News
Woodford Christmas Fly Fishing Competition Sunday 28th December '08
Woodford Fly Fishery, Carrickfergus held its annual Christmas Fly Fishing competition on Sunday 28th December, with 26 anglers braving the bitterly cold conditions as the temperature struggled to reach 4 degrees in the easterly wind.
The competition got off to a good start at 10am and within seconds Irish Ladies International Sue Brown was playing the 1st fish of the morning, caught on a buzzer nymph taken on the drop and another 10 competitors recorded their 1st fish within 15 minutes of the start, one of which was a nice fish of 2.77kg caught by local angler Harry Dunn, fishing lures on a sinking line. Joe Hughes also caught his 1st ever Woodford competition fish on a black and orange lure fished on a sinking line. Maynooth angler Roger Fowler had the lead on the rest of field at the end of the 1st hour with 2 fish, again fishing lures on a sinking line.
Around 11.30am young Belfast angler, Harry McAteer Jnr caught the best fish of the day, a rainbow trout weighing 3.24kg, his 3rd fish of the morning all caught on a black lure fished on a fast sinking line, this was the 16 year olds 1st Woodford competition. Another Belfast angler and Woodford regular Geordie Hall also had a good fish of 2.41kg, caught on a hare’s ear nymph fished slowly on an intermediate line. Not long into the third hour Eden lad Darren Haggan was the 1st to catch his 5 fish bag limit, catching 3 fish in 10 minutes on a cats variant on a fast sinking line with 1 of the fish tipping the scales at 2.24kg and the other 4 fish all around the 1kg mark, giving him a good bag of 5 fish. Minute’s later local angler Campbell Baird caught his 5th fish, again catching 3 fish very quickly to complete his bag, using black and green lures fished on a sinker. Belfast angler Stuart Wylie was another one to catch 3 fish quickly just before lunch, fishing a pink blob under an indicator on a floating line.
The half hour lunch break could not come soon enough for some of the competitors, with the chance to warm their hands and their belly’s with a good bowl of home made turkey broth and fresh sandwiches. After lunch young Harry McAteer Jnr caught the 2 fish he needed to complete his bag limit, sticking to the black lure and sinking line method that had done well for him in the morning. Local angler Chris Spence, who had only 1 fish from his 1st 3 pegs, caught 2 fish from both of his remaining 2 pegs to complete his bag, fishing an olive and sunburst lure on a sinking line. Going into the last half hour the fishing improved a bit and local Ray McKeeman caught 3 fish to complete his bag, with all the fish coming to a black minkie and the last one came in right on the final whistle.
At the weigh-in there was only 5 anglers with the 5 fish bag limit and the battle for a top 3 place was going to be tight but young Eden lad Darren Haggan had just done it with a good bag of 5 fish weighing 6.65 kg, in a close 2nd place was young Belfast angler whose 5 fish weighed 6.46kg, third spot was also going to be tight with Campbell Baird just taking it with 4.77kg pushing Ray McKeeman into 4th with 4.70kg and Chris in 5th with 4.44kg. Stuart Wylie was unlucky not to get his 5th fish with his good bag of 4 fish weighing 4.23kg. Darren Haggen had a double winning day, not only had he won the Woodford Christmas Competition but Irish Ladies International Julie Gerry drew his ticket number 308 in the Woodford Christmas Ballot winning him a year’s free membership for Woodford Fly Fishery.