The Rossinver Fishey Syndicate and Foyle River-catchment Outdoor Group (FROGs) jointly organised the World Youth Lough Open competition on Sunday, September 8th, on Lough Melvin. The competition was fished by 42 young anglers and they were ably assisted by 24 of Ireland’s most experienced anglers who acted as boatmen/women for the day.
It was 15-year-old Jack Reidy, from Loughrea in Galway, who won the event with a total of 7 fish, including a monster trout of 78cm – estimated at over 9lbs – which was released along with all of the fish landed on the day. Jack is one of the Irish youth team members who recently won gold in this year’s international at Grafham Reservoir, so it’s been a busy summer for him! Fintan Carlin (current Irish Youth Captain) was runner up and winner of the 16 – 22 age group with 6 fish, and young Erin McCloskey aged 11 who won the Ladies title.
The winning prize was jointly sponsored and presented by Rossinver Fishery and Garrison & Lough Melvin Anglers (GLMA) and was presented to Jack by Philip Rooney (RF) and Terry McGovern (GLMA).
Fifty three trout were caught and released by the participating anglers, with individual prizes awarded to winners in various categories. Sharpes of Aberdeen were the lead sponsor of the event, and the organisers managed to pull together over €7,000 in prizes and support. Such was the scale of the event that over 150 angling folk were in attendance at the presentation BBQ! IFI were proud to provide a boat and crew to assist and support the competition boats on the water.
