Angling Notes: Media personnel gathered in great numbers last Friday week to participate in the annual Fáilte Ireland Fly-fishing Competition at Annamoe Trout Fisheries in the picturesque village of Annamoe in Co Wicklow.
Now in its third year, the event has grown in stature since its modest beginning and is now regarded as the largest media-angling event in the country.
Annamoe Trout Fisheries is on the banks of the Avonmore River and flanked by magnificent woodland scenery. To the north lies Roundwood, the highest village in Ireland, and nearby Glendalough, once the monastic capital of Europe, which now attracts up to 500,000 visitors annually.
Competitors included teams representing BBC (NI) (TV and radio); UTV, the Belfast Telegraph, Daily Ireland, the Star, Sunday World, The Irish Times, RTÉ, Waterlog magazine, Irish Angler and Irish Angler's Digest magazines, Countryman's Weekly and the Central Fisheries Board.
As main sponsors of the event, Fáilte Ireland also invited Steve Cullen and Patrick McInnes from the UK-based Today's Flyfisher and Advanced Pole Fishing magazines, respectively, to take part.
The 32 competitors eagerly awaited the 11.30am starting time. This year the lake was divided into four zones and each competitor over the four-hour competition took a turn in each zone.
Brian Nally, the proprietor of Annamoe, had prepared well. Leading up to the competition he put 130 quality rainbow trout, including some tagged fish, into the lake to supplement the existing stock. By lunchtime, 36 had succumbed to the many lures, with Michael Shanks from Irish Angler magazine in front with five.
Over lunch, David Wilkinson informed those present that the upcoming Emerald World Masters Casting Championships and International Casting Sports Federation Championships will be held in Carton House, Co Kildare in September. Event organiser Wilkinson said Tiger Woods had agreed to open proceedings and the prize fund will be €250,000.
By the afternoon session, The Irish Times team of Denis Coghlan and myself were beginning to make an impact. I had six, including the first tagged fish (a weekend for two in the Glendalough Hotel), and Denis had two. We were potential leaders with one session remaining. Denis Goulding for Irish Angler's Digest, a previous winner and runner-up, was struggling badly. Amazingly, on a trial run the previous day he caught 24 fish, yet could only manage one on the day of the competition. However, his fishing partner Karl O'Toole had five.
In the wind and rain, Orla Woods, angling administrator with Fáilte Ireland, and Josie Mahon and Martin Kelly, angling inspectors with the Eastern Regional Fisheries Board, made time to speak to each competitor at lakeside - a gesture much appreciated by all.
Windswept and soaked, most competitors welcomed the sound of the whistle at 4.30pm. The last session had produced little - the fish simply went to ground. Still, by close of play the tally had reached a reputable 71 fish and Denis had added a third, bringing our total to nine.
In line with strict conservation rules, all fish were returned alive to the water.
Later, over dinner in the Glendalough Hotel, sponsored by East Coast & Midlands Tourism under the Ireland/Wales Interreg Programme, Brian Nally thanked the media teams for making the day a great success and presented the prizes, which included the Fáilte Ireland Dublin Crystal Perpetual Trophy to the winning team of David Dinsmore and Martin Shanks from Irish Angler, which had a total of 12 fish.
Terry McGeehan from the Star received a three-piece Gray's rod, presented by the Eastern Fisheries Board, for the longest fish, a magnificent rainbow of 54cm.
Annamoe Trout Fisheries is a four-acre fly-fishing lake stocked with quality trout up to 6.8kg. The lake is open all year round from 10am to dusk. Fly-fishing tuition is available and a children's fishing pond is open from May to September. Contact annamoefishery@eircom.net or tel 0404-45470.
• A restaurateur paid €12,000 for the first salmon caught this season in Asturias, Spain. The 3.7kg fish, or campanu as it is called, was caught in the Eo River by Paulino Fervienza and bought via a telephone bid by the Casa Tista Restaurant. Campanu owes its name to the peal of church bells that rang out across the region to announce the capture of the first salmon of the season. Legally, the campanu (or first fish) is the only salmon that can be sold in Asturias. Last year, the first fish weighed 4.8kg and fetched €13,200 at auction!
• Sincere condolences are extended to the family of Garnett Coulter who passed away recently. Garnett was one of Ireland's best-known specimen anglers with 19 different species to his credit. Perhaps his best fish was a magnificent brown trout of 7.6kg from Lough Erne in 1979 on a 10cm Abu lure, according to his lifelong friend Liam Kane.