IRELAND WIN GOLD ON LOUGH MASK
IFFA Spring International 2018 at Lough Mask - win for Ireland
The Four Nations
Home International was held on Friday the 11th of May 2018 on Lough Mask, Ballinrobe , Co.Mayo.
Ireland England Wales and Scotland took part in this competition as they have for many years before, The weather on the week of the ,match was not nice to
say the least.
With high winds, rain and bright sunshine. Not ideal fishing conditions to say the least. But the Irish team had begun practice six weeks before the event and as everyone knows the more you practice the better you get. Through the guidance
of our Player Manager Michael Monaghan, Captain Fantastic Mike Keady, Seamus O'Loughlin our fly tyer, and Gary Binley our team grew from strength to strength.
After weeks of practice in all sorts of weather, from
flat calm to gale force winds, the Irish team left Cushlough bay at 10am on Friday morning and ventured out on Lough Mask for the final time. Waived to and cheered on by out familys and friends , the big question lingered in the back of our minds. Would the
commitment to the team representing the 32 counties of Ireland and all the hours of practice, tying flies, traveling up and down to Lough Mask, taking holidays , being away from family pay off ?.
We would find out all find out at 6pm
The wind blew hard all day , with both sunshine and cloud cover at times. 28 boats get lost out on Lough Masks 22,0000 acres, so it was hard to see how my team members were doing. .After a tough day we headed to Cushlough Bay for the last 2 hour session of the day. It was here we finally met some boats, the few Irish boats we met had changed their team hats to bright green hats to indicate they had caught three or more fish. But how was everyone else doing. We were tied 1 fish all in my boat with English man Mark Mathieson, although i had put a lot of undersized fish back and dropped some nice fish, I only had one measurable fish on the card. Cushlough bay was beginning to fill as the end of the competition grew closer. I switched from small wets to buzzers and bung and was rewarded with a lovely 1.5lb fish, I had done all I could as we motored in for the weigh in. I felt things had not gone my way, but every member of our team I met had fish. The total grew and grew, Daven Egan had caught a staggering 8 fish beating Englishman and world reknowned fisherman Ian Barr who managed 6 fish. The Anticipation grew as rumours of small bags of fish from the English and the Scottish. But had Wales done enough to beat us on home soil, would it be bitter sweet once again.
England weighed in First - 23 fish
Ireland next - 45 fish
Scotland next - 20 fish
Wales were up next- we waited and waited for the news- I looked around me, all the Irish Team with their friends and family hugging and holding each other. Many had tried so many times before to claim the gold medal. All the effort, the struggle to be there . would it be our time, not just the 16 of us, the boatmen and friends like Mick Dunne, Peter Byrne, Tom Doc Sullivan, Ronan Cusack, the Ballinrobe club, surely we could not be denied this time.
Wales scores were tallied, and over the loudspeaker we heard "Wales 25 fish". The place erupted, some just stood there in disbelief like myself, there were tears , there were hugs but most of all a deep sense of pride, proud to have fished for your club and country, with honest decent anglers, with a Team of many more than the 14 Anglers and we all got our the just rewards. Never have I seen such happiness on so many faces.
The results were officially read out
Ireland-45 fish
Wales-25 fish
England-
23 fish
Scotland- 20 fish
The bay erupted again as champagne flew through the air, Mike Keady was lifted from where he stood and marched down to the lake and thrown into Lough Mask from the pier , Mike made sure he wasn't the only one going in and held our player Manager Michael Monaghan on his way. Both guys had given so much of their time and effort leading up to the match, it was great to see their huge smiles as they emerged from lough Mask
Michael Monaghan Secretary of the I.T.F.F.A. ..Manager and team member
"The I.T.F.F.A, would like to thank the Ballinrobe Club, in particular,
Ronan Cusack, Denis Kelleher, Michael Vahey and Kevin Egan.They made the organisation look effortless.
To all the boatmen who supplied their boats and gave up their time to bring all the teams out on practice and match day. To Brenda Clarke and the staff
of Breaffy house who looked after us so well for the week, A big thank you to Snowbee our clothing sponsor who had us looking sharp for the team photographs. And to Seamus O'Loughlin who tied flies for us and helped us in every way
Finally to the team, Seamus Kelly, Denis Goulding, Eoin Dunne, Terry Walsh, Dave Egan, Martin McGorian, Eddie Shanagher, Darren Maguire, Eddie Harte, Stephen Browne, Paddy Ward, Greg White, Michael Monaghan and Captain Mike Kiedy. Take a bow guys and bask in the glow of a fantastic achievement.
To our Captain Mike Kiedy who was the right man for the job and left no stone unturned in the pursuit of the dream of winning a Gold Medal at home , you did an unbelievable job"
That evening we had the award ceremony and everything went off without a hitch. Michael Monaghan is an out and out legend, he balanced work and home life with the huge commitment of managing and organising
the whole event and also fishing on the team. I don't know anyone else that could of pulled it off so well. We are forever in your debt sir.
