Wayne Swinscoe wins Fermoy Spring Festival 2026

Tommy Lawton reports on the Fermoy Coarse Angling Spring Festival May 2026…

Fermoy Coarse Angling Spring Festival May 2026 held on the River Blackwater with 36 UK anglers competing on the festival.

The river was in good condition with good water levels and we hoped that those competing would have good fishing for the week on the Blackwater.

The new Inland Fisheries Ireland Salmon & Sea Trout catch and release rules on the river Blackwater with the new barbless hook rule did have an impact as there was a lot of fish lost especially the Roach as anglers tried to find a barbless hook suitable so they could land these fish. This was very difficult but all our anglers respected the conservation rules now in place on the river.

Overall winners for Fermoy Spring Festival 2026

• 1^st WAYNE SWINSCOE, Nottingham, 42lbs 1ozs
• 2^nd DAVE LIMBERT, Nottingham, 40lbs 05ozs
• 3^rd NIGEL HIRST, Mirfield, 37lbs 10ozs

Monday 11^th day 1, Ken Pace winner on the day with 28lb 12ozs from the Farm down river near the Viaduct, 2^nd Dave Limbert had 28lb and 3^rd Wayne Swinscoe 25lb 15ozs both on B section on the Meadows.

Wednesday 13^th day 2, the river was now dropping with the colour running out and extremely windy making the fishing a lot more difficult. Winner today was Tom Donnelly 18lb 4ozs on the farm, 2^nd Nigel Hirst with 18lb on the Meadows, 3^rd Ant White 12lb 8ozs from the farm.

Friday 15^th final day, the river well down and gin clear at this stage, difficult fishing conditions today. Winner Nigel Hirst 12lb 12ozs, 2^nd Terry Moroz  with 11lb 4ozs both from the farm and 3^rd Wayne Swinsceo with 7lb 12ozs from Castlehyde.

The John Whitehouse Pairs Memorial Shield was won by, Wayne Swinscoe and Tom Donnelly with 70lb 10ozs

On Tuesday 14^th & Thursday 16^th the off days from the main festival, 20 anglers fished the river and 17 anglers fished the on Inniscarra.

2 day Overall winners for River Blackwater

1. 1^st Simon Heaton, 19lb 13ozs
2. 2^nd Dave Limbert, 12lb
3. 3^rd Alan Treadwell, 11lb 5ozs

2 day Overall winners for Inniscarra Reservoir

• 1^st Nigel Hirst  27.520kg
• 2^nd Darren Prestland 22.060kg
• 3^rd Neil Richards 20.670kg

Fermoy Coarse Angling Association, would like to thank the land and fishery owners involved, we thank Fermoy Rowing Club for their cooperation during the week, we thank our sponsor the Avondhu Bar and the Cross Bar and Chris O’Donovan (Kipper) for the use of the wheelie boat.

We congratulations to Wayne Swinscoe Festival and all other winners of various events during the week and we especially like to thank the anglers that continue to support our Festival in Fermoy.

We now look forward to 2027 when we will celebrate 70 years.