On Saturday, 6th July 2024, 26 avid anglers gathered at Tullaghan’s Shore, Lough Owel, for a friendly fly fishing trout competition: The Ian Rowand Trophy. The day was marked by highly variable weather, truly a case of “four seasons in one day.” Anglers faced heavy, biting rain showers with gusty winds, which later transitioned to calm, balmy, and sunny conditions, adding an extra layer of challenge and excitement to the event.
The competition kicked off at 11:00 AM with a 2 fish bag limit and a minimum size of 14 inches. By 6:00 PM, participants were ready for the weigh-in at Tullaghan’s
Winners:
First Place: Declan McKibben, secured the top spot with two nice fish weighing a total of 6.025 lbs. Declan caught his fish after lunch on the Dolan’s side of Srudarra, and about an hour on the Lady’s side.
Second Place: James Doyle, with a great bag of two fine fish weighing 5.755 lbs.
Third Place: Dave Canning, who landed two fish weighing 5.590 lbs.
Special Weight Prize: Willie Scully (1.8 Lbs)
Heaviest Fish: Jim Keeshan, caught the heaviest fish of the day, weighing 4.685 lbs, caught very late in the day.
Winning Fly! The winning fly was a silver daddy, one of John O’Neill’s unique creations, which proved to be highly effective during the competition.
Overall not a bad fishing day: Out of the 26 anglers, 15 successfully caught fish, which was considered a good result for the day, reflecting the excellent conditions and skill level of the participants.
Gary Coakley officiated with the prize giving.
Declan takes top spotWise men use suncreamDave in 3rdJames in 2ndWillie got the special weight
Full results below:
Eoin Dunne’s 2 fish and 4 points now takes him into first place on the overall Angler of the Year leaderboard with 22 points. With just 3 competitions remaining this season, it’s still all to play for with Cathal on 19 and Gerry on 18 points:
Thanks as usual to Gerry Heaslip for arranging the boats and to Declan and Tom for organising. Tom was not able to join us for this competition but we look forward to seeing him at the next one on 27th July.
It was chilly enough for June and while the rain held off, there was little or no wind for the first few hours of the LM Byrne Cup on Lough Lene last Saturday. 33 DTAA members set out at 11am with 12 weighing in fish. As usual it was a heaviest fish competition and of the many who blanked, a good number never even had a chance. Dries were most successful with Wulffs, dabblers, sedges and daddies mentioned by several of the anglers who met fish.
Jonathan O’Keefe took home the gold with a nice fish of 3.7 lbs with Gerry Heaslip nipping at his heels weighing in his fish at 3.59 lbs. 3rd place went to Jonathan’s boat partner and Irish International, Eoin Dunne with a fish of 3.37 lbs. Paul Dunne took home the special weight prize. Rudolph Britz had several fish to a black and yellow Wulff, (possibly a MAYFLY CORRIB WULFF… hopefully Rudolph can confirm). Mark McAllister got a rise to a dry chocolate drop and a hook up to a size 14 Klinkhammer. His boat partner got 2 hook ups to a dry Olive/Mayfly and a small Royal Wulff.
Jonathan O’Keefe, 1st place, receiving his trophy from DTAA President Fran NugentGerry Heaslip, 2nd placeEoin Dunne, 3rd placePaul Dunne, Special weight prizeGilsenan’s produced fish early onThe chat and the craic beforehand
Results table below:
The leaderboard for the season to date makes for interesting reading! Three are tied in top position with 18 points each after three competitions: (Gerry, Eoin and Cathal… with Hubert just behind with 15 points!)
Following the National Final in Killarney this weekend we are delighted that DTAA’s Gary Coakley and John O’Neill are through to represent Ireland in 2025 with Cathal McDonnell on the reserve list. Congratulations to Gary, John and Cathal
I was fortunate to have been able to take part in the annual Whit Weekender on Lough Conn this June bank holiday.
Of the 80+ anglers and boatmen taking part, DTAA was very well represented by myself (Declan), Gerry Heaslip, Willie Scully, Donal Rafferty, Chris Meadows, Cathal McDonnell, Terry O’Keeffe, Anthony Mc Grattan and Hubert Smith.
Conditions were good in terms of wind if a little too much sun on the Saturday. Sunday had much better cloud cover but the fish were hard got.
