West Cork & DIstrict SAC hosted the All-Ireland Open Shore competition, also known as the Jimmy Smith, last Saturday. And as ever, they had a great report on their social media, which we share here:
Saturday saw us host the All Irelands. There were three categories up for grabs on the day. The Jimmy Smith senior title, Maurice Dalton/Juvenile title and the Ladies all Ireland title.
The Slob Bank in Youghal was the venue for this championships.
51 anglers in total entered from all four provinces and we would like to thank all the anglers that travelled to support this event.
The peg draw was done on Friday evening and four of Irelands top anglers had all drawn in Zone C, JP Molloy and Derek Kenrick – both only back a few days previously from a successful trip away with Team Ireland at the world championships where they took home a bronze medal, both anglers had been drawn in the zone of death.
Alan O Dowling another very successful angler was in this zone. Alan was part of the Irish team who won gold in the Home Nations this summer. Finally after a few years out, ex world champion Alan Mulcahy was the other big name in this zone.
The weather wasn’t kind to us on Saturday however it was well manageable.
The match time was 1pm – 6pm. Good fishing was expected on the day after the water was stirred up by the high winds.
Lines out at 1pm and 15mins later there was lots of activity all over the bank with anglers moving around getting their match cards filled in. This continued for the duration of the match and it was very tight between the top three anglers in the end.
Zone A was rumored to be the hardest zone on the day however it didn’t turn out that way. It was the best zone overall producing 201 fish. Lugworm worked best for most anglers in this zone. Young Chris Sanbak from Tralee Bay SAC ran away with the zone with a fantastic match card of 22 fish. Outstanding fishing Chris!
This also helped Chris to win the Maurice Dalton Cup and become the under 16 All Ireland champ. Brian Mansfield was runner up in this zone with 14 fish.
Brian also had the biggest round fish on the day a bass of 45cm which was worth €200. New comer to match fishing Steve Watkins was also in this zone and it was great to see Steve winning the flat fish pool with a nice 40cm flounder.
This was also worth €200.
Well done to both of you lads
Alison O Sullivan and Fiona Ryan were also in zone A competing for the ladies title and what a battle they had. Both ladies had 13 fish , Fiona got the win by just 2cm. Well done Fiona! Sean Bannon grandson of the famous Cod Father Donal Domeney was in this zone. Sean will definitely be one to watch out for in the future.
Zone B fished well too, Three of Irelands up and coming stars from the Irish underage set up were in this zone battling against each other. Sally Gilvarry, Liam Davis and Bradley Kirwan all fished very well on the day.
Bradley showed his class getting a zone 3rd place.
Mr Consistent Jordan Muir would get a zone second with 20 fish and Stephen O Donovan won the zone with 25 fish.
Zone C, an outstanding performance from Mochara Fraher who is another juvenile angler would see him get a zone 3rd place.
Mochara had 18 fish and held his own with some of Irelands top rods in this zone. Alan Mulcahy showed no sign of being away from the match scene. Alan showed his class as usual and ended up with 26 fish for a zone second and a 3rd place over all but the day belonged to Alan O Dowling. After coming close so many times over the years Alan finally became the All Ireland champ. 26 fish would see him pip Stephen O Donovan and take the title. Well done Alan and very well deserved.
Alan will now captain Ireland at the Home Nations and get a chance to defend the title with his team mates.
This event ran very smoothly and thanks to everyone for making it work.
