This report from the Irish Federation of Sea Anglers on the 23rd World Boat Championships (U21) which was held in Donegal, Ireland, from Aug 24th-31st 2024:
It was with Great pleasure and honour for us to host the WBCU21s this year in Donegal. Originally, we planned to fish Lough Swilly leaving from Rathmullan Pier, but with continued restoration work on Rathmullan Pier, we had to change our plan to Downings Pier instead. With the help and assistance of the local Coast Gaurd Unit we had use of their facilities for toilets and storage. We had 7 teams compete over 4 days competition, Monday 26th to Thursday 29th.
Unfortunately, the weather was not the best and we fished our reserve all weather zone for 3 of the 4 days in Mulroy Bay. We did manage to get the competitors out to fish in the deeper water on the Wednesday, which produced a lot more fish, but we just couldn’t fish anywhere other than Mulroy on the other days due to conditions.
We had a reserve boat on standby from Torey Island just in case a boat had issues any morning. Thankfully, there were no issues and, with everything going good, the Team Managers and some reserve athletes used this boat for a days angling. The Irish managers wanted to show the rest of them all of what Ireland and the north west has to offer, and with that we had them catching 3 x Pollock or 3 x Coalfish at a time! The excitement on these older anglers faces was a sight to be seen with most never even having seen a Pollock before!
The event was great success, but without the support from the Lough Swilly Junior Anglers Club, lead by Chairman Charles Devlin and club secretary Hugh McLean, along with Paddy Donnaghy and Lisa John, this event would have struggled.
Accommodation in the Station House Hotel in Letterkenny was second to none, providing us with everything we needed, and the Irish team would all highly recommend this hotel.
The support and presence of Minister Charlie McConalogue was very much appreciated and the work of the Donegal and Letterkenny Council coming to support and financial aid should never be forgotten from the whole local community from Letterkenny to Downing and surrounding communities, whose economic return from the 11 days was in the region of €300,000.
The support of the Inland Fisheries Ireland, whose foresight and development program has helped our own young anglers to learn about angling and safety, has our under 21s Boat team now developed and established, with more young anglers seeing a fun competitive Natural Sport to take part in.
Congratulations to Italy for winning the under 21 world championships again this year and a extra special mention to the new under 21 World Champion Christian Del Greco from Italy, who fished the best to become world champion – but as you will see in the photos the Class of this young Man is not just with a fishing rod!
After receiving his medals he made his way to a local toy store to buy a small thank you present for the daughter of one of our stewards, now that is what a champion is!
Well done to all, thanks to our two Ireland teams for working so hard everyday, a medal is there for us and, with some more experience, it will happen. Thank you all so much and if we have left anyone out, that had any part of this championship, we want to say thank you not just for your help but for making some of these young anglers dreams a reality and they will never forget there Irish Experience.
