NEWS FOR "NOVEMBER 2004"
FROM THE IRISH FEDERATION OF PIKE ANGLING CLUBS



INTERNATIONAL PIKE CHALLENGE

The annual Ireland versus Great Britain International challenge match took place on the second and third of October last. Gleesons townhouse in Roscommon Town was the base for the weekend. Anglers from Great Britain began arriving on the Tuesday prior to the event. Fifteen friends accompanied the British team. The River Suck was the chosen venue for the two days. We had some concerns about the venue in the weeks prior to the match due to the persistent rain but water levels had subsided sufficiently. Derrycahill Bridge was chosen for the two-rod pegged day and the one-rod roaming day in the Mount Talbot area, completed the event. Great Britain has beaten the Irish team two years running, so this years' team, captained by Brenton Sweeney from Cootehill had some ground to make up. Team member, Jimmy Thompson came up with an idea to give our team the edge. On the Saturday morning the Irish team emerged from Gleeson's to the sound of bagpipes and drum. The British team knew we meant business. The psychological battle was on. Apparently, shortly afterwards, some of the British team took a wrong road and got lost on the way to the river. Was it the bagpipes or the ordnance survey of Ireland? Thankfully though, all anglers commenced fishing at 11.00am.

The fishing on the first day was generally slow. It is always expected that the larger fish show on the pegged day and this proved to be the case again. A numbers of doubles where caught. John Chambers had an 18lb 11oz fish and Jimmy Thompson had a fifteen pounder. Frank Scott for Great Britain had a pike of 14lb 8oz. A total of 26 pike for 174lb 2oz where caught with the Irish team catching 15 of the pike for 106lb 6oz and notching up a lead of 38lb 10oz. A good start.

Day two was a busier day for the twenty stewards. A total of 63 pike were caught and again returned. The average size was notably smaller with the total weight being 260lb 9oz. Again, John Chambers and Jimmy Thompson managed to catch double figure pike with fish of 13lb 7oz and 12lb 12oz respectively. The British had 33 of the pike on day two but the average weight of their fish was below that of the Irish team. Great Britain had 117lb 12oz to Irelands' 142lb 13oz. Ireland had regained the challenge trophy by an overall margin of 63lb 11oz.

The presentation dinner was held in Gleeson's on the Sunday night. Mr. John Ryan, Assistant Fisheries Inspector with the Shannon Regional Fisheries Board attended the presentation. Brenton Sweeney accepted the well-earned trophy on behalf on the Irish team for a credible cumulative team performance. A commemorative plague was also given to the best overall angler of the two days. The plaque was in memory of Kevin Darcy, who was associated with the British squad for the last number of years and who was well regarded.

The overall results were as follows:
Great Britain, 44 fish for 185lb 5oz
Ireland, 45 fish for 249lb 3oz

The top five anglers were:
1st Jimmy Thompson, Ireland, 63lb 5oz
2nd John Chambers, Ireland, 49lb 5oz
3rd Steve Colegate, Great Britain, 46lb 10oz
4th Frank Scott, Great Britain, 43lb 11oz
5th Eugene Mc Cabe, Ireland, 27lb 1oz

MAVER ALL-IRELAND JUNIOR PIKE CHAMPIONSHIP

The "Maver" All-Ireland junior pike championship took place on Sunday 19th September on Coraneery Lake, near Cootehill, Co. Cavan. The Irish Federation of Pike Angling Clubs runs the championship annually. A total of 53 young anglers competed on the day of the final, catching and releasing 33 pike to 8lbs 4ozs in weather conditions that saw the lake being windswept. Prizes were presented by the Junior Competitions Officer of the Federation, Finbar Meehan, who put a huge amount of work into the event. The weigh in was held in the Bridge Bar in Canningstown where all juniors who took part received a plate of sausages and chips, compliments of proprietor Leo Mc Cabe.

The results of the final were as follows:
Under 13
1st. Peter Boyle(11) North Longford Angling Club 2 pike 14-03
2nd. Oisin Sweeney(10) Cootehill Angling Club 2 pike 8-04
3rd. Laura Markey(10) Inchicore Pike Anglers 2 pike 7-10
4th. Chloe Madden(11) North Longford Angling Club 1 pike 3-00

Under 18
1st. Ben Cusworth(15) North Longford Angling Club 4 pike 12-15
2nd. Philip Kavanagh(17) Inchicore Pike Anglers 5 pike 9-15
3rd. Darren Tierney(15) Rossmore Coarse Angling Club 5 pike 9-04
4th. Amanda Sheridan (15) North Longford Angling Club 3 pike 7-13

The Inter Club team results were as follows:
1st. North Longford AC 7 pike 20-12 Ben Cusworth, Amanda Sheridan, Niamh Boyle and Paul Mulligan
2nd. Inchicore and District AC 7 pike 17-09 Paul Kavanagh, Laura Markey and Shane Flanagan
3rd North Longford AC "B" 2 pike 14-03 Peter Boyle, Jason Sheridan, Anthony Curran and Shane Curran

The above anglers received Cups, Medallions and quality fishing tackle sponsored by "Maver International".


THE RIVER SHANNON WATERS - WORKING TOGETHER FOR THE FUTURE

A one-day conference, hosted by the Shannon Regional Fisheries Board, was held in the Castletroy Park Hotel, Limerick on Thursday 23rd September. The theme of the conference, Working Together for the Future, focused on the implementation of the Water Framework Directive in the Shannon River Basin District from the fish and habitat point of view. IFPAC Environment Officer, John Crudden attended the conference and John's report follows.

