DTAA AGM 2026

DTAA AGM 2026 took place on Friday 30th January at the Spa Hotel. DTAA President Fran Nugent led the proceedings with support from Honorary Secretary Cathal McDonnell and Honorary Treasurer Declan McKibben

Declan gave an overview of the new DTAA booking system for our boats which hopefully make it easier for some folks to browse boat availability and to submit a booking requst online. The new system is available on the DTAA website: https://dtaa.ie/boat-calendar/

Competition Secretary Tom Hipwell announced the winners of the various competitions throughout the year, and indeed the Angler of the Year, Cathal McDonnell, while Fran presented the trophies and awards. Gerry Heaslip was awarded a special presentation of a framed photograph by Fran, showing Gerry catching the first fish in the new DTAA boat, in recognition of his outstanding performance across the 2025 angling season. Gerry was unable to attend the AGM this year and so his award was received by Alan Doherty who ensured us that he will deliver it to Gerry over the weekend.

Winners 2026:

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Dave Ring Cup: awarded to the member scoring the most aggregate points in Association fly-fishing competitions. This year with 46 Points; Angler of the year: Cathal McDonnell

Pasker Cup: PJ O’Driscoll

Anna Livia Trophy: Cathal McDonnell

LM Byrne Cup: Donal Rafftery

Ian Rowand trophy: Donal Monahan

Elvery Cup: Hubert Smith

Ryder Cup: Cathal McDonnell

McCarron Cup: Dermot Flynn

Below we have a gallery of the award recipients:

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A busy day for DTAA anglers last weekend!

DTAA Treasurer Declan McKibben, President Fran Nugent, Membership Secretary Alan Doherty and Chairman Gary Coakley were taking part in the Inter provincial Competition on Lough Lein in Killarney Saturday 27th September while the main core of DTAA competition anglers were fighting it out on Owel in the McCarron Cup. The 4 committee members were representing Leinster. It was a tough days fishing, with many blanks but Declan managed to get two keepers which placed him 16th overall out of the four provinces and 2nd sub for the Irish team in next years International. Well done Dec!

In addition, Willie Scully and Gerry Heaslip were busy winning the Chairman’s Cup on Lough Lene on Sunday 28th. Very tough conditions, flat calm for 2 hours and no fish being picked up. Willie and Gerry won with Gerry getting a great fish of 4lb and 10oz. Very well done Gerry and Willie, here pictured receiving their trophy.

McCarron Cup 2025: Dermot does it again!

Saturday 27th September saw the last DTAA competition of the year and most anglers favourite, the McCarron Cup.

In a repeat of his victory last year, Dermot Flynn has scooped the top prize with a stunning victory last Saturday on Owel. In addition, he weighed in the heaviest fish!


Conditions were perfect for fishing and 22 anglers set out with hopes high. Lots of small fish were caught with most anglers seeing some action.

It was Dermot Flynn, however, that did it again with a lovely fish of 4.56 lbs caught in the first 20 mins. That also confers the honour of heaviest fish of the season to Dermot. He then had a nice 2.5 lb fish just before lunch.

Tom Hipwell was 2nd and Chris meadows was 3rd.

PJ’s Pike
Dermot Flynn in 1st Place
Lovely trout Dermot
Not sure who brought these lucky mascots but if it was Tom Hipwell… they worked!
Lunch at the graveyard

Great craic was had at lunch time with a prearranged meeting of most of the boats at 1:30 in the graveyard. This is something we’ll definitely do again!

Great excitement also in Chris and PJ boat with PJ hooking and landing a 20lb pike on 6lb leader !!

And what a year for our secretary Cathal McDonnell who cemented angler of the year and also fished his first Irish Cap in lakes Menteith recently. Congratulations Cathal!

Full results:

and the Leaderboard for the year with all competitions concluded:


The meal was held as usual in the Greville Arms where we well looked after. The prize giving went well with lots of great prizes handed out. Thanks to Dave McBride of Southside Angling for subsidising the prizes as usual.

Also a huge thanks to Kilbride angler and Brendan Murray for the use of their boats on the day and all year.

