The Ockwell Cup Festival is a three-day event smack bang in the middle of the competitions and it has been won by Kevin Gray from Godalming with a terrific 101-950 kilos (225lb).

The UK plumbing contractor obviously got a good grip on the event and fishing the Pump House, Rooves Bay and the Farmyard sections, turned up a single best day catch of bream to 4lb with a total of 38-580 kilos (85lb).  He tackled all three stretches on the fish-filled lake with a crumb feeder and worms.

There were 30 anglers taking part and the average daily catch was 22 kilos (49lb) per man – and a terrific grand total of 1780 kilos (2920lb).

Result:  Kevin Gray (Godalming) 101-950 kilos; Trevor Lovell (Peterborough) 100.400 kilos; Charlie Hargreaves (Carrick-on-Shannon) 98-150 kilos; Paul McCaul (Limerick) 89-450 kilos.

Last week the five-day Gowna Festival enjoyed settled conditions – in fact they probably had too much sunshine – and the winner was Kevin Johnson, owner of the Messingham Sands Fishery, Lincolnshire, with a total of 75-860 kilos (170lb).

Kevin’s best single catch came from Gulladoo Lake where he pole fished at 13 metres to catch a mix of roach, hybrids and perch totalling 21-900 kilos (48lbs). With 102 anglers taking part, Kevin scooped £2000 in prize money and pools.

Nigel Houldsworth (Gowna) was second with 61-320 kilos and Neil Parkinson (Cambridge) third on 60-740 kilos.

The Arvagh Festival is underway and the King of Clubs starts next Monday, September 13.

(Pictured is Kevin Johnson when he won the 2010 King of Clubs)

Dave
We had a great week at Hawthorn Lodge in Belturbet. The digs were spot on, Pauline and Steve looked after us very well, certainly the best digs we have experienced in the last 20 years of trips to Ireland, the food and facilities were excellent.
We are sure to return next year. The weather was very warm and sunny all week, only seeing a couple of showers last week end.
The fishing was ok considering the blue skies, best weight was 55lb on Killykeen match length, with bream to 6lb, we tried Eonish on the first day, and prebaited for the next day, but weights were low, the winds making presentation difficult. Never easy when its your first trip to a new area, but we were well impressed with the volume of venues and ease of access in many spots.
Thank you for your advice, and look forward to booking via you next year.
Best regards
Pete

 Click here for more information on Hawthorn Lodge and angling around Belturbet

Click here to visit our Where-to-Fish page

It is 15 years since the Inniscarra Reservoir hit the angling headlines with huge bream and rudd – until the fish suddenly vanished about six years ago. 

But now they are back!   The problem is getting through the rafts of skimmer bream – an average size is 1lb – to find the bigger fish, along with rudd, roach, hybrids, plus the chance of an occasional carp or tench.

It’s 15 years since Kevin Gray first tackled the big Cork bream on the Inniscarra Lake system and he hasn’t missed a year since.  At this time of year he takes four weeks holiday (staying at O’Callaghan’s Bar) to ensure he covers all of the matches and gets plenty of pleasure fishing done.

Earlier this week we joined Kevin for two short feeder fishing sessions on the St John’s and the Pump House sections of Inniscarra and witnessed his bite-a-cast sessions.

But it isn’t all about match fishing.  This is a great spot for pleasure anglers on holiday who simply enjoy getting lots of bites and lively sport.

Please note that Active Irish Angling can provide inclusive angling holidays – even at short notice – to Coachford and the surrounding area using all ferry routes, including the Swansea-Cork overnight ferry service.

Call now on 0151 324 4744.

“John Stroud, Athlone, fishing in a party of three anglers reported great bream fishing on the meadows, during a night session. They fished from 18.00 to 06.00. The first bream was caught at about 20.30 which weighed 6lbs. This was followed by a number of fish around the 5lb mark. The biggest Bream of the night was a lovely clean 7lb fish. John bagged 107.8lbs. His fishing partners Michael Grehan had 59.4lbs and Adrian Powell had 42.10lbs, for a total bag of over 200lbs of bream between them”.

Click here and go direct to Where to Fish section

But money isn’t everything. The appeal for the new anglers seems to be the fact there is no pressure to pay anything more than the €80 entry fee and the majority of anglers don’t even bother with the optional sweepstake.

And on top of that, local fishing tackle dealer Terry Mann of Shannon Tackle Jamestown, throws €500 into the prize fund for the biggest fish caught on the last day!

“It works well”, explained the Terry, who moved from London 23 years ago to live and work on the banks of the River Shannon. “The main festival is decided on points and introducing a decent-size last day prize keeps everyone focused on the Friday match”

Not only that, but there are valuable daily tackle prizes for the biggest fish and reduced bait prices to encourage more people to take part.

The Carrick-on-Shannon Festival takes place on three local lakes and the River Shannon Mudflats between September 20-24 and the person to contact for more information is Charlotte Fearon on 00353 71 9620313. It has to be said that there is a guaranteed €5,000 prize fund and across its 30 year history, more money has been paid out than ever is received in entry fees.

The holiday base was the Angler’s Rest in Ballyconnell, County Cavan, with fishing on three different fish-filled waters where he his guests from the UK and Ireland caught bream, roach, hybrids and perch.

Organised by specialist angling holiday operator – Active Irish Angling – the party of anglers revelled in the attention given by Bob for seven hours each day, explaining the finer points of feeder and pole fishing, the two most productive methods for catching lots of fish in Ireland.

Bob never unpacked his own fishing tackle, instead he concentrated on his guests and on the final day spent on Lough Oughter at Killykeen Forest Park, the end point was reward enough as 11-year-old Callyn Murphy from Roscommon tipped more than 23lb of roach and skimmers back in to the lake.

The heaviest catch on the day was a little more than 50lb of bream, roach and hybrids, from John Errington who had travelled all of the way from Swindon.

Bob Nudd is one of Ireland’s biggest fans and says unshakably: “Without a doubt, Ireland has the most natural and best coarse silver-fish angling in Europe”.

And to prove the point, Bob travels back in Ireland in late August to compete in five weeks of festival match angling at Lough Ramor, Gowna, Arva, King of Clubs and the Monaghan Pairs.

More information from Dave Houghton on dave@activeirishbreaks.com

Click here to read the full story