The Shannon River Basin District will be the largest in the country. It is one of the EU pilot projects and is classed as an international RBD because part is in Northern Ireland. 18 local authorities will be involved in the management plan with Limerick County Council being the lead authority. The RBD will be subdivided in smaller sub-divisions. 97 separate groundwater bodies, 1,700 rivers and lakes, 9 coastal water bodies and 13 transitional waters have been identified. By December 2005 all rivers and lakes will have been characterised and a pressures and impacts analysis carried out.

About 150 people attended the conference. A range of speakers from the Shannon RBD management group, Shannon Fisheries Board, Local Authorities, EPA, the Legal Unit of the EU Commission, Nature Conservancy in the US, Scottish Agriculture, the Danish Agriculture University, Anglers and Environment NGO's delivered a range of papers on the impacts on water and the fish habitat.

The Minister for the Marine, John Browne T.D. opened the conference and as he did in the last two such conferences held in the region re-iterated the Government's stance in relation to the derogation being sought under the Nitrates Directive.

The delegates heard of the improvements to the Shannon system since 1999. In excess of €80million had been spent on improving sewage treatment works in the Lough Derg, Lough Sheelin areas and on the Hind River. According to EPA figures the water quality in the rivers of the region had improved from 55% un-polluted in 1996 to 64% un-polluted in 2001. In the same period Lough Sheelin had improved its status from highly euthrophic to euthrophic. Of serious concern was the Zebra mussel and the as yet unknown consequence it will have on the habitat.

From the Fishery Board's perspective the decline of a number of fish species was serious. The Pollan is almost extinct, down to 5% of what it was, Char has disappeared entirely from the Shannon and the Croneen is now confined to the Camcor River. Eels are under pressure and the Smelt, which used to populate the estuary for two weeks during the spawning season, now appears for just the one day. Investigations by the Board in relation to declining coarse fish stocks in the midland region pointed to declining water quality as well as angling pressure. It proposed the introduction of new auditing measures to halt any further decline with co-operation from all users. Also proposed were buffer zones of 10-30 meters along all waterways as well as linear parks along waterways in urban areas. Water abstraction also came in for mention as an increasingly serious problem. The US perspective on this was that water abstracted from a particular source must be cleaned and put back where it was taken from.

Paddy Mackey of VOICE made a presentation on the contribution that NGO's can make to the implementation process. The proposals for inclusion in the Advisory Councils as set out in the DoE participation document might be interpreted as a token gesture to the NGO's. If the Department is serious about stakeholder participation then it must carry out a number of functions, (a) promote awareness, (b) involve the public from the beginning, (c) take ownership of decisions at local level and (d) resource organisations to help them participate.

Frank Corcoran from An Taisce outlined the role his organisation plays in the process. An Taisce is part of the European Environment Bureau, which has published a document on the implementation process. His organisation adopts a precautionary principle at all times, it is easier to prevent than to clean up a mess. It is a statutory consultee under the planning regulations. About 300 LA decisions are appealed annually (about 10% of the total) with 93% being upheld. They run the Blue Flag scheme and the Green Schools programme. Of interest is the fact that they propose that no driftnetting should take place inside 12-mile limit.

The Local Authority perspective was that because of the lack of resources they were continuously prioritising their work. The WFD was another imposition on an already overburdened workforce consequently more and more services tended to be pushed to one side.

The EU view of this was that it was not good enough that the WFD was another layer of work for LA's. National Governments must allocate adequate resources to implement it in a meaningful manner. It is the member state that is responsible for non-implementation not the LA. The national waterways must be looked at not just as a source of water; they have ecological, habitat and landscape values. The Skjern River Project in Denmark demonstrated this. They showed that by returning a river to its natural state they could increase the asset value by 50%.


CLUB INSURANCE

Clubs are reminded that IFPAC offers an opportunity for club's to obtain public and employers liability insurance cover and also a separate personal accident policy from our insurers, Royal and Sun Alliance. It is important that the officers of angling club's protect themselves by availing of these opportunities. For further details on club insurance, please contact Chairman, John Chambers on 086 6057306.


KINGSPAN NATIONAL PIKE CHAMPIONSHIP 2004-05

72 anglers turned up to fish the seventh qualifier, which was scheduled for the River Shannon, Shannonbridge, on the 10th of October last. However, due to high water levels the venue had to be changed to a six-mile stretch of the Royal Canal in Cloghan, Co. Offaly. A lot of anglers had been looking forward to the qualifier on the Shannon but the alternative did not disappoint. 68 pike where landed with the biggest being P.J Byrne's fish of 12lb 12oz.

The anglers who qualified for the final next April were:
1st William Farrell, Treaty Pike Anglers, 7 fish for 21lb 12oz
2nd P.J Byrne, Athy, 1 fish for 12lb 12oz
3rd Jimmy Farrell, Dublin Pike Anglers, 1 fish for 12lb 1oz
4th Godfrey Donoghue, Dublin Pike Anglers, 3 fish for 11lb 12oz
5th Derek Mohan, Doms Pike Anglers, 3 fish for 9lb 4oz

The results of the qualifier where tallied in the "Offaly Bar" in Cloghan. Management of the bar kindly provided sandwiches for the anglers and a bottle for the raffle. Our thanks are extended to the management and staff for their hospitality.

The results of the eighth qualifier scheduled for the 7th November on Camlough, Co. Armagh will be reported on, next month. The ninth qualifier will take place on the 5th of December on the Grand Canal, Monasterevin, Co. Kildare. For further details of the Kingspan National Pike Championship, contact John Chambers on 086 6057306 or Ibar Condron on 087 2488648.





November 2004

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