Lough Ree once the signal came.
The competition days offered contrasting conditions to further challenge the competitors, as Saturday was a day for sun cream and Sunday brought warnings for thunder, meaning that organisers had to scramble to prepare for the possibility of calling a halt to fishing should a lightning warning come into effect.
In the end, both days went smoothly and, while there were no truly gigantic Lough Ree monsters to enhance the tales told at the Yacht Bar on either evening, there were plenty of really good fish caught to keep the competition close.
The Powell winning team recorded 300cm of pike made up of a 104cm, 100cm and 96cm trio – enough to take the top honours by a mere 2.5cm from their nearest rivals. In total, there were 18 metre plus fish caught by anglers over the two competition days – the best 106.5cm – which was pretty good considering the contrasting weather during the event.