Melvin Magic
The Four Nations Spring International was fished on Lough Melvin out of Garrison on the 10thof June 2022.
But that’s not where the story starts.
Over the Covid years up to the 10th of June 2022, many members of the team, local anglers, the Garrison Club, our Captain Darren Maguire, his Dad Sean Maguire, and Team Fly Tier Jackie Mahon were all testing fly’s and putting a plan together for the final day whenever we could fish it. The time and work put in was outstanding to say the least. Every bit of information they could lay their hands on was sourced tied and out to use.
Leading up to the match itself the wind was terrible, but fish were caught. In flat calms nymphs and dry’s were used. A picture was forming. Many of the team traveling huge distances to practice for a day and returning home, boats were always available to use and nothing was amiss.
The week of the match the winds howled, believe it or not the team were looking for lighter conditions, as we had found that the Sonaghan fed better in these conditions, we also had a back up plan of fishing the shores for the Elusive Gillaroo and Brown trout if we had to leave the Sonaghan drifts.
The morning of the match everyone was in high spirits, but we all knew that with the high winds it would be a tight match and so it was, with the Sonaghan not playing ball, as the pods had been found in practice and had been pressured throughout the week.
At 6pm on the 10th of June the teams started to count their fish. As it was a catch and release competition. It was touch and go who had won as rumours went around the car park.
Eventually after the teams lined up the Irish team had caught 36, Scotland 31, Wales 21, and England 18. But it was all down to the overall lengths, not weights for the teams. The teams gathered as the at the bottom of the steps to await the News, surely Ireland would not be denied a Gold.
As Ireland were declared winners the whole of Garrison erupted, the sheer joy and relief was to be seen on all the Irish Teams faces, when I say Team, I mean all 60 odd of our team. There were so many people involved in the build up and during match week it was just crazy, the place went crazy.
Ireland had won at home, Gold Medals. As Darren Maguire was Captain, he dove off the Garrison pier as is customary for the winning Captain
Ireland - 36 fish - 1761 points
Scotland – 31 fish – 1526 points
Wales – 21 fish – 1029 points
England – 18 fish – 882 points
Best Basket- Denis Goulding – Ireland - 7 fish – 332 points
Largest Trout - Toby Bracey – Scotland – 33.4cms
There are so many people to thank.
Firstly, on behalf of the ITFFA I would like to thank the Garrison Lough Melvin Anglers Association led by Chairman Terry McGovern, who is also the President of the I.T.F.F.A.. and their extremely hard-working committee and Boat Manager James Doherty who worked tirelessly all week to ensure everyone got out safe and more importantly returned safely. To the lovely ladies Rosemary and Caroline, who supplied tea coffee and scones every morning, thank you.
To our Manager Michael Monaghan and Michael Callaghan who kept us all on our toes and left no stone unturned in arranging the event in conjunction with the IFFA committee. Thank you.
On behalf of the ITFFA I would also like to thank Ian Campbell and his wife Eleanor for all their hard as always. Thank you.
To Stanley McKeon our International President . thank you.
To Jackie Mahon our team fly tier, boated during the day, sharing his knowledge, and tying at night. I don’t know how you did it Jackie. Without you the victory would not have been ours.
Tony Sullivan who also supplied flies, thank you
Sean Maguire of Melvin Tackle who collected information and shared valuable knowledge with the team and produced secret Maguire flies thank you.
Southside Angling who continues to sponsor all the ITFFA teams, thank you.
Our main Spring Team Sponsor, Patsy Tracey of Tracey Concrete ltd for his sponsorship of the Spring Team, it was a huge help to costs for the members. Thank you.
We would also like to thank the below sponsors
Monaghan Freight Ltd
Jennings Fuel and Lubricant Ltd
Avrio Environmental Management Ltd
Precast Moulds and Engineering’s
C Elliot and Sons Transport
Mc Cafferey Concrete products Ltd
A special thank you must go to all the boatmen who gave their time to safely bring us all out on the lake and more importantly brought us home. Thank you.
As you can see it takes a lot of people to pull off such a result and only for them none of this would happen.
Lastly, I would like to wish the Autumn International Captain Patrick Ward all the best as they travel to Wales to represent Ireland in September
Its been over three weeks since the match and it has given me time to look back on what we actually achieved as a team. By a team i mean ever one that help us out months before the match, match week and on the day itself..
There are far too many to mention but i would like to give a major shout out to Jackie Mahon . Jackie gave up his time to bring team members out before the match, practice week he boated during the day and tied at night. During the pratice week i never had to take my vice out and that is a first for me. It meantcki we were not as stressed or as tired as normal. Jackie ties professionally and i would recommend him 1000 percent. Thank you for all your work Jackie.
The team worked together through all the weeks of practice and i was very proud to be part of the team. Match day was stormy but despite the my boat partner Keith Renton from Scotland made a plan and that was to fish for Gillaroo on the shores. Gary Crothers our boatman was happy and expertly guided us along the shores and Islands. I want to thank them both for a great day, as it was a very enjoyable day in great company.
I moved fish most of the day, loosing more than i would want but i was happy enough coming in with 4 Gillaroo 2 sonaghan and a brown, all measured recorded and released back into the lake. Keith ended up with 3 loosing a few also. Big gusty winds made it next to impossible so coming in with 10 to the boat was great.
Rumours at the weigh in was that Ireland had it, and i won the bowl. To be honest was only thinking about the team performance as we had worked so hard but conditions left us with not as many fish as we hoped. i only wanted the team to win at home as we did in the last home match on Mask.