I fished with Conn & Cullin angler and Irish international Joe Ferguson on day 1 and had a nice keeper in the middle of Mayo. There were fish on both sides but I had my keeper on the Gallagher’s Bay side to a dry claret hopper on a size 12 hook. We also met fish earlier in the day at Rinmore, and fished later in Castlehill Bay and Woodford where I rose a nice fish in the last half hour. I finished in 3 place with my one fish (the second heaviest!). The heat was won by Denis Goulding with two fish and Stephen Brown with one coming in second position.
On Sunday I was out with local angler Brian Gallagher (we know Brian and Joe of course from the annual Crossmolina weekend). Starting off at Woodford (in a gentle south easterly breeze) we saw a nice hatch of may flies and some small fish moving to them but not a lot of action besides a couple of follows. We then headed over towards Castlehill Bay. There were about 6 boats in there. Even though it’s getting late for that Bay, there are still good fish in it and always a chance of a keeper and getting into the prizes. I rose a fish and caught a perch, and much weed before we headed across to the middle of Mayo. With the wind coming from the West, we drifted perpendicular to the Western side, and went up and down a few times, meeting fish to both wets and dries, but nothing stuck.
We left there at around 4.30 and headed across to Tolan’s where, it turned out, a lot of the other competitors were set up. We saw free rising fish but did not manage to get any fish in the boat. I’d say that half the boats were in Tolan’s, lined up to drift across it from the West.
13 fish measured on Saturday with the better conditions of Sunday returning 16 fish over 13″. Stephen Brown came first place and took home a lovely Sheelin boat, Peter Roche was 2nd, Denis Goulding in 3rd and Colm McAndrew in 4th and heaviest fish went to Ian Wise. I finished up in 8th place with my fish from the day before, haunted by the thought that the fish I lost in Gallagher’s could have made all the difference; such is fishing. We’ll be back again next year. Thanks to Orla and Padraig and all the organisers for an excellent and fun weekend of fishing.
Wishing DTAA’s John O’Neill and the rest of the Senior Lake Team as they fish the Four Nations Home International 2024 on Lough Ennell this Friday. Tight lines John.
John
The banner image is from last year when John had a big fish from Owel… Hopefully he’ll pull a couple of those out of Ennell this year!
Best of Luck to DTAA members Almha McDonnell and Edel Beresford and all the Irish ladies team at the International in Lynn Brenig, Wales on Thursday 23rd May 2024. (Photo taken yesterday at international hotel).
Banner photo credit to the Ladies International Team facebook page.
Crossmolina, May 2024 – As dawn broke over the serene waters of Lough Conn, the gentle hum of nature was accompanied by the eager chatter and unwavering optimism of anglers from across Ireland. The weekend of May 4th and 5th marked the continuation of an angling tradition that has been a highlight in the calendars of fishing enthusiasts for over fifty years: the friendly fishing competition between Dublin Trout Anglers and Lough Conn and Cullin Anglers. Despite the optimism and good conditions on Day 1, it was a couple of days tough fishing on Lough Conn. The best of the fishing was on the first day with a consistent light wind and some fly activity offering the assembled anglers many chances.
The competition kicked off on Saturday 4th with 36 anglers vying for the prestigious Dublin Bowl. Most anglers measured (and released) fish that counted and it was a close run thing but the Dublin team concluded the day with a significant lead, outpacing their Mayo rivals by over 40 cm in total length of fish caught.
Top place went to Noel Shiels fishing for Mayo, followed by our Captain (and Ireland International) Dave Canning, and Cathal McDonnel in 3rd (DTAA Secretary but fishing for the Mayo side on Saturday), Fran Nugent was in 4th place (one of his 3 fish was 46cm and is pictured below), and then Donal Raftery in 5th. Noel and Dave made the long trip to Cullin and it paid off with 9 fish that measured and many over 13″.
Fran’s fish was caught in Cloghan’s on a tiny dry fly and measured 46cm (one of Dave Canning’s fish was also 46cm)
The winners gallery is set out below.
Captain Dave Canning graciously received the Dublin Bowl and expressed his gratitude to the organisers (Orla and Padraig) on behalf of DTAA.
