Woodford Winter League 2011/12 in association with GREYS

Woodford Winter League in association with Greys
1st Round, 29 October 2011

Woodford Fly Fishery, Carrickfergus held the 1st round of their Winter League on Sunday 29th Oct. This was the start of 6 monthly competitions, running from October 2011 to March 2012. Woodford Fly Fishery has held this ever popular event for 9 year’s now. This year’s competition yet again drew anglers in from Belfast, Newtownabbey, Newtownards, Lisburn, Armagh, Maynooth, Kildare, Dundalk and the local lads. The competition is run on catch and release basis with the competitors using de-barbed hooks and a team of adjudicators on hand to unhook and record the length of the fish.

Conditions on the day were near perfect with a mild southerly breeze and the odd spell of Autumn sunshine just to make things more comfortable, even a few butterflies fluttered up the lake. Fishing got off to a good start with 27 of the 33 anglers fishing the 1st round. Woodford regular Huw Morris was first to net a fish, fishing a midge tip line and diawl bach nymphs, with-in seconds Kildare angler Sean Kirwan was netting the 1st 50cm+ fish of the day, falling to a lure fished on an intermediate line. Dundalk angler John Kellegher got off to a great start at his first ever Winter League, lifting 3 fish from his 1st peg, all on the intermediate line. Local competitor Jonny Hoad put his day befores practice to good use netting 4 fish on his starting peg including a double hook-up and went on to be the first to bag-up on his next peg again using an intermediate line and lures, with a 50cm+ fish in his bag of 5 Jonny was looking good for a top 5 placing.

The fishing continued to be steady in the second hour for the competitors fishing pegs 5 to 20. The fish were holding really high in the water a lot of the anglers changed from intermediate lines to floating lines and some even went as far as to put small dry flies. Dundalk man and Woodford regular Hubert Smith made the change and stared to cover feeding fish with instant results. The third hour and young Gareth Morris had found his form using the floating line to complete his bag limit breaking his fly line in the process. Gareth was joined by Newtownabbey angler Joe Hughes, who used his no panic style to steadily catch fish on nymphs and floating line. Travelling anglers John Kellegher and Sean Kirwan were next to bag up, just in time to enjoy lunch and a bowl of my Mums home made stew!

After lunch Huw Morris was straight into the action landing 3 fish on the trot to complete his bag limit on diawl bachs and midge tip line. Huw then sportingly stood to the side to let Maynooth angler Roger Fowler cast to where Huw had caught his fish, resulting in Roger netting 3 more fish leaving him 1 more needed to complete his limit. Last years Champion Brian Kerr had struggled to keep the fish hooked before lunch but after he got his act together netting his limit in a 45 minute period. Hubert Smith continued on his fine form from the morning to complete his limit before the last move.

Last years runner-up Ciaran Mellon was also finding it hard to get the fish to stick, with 4 in his bag and dropping just as many he gingerly played a fish with 15mins left on the clock and slipped the net under a fine 50cm+ fish to complete his limit. Catch of the day went to Ladies International Susan Brown, with only minutes left on the clock she hit into a fish and a one stage we weren’t sure with she was playing the fish or the fish was playing her, ending result was a fin perfect 50cm+ rainbow to give her 3 fish for the day, one behind fellow Ladies International Julie Gerry, who also had a 50cm+ fish in her bag of 4 fish.
At the final whistle the 27 competitors had 10 limits and no blanks resulting in a lot of summing up for the results team. Top spot went to Sean Kirwan, 5 fish for 219cm, 2nd went to last years runner-up Ciaran Mellon, 5 fish for 208cm and 3rd was Jonny Hoad, 5 fish for 202cm.