AWOL LEAGUE 2022/2023
The AWOL League has been running 9 years..This year the founder Alan Lawless could not commit to running the league so i took over. 21 anglers fish 5 legs and the your top 4 legs count. Before i get into what happend over the course of the event i just want to thank a few people.
This year i looked for some sponsorship from the Angling Retailers for the 5 rounds for 1st 2nd and thirds prizes. I was astounded at the response. So i would like to thank the following people and companies
Pat Nolan from Premiere Angling Supplies, Dave McBride from Southside Angling, Mary Harkin from Rorys Fishing Tackle, Donal Monahan for the Christmas Prizes, Peter Driver of Piscarifly,Kevin Porteous from FNF, Ned Maher from Adaire Springs and John and Enda from Laois Angling Centre.
I would also like to thank Michael Low from Fario Fly for sponsoring goody bags worth 45 euro each to every member of the league.
On behalf of the League thank you all.
The first round was held at Laois Angling Centre. It was an exceptional day with 21 anglers catching 207 trout. A testament to the work the owners John and Enda out into the fishery. Sean Maher took first place with 21 fish . The next four anglers caught 15 fish each which made it very tight at the top. The winner of each round gets 11 points , 2nd 9 points, 3rd gets 8 points and so on.I was lucky to come 2nd on the day.
The second round was held in Adaire and it was a totally different day with fish 84 fish being caught. Shane Bird won with 11 fish and that man again Sean Maher was second with 8 fish.
The third round was again held at Adaire fishery. This was one of the closest matches i have been involved in. Three anglers caught 12 fish, Roger Fowler, John Bird and i, with shane bird on 11 fish. Again the gods shined on me , as i barely won the match by 1cm.
Only 16 AWOL members took part in this competition . Five anglers pulled out due to illness, surgery etc. But i filled the empty pegs with guest anglers just to ensure a good match. Many thanks to those anglers that stepped in over the course of the league.
The fouth round we were back to Laois Angling centr. Again anglers had to pull out so we fished with 16 anglers for a total of 166 fish.
Again there were some great catches, Marius Lincenicius and John Bird caught 22 fish apiece, but Sean Maher was third with 15.
ISean Maher was in the lead as he was from day 1 and it looked like the man in form could not be beaten
The final leg of the league was held at laois angling centre. No one had won the league twice and it was all to play for.
17 out of 21 anglers turned up and caught 183 fish. An average of 10.76 fish per anglerThe . Winner was Sean Maher with a huge catch of 20 fish.
2nd was Hubert with 16 fish and Shane Bird was third with 15 fish.
Well done to all the prize winners and thanks to Enda and Johno for allowing us to use their fishery.
Ok so the overall comp was pretty tight until Sean Maher destroyed us all again on the last day, well done sir.
Sean won the overall prize , trophy and replica with 39 points.
2nd Denis Goulding 31 points.
3rd Shane Bird with 26 points.
Hubert won longest fish 72cm.
I wish to thank all our sponsors , fishery owners and you the anglers for making the league work.
Anglers that fished the league will have first refusal on entry to next years competition.
Please let ne know if you are entering asap.
Thank you all again and i wish u a safe and happy 2023 season
I will do a blog on it in the near future
I hope we can do it again next. If it suits u all Peter and i continue to run the league.
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.