Cold winds, numb hands and freezing rain didn’t deter the eager anglers at the 2014 Interprovincial Shore Competition, Waterfoot.  Brian Reidy gives us an excellent report of how the days unfolded:

January 11th and 12th:

Well done to all the anglers competing for a place on the Irish Mens and Ladies Home Nations Teams for 2014 and the Interprovincial title, in what were testing conditions last weekend at various venues in north Ulster.

It was a serious effort over the weekend, with freezing temperatures, biting winds and of course rain with the fish not playing ball at times.

The ladies were on Waterfoot beach for the day and night session on the 11^th, it was clear skies but freezing during the day with a light breeze. The two Connacht ladies Fiona McDonagh and Eithne Hartley got off to the ideal start both winning their zones on the morning session – each having well over 10 fish each. Lisa Gormley and Paula Johnston both of Ulster were 2^nd in both zones.

The numb hands had to be used again for the night session, which was hectic with fish nearly every cast. This time it was the Leinster ladies coming to the fore, with Pat Shortt and Jane Cantwell winning the zones, both ladies having over 40 fish each. Lisa Gormley and Debbie Withers of Ulster were 2^nd in both zones. Flounders dominated both sessions with coalfish, codling, rockling and whiting making up the rest of the catches.

Then Sunday on Benone was the opposite with fish few and far between and a stiff breeze raising the sand and making fishing difficult, then the rain came at the end. It was clear after an hour with so few fish caught this was going to come down to a single fish to make the home nations team. At one point 3 ladies in zone B had their lines cross and on the retrieve a fish was in amongst all 3 traces – but if fell off the hook. If any of the 3 could have claimed that fish they would have made the team so tight were the scores.

Lisa Gormley of Ulster was consistency personified and claimed her zone with 2 fish, one a fine flounder of 36cm.  With that she won the championship overall and took her place as captain of the Irish Ladies Home Nations Team. Mary Hyland of Connacht was 2^nd in the zone with 1 fish. In the other zone Anne Whitty of Leinster won it with a fine flounder of 36cm. Linda Manton of Munster claimed 2^nd with an 8cm flounder! For the remaining places on the Home Nations team it was very tight 2^nd 3^rd and 4^th was tied and was only resolved on fish count back leaving Anne Whitty 2^nd, Paula Johnston 3^rd and Mary Hyland 4^th . Linda Mantons tiny fish with only minutes to go in the competition earned her 5^th and a place on the Irish team. Fiona McDonagh of Connacht was 6^th and takes the reserve position.

The Ulster ladies took the Interprovincial Championship having a score a third more than Leinster who just pipped Connacht by two points, with Munster well back in 4th. The local knowledge came out in the end. Lisa Gormley, Paula Johnston, Debbie Withers, Janet Snoddy and Margaret Trusdale made up the Ulster team.

The men began with a very tough session on Portstewart beach. Fish were hard to come by and Joe Carley of Leinster took his zone with 3 fish. Paul Whelan of Leinster was 2^nd with 3 fish. Aidan O’Halloran of Munster was third with 1 fish. In the other zone Leinster continued to dominate with Paddy Barnwell 1^st with 3 fish and Raymond Gibson, Ulster bucked the trend finishing 2^nd with 2 fish and Ronan McGonagle, Ulster was 3^rd with 2 fish.

For session 2 the men moved to the Whiterocks in Portrush. Here the fish were more plentiful with Martin Howlin of Leinster winning his zone with 19 fish and JP Molloy of Munster 2^nd with 13 fish. Paul Whelan, Leinster was 3^rd with 11 fish. In the other zone Chris O’ Sullivan won with 11 fish and Peter Atkins of Connacht was 2^nd with 11 fish. Joe Carley took 9 fish for a zone third. The species were flounder, turbot, rockling, whiting, coalfish and sea trout.

For the final session the men joined up with the ladies on Benone, the fish were hard to come by but this part of the beach threw up more than the ladies end. Noel Fogarty, Leinster took the zone with 4 fish including a fine bass of 3.5lb. Joe Carley, Leinster was 2^nd with 4 fish and Martin Howlin was 3^rd with 4 fish ensuring a clean sweep for Leinster. In the other zone Paul Whelan assured Leinsters dominance with the zone win and 4 fish. Brian Wallace of Ulster was 2^nd with 4 fish and Eugene Andrews of Ulster was 3^rd with 3 fish. Apart from the bass most fish were flounder with some small turbot included.

It is no surprise that Leinster took the 4 remaining places on the Irish Home Nations Team with Aidan O’Halloran taking the reserve place for Munster. They will now join team Captain Mike Curtin, Connacht (winner of the All Ireland Open – The Jimmy Smith) in Scotland.

Leinster won the Interprovincial Championship by having almost a third more points than Munster with Ulster only 2 points behind in 3^rd. Connacht were 4^th with another 5 points less. Paddy Barnwell was the 5^th member of the Leinster team.

Both the Irish home nations teams will travel to the event which is due to take place at the end of June/start of July 2014 over in Scotland pitting themselves against the home team along with England and Wales.

Huge thanks must go to the Ulster provincial council for organising this event both the headquarters at the Port Hotel and the venues used and all the helpful correspondence. The stewards on the day were a credit to their clubs.  The Irish Federation of Sea Anglers shore committee was also a great help for organising the draw and the completing the scores in good time. Well done to all on a great even.

 Check out all the results:

Ladies_Home_Nations_Fish_Off_Results_Sheet_Copy

Ladies_Inter_Pro_Results_Sheet

Mens_Home_Nations_Fish_Off_Results_Sheet

Mens_Inter_Pro_Results_Sheet

Brian Reidy

PRO IFSA Central Council Executive

Web: www.ifsa.ie