Anglers 'sink the pink' at Mill Lough

30 May 2008

^{THE first club outing of the year has proven to be a huge success with 28 members decending upon Mill Lough Bellanaleck, Co fermanagh to fish for the Moyola Angling Still Water, Francis Loane Memorial, and the Meet at Regans Junior cups.}

^{Conditions were not exactly ideal with a stiff north-easterly breeze, but expectations were high at the registration with the usual trading of techniques and "wonder flies".}

^{Uppermost members minds was the failing health of Tommy Maguire Senior, who passed away on Monday. Tommy would have very much enoyed the weekend's craic as he and his son Philip had for years played a key role in the organisation of these club competitons.}

^{Within the first few minutes Tommy McGrath got off to a dream start with a great brown trout of 2lb 6oz which was weighed and returned to the water. This was soon followed by Michael McGlade who landed a brownie of 1lb 4oz.}

^{Once word got out of what the fish were taking, practically half the lake was being bombarded with pink fritz lures fished deep. The traditionalists however who fished small nymphs proved to be the more successful on the first day. At the half way mark Steven Brennan, David McKee and Peter O’Neill had all caught their bag limit, which were all returned.}

^{The only sour note to the first day was the unfortunate Patsy Harkin. Firstly patsy blanked (no fish, not even a bite)}

^{Secondly he decided to have a nap and got his fair share of sun burn Thirdly, He managed to get a fly stuck in his finger Lastly. Obviously still feeling the effects of sunstroke he managed to break his rod with the car door}

^{If only we had a booby prize…..}

^{The competition ended at six, followed by a fantastic dinner, then Joey sang us into the wee small hours}

^{Day two started off quite slow with the exception of Nathan Young who managed two fantastic brown trout, 1lb 15oz and 2lb 1oz, he also returned a fine perch of 1lb 8oz on the first day.}

^{During the lunchtime break all talk turned to the newly adopted method for the more serious anglers. Michael McGlade christened the tactic "DREDGING" .}

^{For the rest of the afternoon the dredgers took control with Norman Doherty landing a brace of trout to 2lb 9oz and Seamus Donnelly had four to 3lb 12oz. Barney McNicholl had a fine brown followed by a rainbow of 1lb 12oz, he also lost a good fish..}

^{However we did still have the usual subjects blanking. These included: Jack Chapman; Adrian McKay; Patsy McCann; Mervyn Finlay; Patsy Harkin; Sean McGlinchy.}

^{There were no surprises when we heard that Speedy didn’t catch at all, although the biggest surprise of the weekend apart from the band finishing early on Sat. night was that Joey (the traditionalist)O’Neill who gave out so much advice on day one, didn’t manage a single legal sized fish………}

^{The weekend was a huge success, special thanks must go to Tommy McGrath and Philip Maguire. Maura Harkin and Joey O ‘Neill who organised, entertained and taxi’d us about.}

1st overall	Steven Brennan 8lbs 10ozs
2nd overall	Seamus Donnelly 5lbs 14ozs
3rd overall	David McKee 4lbs 14ozs
Heaviest fish 1st	Tommy McGrath 2lbs 6oz
Heaviest fish 2nd	Nathan Young 2lbs 1oz
Heaviest fish 3rd	Norman Doherty 1lb 13ozs
Junior competition winner	Nathan Young 5lb 14ozs
Pairs competition	Steven Brennan/David McKee 13lbs 7ozs

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