Going into the second-last league match at Cushendun, the leaderboard for the Ulster Krakens league was tight between Ally Nicholl and Raymond “Fish Whisperer” McCann, with several others competing for third place and a possible Master Angler qualification.
Bad weather once again forced a venue change, and there were mixed feelings during the peg draw as some anglers missed out on the better side of the beach. Early on, Ally Nicholl took a strong lead with 15 fish, while David Rainey and Gavin Mahaffy also started well.
Catches mostly consisted of small whiting and a few dogfish, with flounder, coalies, and pollock notably scarce. As the tide turned, fishing slowed dramatically for most anglers, except for Stephen Kinning, who found a few fish from peg 1.
In the end, Raymond McCann’s late whiting earned him the win, followed by David Rainey in second and Ally Nicholl close behind in third—leaving Ally and Raymond tied on the leaderboard ahead of the final match. Gavin Mahaffy caught the longest fish, a 33 cm flounder.