Day 2 Sunday 5th May was for the Pratt Cup:
Sunday was more of a day for admiring the scenery or catching up on much needed sleep. Flat calm like a mirror was how the lake presented as we set off at 11am. It stayed like this for an hour or so and then a soft south westerly breeze caused a promising ripple on the more exposed areas. But the wind would drop and pick up again like it didn’t really know what it was doing. There was very little fly life to be seen, the odd mayfly, occasional olive, some sedges even and some buzzer in Cloghan’s (more on that shortly). After lunch the wind came around more easterly and then north easterly and the temperature dropped. It seemed that more coarse fish were caught than trout! Castlehill Bay was a write off altogether. Only 10 anglers returned fish.
PJ O’Driscoll and Chris Meadows were fishing in Cloghan’s and clearly cracked the code. Chris didn’t boat any fish over 13″ but PJ had 2 and it was the buzzer imitations and method that worked for him. This got PJ into top position followed by Paul Delaney with two fish. PJ is no stranger to such achievements regularly taking 1st place in DTAA competitions (there were two last year as I recall) and some astounding fish (he won the Pasker and LM Byrne cups in 2023, see here to read about it)
Third place went to Joe Ferguson with one fish who fished Cullin with his son Cian who also boated a keeper and deservedly won a special junior competitor prize:
The coveted Ronnie Miley trophy went to Noel Shiels who was the most successful angler from both teams over the two days. Noel was 1st Saturday and 4th place Sunday, earning him 17 points.
DTAA members Niall O Hearcain and Pat Foley were also fishing Conn on the Sunday as part of a fishing tour they’re doing this week. Niall and Pat managed to boat at least three keepers in Bog Bay which all came to a size 12 Wulff. Niall shared this magnificent picture of one of their fish (49cm; an outstanding fish)
In addition to the fishing, the Crossmolina weekend is about friendship and the craic, a chance to reconnect with old pals and make new friends.
PadraigJoe, Cian, Stephen and Brendan
Huge thanks to Orla and Padraig for organising the weekend and for hosting us so generously. Big thanks too to our Conn and Cullin friends who boated us for the weekend.
As mentioned earlier Sunday was more for sight seeing. Below is a sample of what was on offer:
Nephin
Credit to Mark McAllister for sharing the photo of ‘symmetrical’ Lough Conn on Sunday.
Weather conditions are close to perfect, if a little chilly, for this May bank holiday’s annual weekender with the Lough Conn and Cullin Anglers. A score of eager DTAA members have been looking forward with great optimism to what for many of us is the best fishing and craic weekend of the year.
It didn’t go our way last year (you can read it about it here) so the Dublin side has been in training all Winter, tying flies, discussing tactics, renewing gear and day dreaming about Lough Conn.
As usual we are grateful to our generous hosts Padraig and Orla who really push the boat out (excuse the pun) to make us feel most welcome and to the Conn and Cullin anglers who guide us around the lake for the weekend, putting up with our lies and excuses and putting us over fish. We appreciate the effort they put in and we can only hope that our good humour and company can in some way reward their patience! DTAA International angler Dave Canning captains the Dubs this year. C’mon the Dubs!
Fished again this year at Bohernabreena rather than the traditional River Liffey venue, 15 DTAA members took part in the Anna Livia Cup
Plenty of stockies to be had as well as wild browns. Gary Coakley finished in top place with 2 fine fish for 5.24 Lbs, Gerry Heaslip came second and Alan Doherty in third place. Special weight prize went to James Doyle. Variable winds made fishing difficult at times, and there was little fly life till later in the day. Overall the fishing was good with two over 3Lbs.
This win puts Gary into joint 2nd place (with Eoin Dunne) on the overall leaderboard for Angler of the Year with two competitions down and five more to go. DTAA Secretary Cathal McDonnell has a nice 4 point lead at this stage but there are many more opportunities for other competitors to shorten the gap over the remainder of the season :
The Leinster Qualifier, also known as the Corcoran Cup was fished yesterday in bright sunshine and no wind on Lough Owel. DTAA member Brian Conway had an amazing fish in excess of 10 pounds and took top position (10.3 Lbs). Also qualifying were President Fran Nugent, John O’Neill, Willie Scully, Dave Canning and Secretary Cathal McDonnell.
Well done and congratulations to Brian, Fran, John, Willie, Dave and Cathal.