As it turned out i won a few trophys on the day and my third shiney medal was mine. Truthfully it has only sunk in now that i won the Brown Bowl and every now and again when i think of it and smile. Its a dream of every competition angler,( well it was mine) to lay their hands on this trophy and i want to dedicate my win to My Family, Andrea my fishing widow, how she puts up with me i dont know ,to my son Patrik and my daughter Lilianna.. Also to my parents Margaret and sean, my bothers and sister that have put up with my fishing madness since i was able stand in a river. And of course my fishing friends, you know who you are. Thank you all.
I will try and update the blog a lot more , but as you can tell i have been busy, after the senior Four Nations i was lucky enough to be involved in the Youths Four Nations and i will do a blog on that soon.
Till then tight lines and take care
Latest comments
19.05 | 05:47
Hi Denis
Good meeting last night, and enjoyed reading your blog. Felt I was on the lake with you. Great work
02.05 | 20:42
Hi Dennis loved the article straight to the point .just wondered will the trout feed on the small buzzers all year ?
06.04 | 11:57
Cant wait to read this
01.03 | 03:03
glad u enjoy, ty, will be back when the fishing returns
AND SO IT BEGINS.
After fishing from the bank all winter long, I was looking forward to getting back in the boat. Normally I would wait for the first hatch of the year and travel down to the west of Ireland or not go at all until the Duckfly appears in the midlands. But after not fishing for 3 weeks I was starting to loose the plot. So with limited time I opted for Lough Owel and maybe chance to see the first hatch of the year, which is a small buzzer about half the size of the Duckfly which hatches just before the Duckfly itself. The weather looked good enough in the days before my trip, but as always the weather turned. A South wind but 19 to 24km which isn’t really what I was hoping for.
Arriving early at Lough Owel I was greeted with a bare pin ripple on the lee shoreline and a balmy 10c, but as I fitted the boat out I could feel the breeze building. Two 10ft ever reliable 7 weight RS Wychwood Competition rods were both adorned with floating lines, a straight buzzer set up on one and a bung on the other.
As I travelled down the lake it was lovely to hear the hum of my 15hp Johnson, I checked every bay and reed bed but more in hope, for any sign of buzzer. The wind was picking up all the time and after an hour or so I resigned myself to defeat and out came the di3. Fishing at this time of year in my opinion is normally shallow for hoglouse and snail feeders, whilst drifting in 10 to 20 ft of water you would be after fry feeders on the drop off with di5s and di7s depending on the wind.
The greater the wind the heavier the sinking line. At this stage I had travelled as far as the cornfield and I drifted off the shelf in nice conditions pulling dabblers and fry patterns. A three fly 16ft cast of 8lb strong leader, 6ft to first fly and then 5ft between with flys .
Just coming off the shelf I got my first fish, a lovely marked but thin overwintered Triploid Brown of about 2lb. Working up the shoreline to the neck I got two more on Black Dabblers and a big white Hummungous.
Stomach pumping the fish is a must when fishing in my opinion, you don’t need to go mad emptying the fishes stomach, a brief pump will tell you what the fish are on. In this case snail and hoglouse were high on the menu.
HE WHO DARES WINS....
I worked along the lee shorelines as it was getting very blustery picking up a fish here and there. I changed flys a few times, but it seemed whatever I put on the top dropper the fish took. The top dropper is the first fly the fish sees as you pull it by him, typical early season fishing. All fish were in the 1.5lb to 2.5lb bracket. Its been years since I fished Owel on a regular basis, so this year I have decided to fish it a lot more and re-learn the lake. With this in mind, I kept moving, instead of repeating drifts.
About lunch time I decided to head to deep water and see if I could contact some of the larger trout Lough Owel has know become known for.
I put up the di-5, but after one drift I felt I was not staying in contact with the line or getting deep enough due to the wind. So the dreaded di-7 was taken out of the box and the cobwebs blown off it. It took me 5 or so minutes to get the feel for the line as I hadn’t fished it from a boat in what seemed like an age.
But sure enough 10 minutes later after a count to 35, followed by a long slow retrieve the first marker went through the rod rings and I hung the flys, I thought I got slight knock, I waited and waited, nothing, continuing my long slow retrieve I barely got three more long pulls before the rod hooped over and the tip of the rod buried into the lake as line peeled off the floor then off the reel. Playing a fish alone out in the middle of the lake on a blustery day will certainly get your heart thumping. Anything and everything can go wrong , so that’s why I keep a tidy boat( stop laughing) when fishing alone. Regaining half the line onto the reel, I began to drag the fish from the depths. At times it just hung beneath the boat and there was nothing I could do. The wind was pushing the boat along too quickly.
Eventually the fish came to the surface and at over 4lb I was gobsmacked and puzzled at its strength. Lying on its side one second, then it vanished, the penny dropped, I had two on. Now it got messy, eventually I guided the first one into the net, unhooked it, then netted the fish on the tail fly with the first fish in the net. The tail fish was about 3.5lb and the fish on the top dropper was over 4lb, they certainly stretch the di7. Both released back to their watery homes, after a little rest in my net.
I fished all the way back to the moorings, catching an odd fish and I had another double hook up of newly introduced fish but it was pleasant. Just as I packed up the redundant Bung Rod, a fish rose in front of me. As a wise man once said “never pass up a willing fish”. Out with the di- 3 and 3 casts later the line went tight, fish number 13 was landed. Enough was enough and in I went.
Lough Owel was kind to me on a not so kind day. It was great to be back out on the lake and I hope to be back out again next week, hopefully there will be Duckfly !!!. But knowing my luck , the wind will be howling and the rain will be coming down sideways.
But as Anglers we Live in Hope.