This team was selected to do this job, their commitment to each other and Ireland was never in question from day one. Under the watchful eye of the two Mikes we focussed on the job at hand and nothing else, Friendships for life were formed and a TEAM went and won gold on Lough Mask by more than 20 fish.
JOB DONE
Latest comments
19.05 | 05:47
Hi Denis
Good meeting last night, and enjoyed reading your blog. Felt I was on the lake with you. Great work
02.05 | 20:42
Hi Dennis loved the article straight to the point .just wondered will the trout feed on the small buzzers all year ?
06.04 | 11:57
Cant wait to read this
01.03 | 03:03
glad u enjoy, ty, will be back when the fishing returns
AND SO IT BEGINS.
After fishing from the bank all winter long, I was looking forward to getting back in the boat. Normally I would wait for the first hatch of the year and travel down to the west of Ireland or not go at all until the Duckfly appears in the midlands. But after not fishing for 3 weeks I was starting to loose the plot. So with limited time I opted for Lough Owel and maybe chance to see the first hatch of the year, which is a small buzzer about half the size of the Duckfly which hatches just before the Duckfly itself. The weather looked good enough in the days before my trip, but as always the weather turned. A South wind but 19 to 24km which isn’t really what I was hoping for.
Arriving early at Lough Owel I was greeted with a bare pin ripple on the lee shoreline and a balmy 10c, but as I fitted the boat out I could feel the breeze building. Two 10ft ever reliable 7 weight RS Wychwood Competition rods were both adorned with floating lines, a straight buzzer set up on one and a bung on the other.
As I travelled down the lake it was lovely to hear the hum of my 15hp Johnson, I checked every bay and reed bed but more in hope, for any sign of buzzer. The wind was picking up all the time and after an hour or so I resigned myself to defeat and out came the di3. Fishing at this time of year in my opinion is normally shallow for hoglouse and snail feeders, whilst drifting in 10 to 20 ft of water you would be after fry feeders on the drop off with di5s and di7s depending on the wind.
The greater the wind the heavier the sinking line. At this stage I had travelled as far as the cornfield and I drifted off the shelf in nice conditions pulling dabblers and fry patterns. A three fly 16ft cast of 8lb strong leader, 6ft to first fly and then 5ft between with flys .
Just coming off the shelf I got my first fish, a lovely marked but thin overwintered Triploid Brown of about 2lb. Working up the shoreline to the neck I got two more on Black Dabblers and a big white Hummungous.
Stomach pumping the fish is a must when fishing in my opinion, you don’t need to go mad emptying the fishes stomach, a brief pump will tell you what the fish are on. In this case snail and hoglouse were high on the menu.
HE WHO DARES WINS....
I worked along the lee shorelines as it was getting very blustery picking up a fish here and there. I changed flys a few times, but it seemed whatever I put on the top dropper the fish took. The top dropper is the first fly the fish sees as you pull it by him, typical early season fishing. All fish were in the 1.5lb to 2.5lb bracket. Its been years since I fished Owel on a regular basis, so this year I have decided to fish it a lot more and re-learn the lake. With this in mind, I kept moving, instead of repeating drifts.
About lunch time I decided to head to deep water and see if I could contact some of the larger trout Lough Owel has know become known for.
I put up the di-5, but after one drift I felt I was not staying in contact with the line or getting deep enough due to the wind. So the dreaded di-7 was taken out of the box and the cobwebs blown off it. It took me 5 or so minutes to get the feel for the line as I hadn’t fished it from a boat in what seemed like an age.
But sure enough 10 minutes later after a count to 35, followed by a long slow retrieve the first marker went through the rod rings and I hung the flys, I thought I got slight knock, I waited and waited, nothing, continuing my long slow retrieve I barely got three more long pulls before the rod hooped over and the tip of the rod buried into the lake as line peeled off the floor then off the reel. Playing a fish alone out in the middle of the lake on a blustery day will certainly get your heart thumping. Anything and everything can go wrong , so that’s why I keep a tidy boat( stop laughing) when fishing alone. Regaining half the line onto the reel, I began to drag the fish from the depths. At times it just hung beneath the boat and there was nothing I could do. The wind was pushing the boat along too quickly.
Eventually the fish came to the surface and at over 4lb I was gobsmacked and puzzled at its strength. Lying on its side one second, then it vanished, the penny dropped, I had two on. Now it got messy, eventually I guided the first one into the net, unhooked it, then netted the fish on the tail fly with the first fish in the net. The tail fish was about 3.5lb and the fish on the top dropper was over 4lb, they certainly stretch the di7. Both released back to their watery homes, after a little rest in my net.
I fished all the way back to the moorings, catching an odd fish and I had another double hook up of newly introduced fish but it was pleasant. Just as I packed up the redundant Bung Rod, a fish rose in front of me. As a wise man once said “never pass up a willing fish”. Out with the di- 3 and 3 casts later the line went tight, fish number 13 was landed. Enough was enough and in I went.
Lough Owel was kind to me on a not so kind day. It was great to be back out on the lake and I hope to be back out again next week, hopefully there will be Duckfly !!!. But knowing my luck , the wind will be howling and the rain will be coming down sideways.
But as Anglers we Live in Hope.