Hardy & Greys - Alnwick, England

Woodford Fly Fishery Report November 2011

November was a quite a busy month for competitions at Woodford Fly Fishery. First up we hosted a fund raiser competition in aid of the TAFI Northern Ireland Commonwealth Fly Fishing Team, to help with the costs of travelling to Tasmania to compete in the Commonwealth Fly Fishing Championships in February 2012. This is the first year that a team from Northern Ireland has taken part in the Championships. A total of thirteen anglers made the day and rose over £600, including a kind donation from Lee Beverland of Otterburn Trout Farm. Top rod on the day was Huw Morris with 5 fish for 205cm; Huw received a Greys GS2 fly rod which had been kindly donated by Greys Fly Fishing, Alnwick. Dundalk angler David McCabe was 2nd and received a Hardy Fleece donated by Campbell Baird, team captain.

Next up we had the Ulster Stillwater Bank Fly Fishing Championships. This would be the third year of the Championships and it is growing in popularity. This year had nineteen anglers competing to make the 6 man Ulster team. The fish where feeding very high in the water making the top tactic on the day size 16 dry flies! The crown of Ulster Champion went to Darren Haggan with 8 fish for 6760 points, in 2nd place was Brian Kerr with 7 fish for 5980 points, 3rd Campbell Baird with 5 fish 4720 points, 4th Stephen Allison with 5 fish 4520 points, 5th Gareth Morris with 4 fish 3740, 6th Gary Crothers with 4 fish 3620 points, reserve Harry McAteer jr. The team will compete in the Inter Provincial in Leinster for the chance to make the TAFI Ireland Team to compete in next years Four Nations International hosted by Wales.

To end the month we held Round 2 of the Woodford Greys Winter League. Twenty-eight anglers from across Ireland turned out to battle with the windy freezing conditions, with the changeable weather over the past week the fishing had turned a bit hard, meaning that the competitors had to work for their fish and a dropped fish would turn out to be very costly indeed. Most of the competitors started off on floating lines but within 30 minutes they had nearly all had changed to intermediate or fast sinking lines to try and find the feeding fish. As the day progressed the wind eased a bit and a few fish started to be caught but nobody was running away with it and by the final whistle no one had bagged up with their five fish limit but none of the competitors threw the towel in and gave up everyone of them fished to the whistle! Top tactic for this round was a black lure fished slowly on an intermediate line. Best bag on the day was three fish and only five anglers out of the 28 didn't catch including round ones winner. Five anglers had three fish with the best going to last years Champion Brian Kerr, 2nd Eamon McGoldrick, 3rd Lenny Magee, 4th John Kellegher, and 5th Joe Hughes.

Winter League Table Top 5;
1st Brian Kerr, 8 fish 327cm
2nd Joe Hughes, 8 fish 301cm
3rd John Kellegher, 8 fish 285cm
4th Ciaran Mellon, 7 fish 298cm
5th Lenny Magee, 7 fish 275cm