Some pictures of the great night in the Greville Arms:

Lough Mask Report

DTAA angler Mark McAllister was fishing on Mask last week and had a red letter day fishing the deeps. Fishing the Deeps (4.45-7.30pm) at a secret location, Mark had seven in the net, five keepers, and he lost two more. The Soldier Palmer accounted for 3, #10 Peter Ross had 2 , #12 colourful squirrel tail Mayfly and his Daphne wet fly took one fish each.
It was a remarkable few hours, all blind fishing in 20m plus depth. Thanks to Mark for the report and for sharing the images below:

Ryder Cup 2025 Report

The 2025 Ryder cup took place as usual at Bohernabreena Reservoir last Saturday. Conditions were nice, with a southerly wind making casting tricky on the car park side of the lower reservoir, but quite comfortable at other locations. As it happened the winning fish was caught by Cathal McDonnell at this location, a modest rainbow of just over 1.5 Lbs, which beat Fran Nugent’s bag of three wild brownies. Just nine anglers turned out on the day, of which five weighed in fish. Cathal was well ahead of Dave Canning in second place with his fish of 1.525 Lbs to Dave’s two fish totalling 1.09 Lbs, and then Fran in third place with, as mentioned above, three fish for 1.075 Lbs.

Anglers were evenly split between the car park (western) shore of the lower reservoir and the far side, with Fran and Dave set up at the mouth of the river to the south. This proved productive with free rising wild brownies resulting in two each for those anglers. Having bagged up on the lower lake, they headed to the upper lake where Fran got his third fish.

Dave’s wild brownie
The competitors
Cathal in 1st
Dave in 2nd
Fran in 3rd
Anticipating the weigh in
Optimism

Full results below:

and the leaderboard as it stands:

Thanks as usual to Tom and the team for organising the competition. We are looking forward to the next and final outing of the Season on the 27th at Lough Owel followed by dinner afterwards in the Greville Arms. This is typically one of the most popular DTAA competitions of the year so be sure to notify Tom if you are able to make it.

Family Fishing Day 2025

DTAA members and friends enjoyed a day out last Sunday 24th August at Laois Angling Centre.

14 youngsters turned out on the day with most either catching or hooking a fish, using fly fishing as well as bait fishing techniques.

The team at Laois Angling had recently stocked the lakes and so there were fish showing here and there, with both fly and bait equally successful.

Thanks to Laois Angling for hosting us and making every effort to ensure that our participants had a chance of a fish. Being the last weekend before school starts meant that it was quite busy which was great to see, so much interest in angling, with several family groups present, and people of all ages taking part and enjoying this excellent pastime.

Some pictures from the day in the gallery below.

Robyn carefully approaches her trout
Delight
The McDonnell brothers were in the prizes
Delighted with the rainbow trout
Nice backcast
Expert coaching from Cathal
Playing a fish like a pro!
Prize giving
Sam’s utter joy at his prize

and more delightful pictures here:

Jack and Sam
Sam carefully fishing while Jack offers advice
Cool dudes!
Excitement for Sam and his dad Eoin (his sister Kate also caught a fish)
“Rainbow” Sam landing one of his 3 fish!
Sam reeling in the rainbow
It’s all hands on deck with this fish!
Cian with a great Rainbow

Thanks to Declan, Fran, Cathal for organising and helping out and to Evie for volunteering on the day and in advance preparing the lunches and prizes. Big thanks to John Harrington for coming along on the day to lend his support, advice and wisdom to the budding anglers. Thanks also to Mary Harkin in Rory’s who was very generous with her support for the prizes.

Finally, thanks to Inland Fisheries Ireland for their support for this event.

DTAA Juvenile Outing Sunday 24th August

DTAA Family/Juvenile fishing outing Sunday next 24th August at Laois Angling Centre from 11am. DTAA members or friends are welcome to join us. Please notify Declan in advance if you will be bringing a youngster (dublintrout (at) gmail.com)

Great fun was had last year, see the link below:


Thanks to Inland Fisheries Ireland for their support for this event, and to Mary in Rory’s in Temple Bar for support around the prizes.

DTAA Family Fun Day 2024

DTAA do well at the Leinster qualifiers

11 DTAA anglers took part in the ITFFA Leinster Qualifiers on Lough Lene yesterday Saturday 16th August. 5 members made the cut and are through to the National Final to take palce next year on Lough Conn, a lake that many DTAA members will be very familiar with and for which they hold great affection.

Gerry Heaslip had an outstanding day with 3 fish, earning him top spot and trophy, presented below by Brendan Murray.

The other DTAA qualified anglers are Declan McKibben, Fran Nugent, Brian Conway, and Alan Doherty:

Conditions were great: it turned out to be not as sunny as forecasted, and there was a light to moderate wind which produced a nice wave, meaning that many anglers switched to wetfly methods as the competition progressed (thanks to Mark McAllister for sharing these pictures below)

Despite the good conditions, however, fish were hard got and only 23 anglers caught fish that measured. This was similar to how many anglers reported their fishing on Lene in the previous week, with Friday being flat calm and nothing working, and Wednesday being a little better with the off fish being seen and hooked.

Thanks to Brendan, Denis, Martin and all the ITTFA Leinster team for organising the qualifier, and looking forward to the final next year on Conn.