NIFSA Two Dayer 2022.
Last weekend saw our annual two match comp which was scheduled 9-11 September with our headquarters based at the Waterfoot Hotel, L/Derry.
We considered cancelling it on news of Queen Elizabeth's death but the decision was taken to run it on a more slightly low key format due to the fact that we had a lot of visiting anglers who were already in N.I or on their way here.
First off, the Waterfoot Hotel was excellent with good grub and a nice little bar which we commandeered from the off and good craic was had from beginning to end. The bar staff were particularly good craic and very accommodating to our needs letting us do the check in inside the bar and prize giving at the outside seating.
In all we had fifty four anglers, which is slightly down on previous years with most citing the "cost of living crisis" as reason for non attendance. This is something that is likely to affect us all going forward in the next few months.
Nevertheless we had anglers from Northern Ireland, Ireland, Scotland, England and even Germany this year competing for the £1000 top prize.
Session One
Portsalon, sat morning.
Weather: Super hot and little wind.
Sea state: calm
Tide: fished 4hrs down and 1hr up
Species caught: dogfish, thornback Ray and flounder.
This venue has big walks to the pegs but generally anglers are rewarded with a good days sport for their efforts.
The fish however did not read the script this year with some anglers blanking in the baking Sept heat and some only registering single fish.
Zone A
1st Davey Dobbie 6 fish 338pts
2nd Tommy Tate 5 fish 267pts
3rd Joe Perry 5 fish 224pts
4th Billy Buckley 4 fish 220pts
5th Kevin Lewis 3 fish 185pts
6th Adam Johnson 3 fish 184pts
7th Gary Dolby 3 fish 166pts
8th Nicholas Mcneill 3 fish 165pts
Longest fish Zone A was a 70cm thornback ray for Kev Lewis.
Zone B
1st Kenny McCoy 8 fish 440pts
2nd/3rd/4th/5th were all tied on 2 dogfish for 110pts so the monies were split evenly between
Alan Mulchay
Lee Mullan
Karl McCullough
Andrew Logan
6th Gary McCurry 2 fish 100pts
7th Harry Sr 2 fish 81pts
8th Gav Owens 1 fish 67 pts
Longest fish Zone B was a 62cm thornback ray for Gav Owens.
Session Two
Zone A Longfields wall
Zone B River Roe estuary
Weather: started dull and a bit blustery but turned monsoon like for half the match
Tide: fished four down and one up
Species: flounder
After reports that longfield in particular hadn't been fishing well, hopes weren't high for the estuaries but on Sunday the fishing gods smiled on us with some nice bags of flatties recorded.
Zone A (longfield)
1st Neil Cutler 16 fish 450pts
2nd Diarmaid Adams 15 fish 441pts
3rd Joe Perry 14 fish 365pts
4th Steve Potts 13 fish 364pts
5th Graeme Ruddy 11 fish 296pts
6th Gav Owen 10 fish 292 pts
7th Alan Mulchay 10 fish 274pts
8th Paul Hill 10 fish 266pts
Longest fish Zone A Neil Cutler 36cm flounder.
Zone B (roe)
1st Harry Jr 19 fish 553pts
2nd Gareth Gardiner 16 fish 514pts
3rd Tommy Tate 16 fish 473pts
4th Kev Lewis 16 fish 470pts
5th Paddy Kerrigan 13 fish 369pts
6th Gav Owen 10 fish 292 pts
7th Drew Hendry 10 fish 290pts
8th Katriana 10 fish 287 pts
Longest fish Zone B was a 36cm flounder for Gareth Gardner.
Cash was paid for 1st to 5th place in all zones while tackle sponsored by Belfast Angling Centre/Mckees Angling was given to 6th /7th/8th place.
Longest fish prizes were cash and tackle again sponsored by the Mckees Angling Centre.
There was also three lucky peg prizes which were two reels and a rod.
OVERALL WINNER WITH 5 ZONE PTS WAS TOMMY TATE FROM ENGLAND WHO TOOK HOME A NICE FAT ENVELOPE CONTAINING ONE THOUSAND POUNDS.
WELL DONE TOMMY!
The team event was won by England A which consisted of
Gav Owens
Steve Potts
Joe Perry
Jordan Hunter
Nicky Robson
I'd like to thank everyone who attended, the sponsors and the rest of the commitee who made the event run as smoothly as we could make it under unfortunate circumstances.
I was a bit under the weather and the rest of the commitee done a great job in compiling scores, pegging beaches and all the other boring jobs nobody sees behind the scenes.
Barry Platt
Recorder.
