Irish Specimen Fish Committee - Two new fish records in 2015
Press release, 8th January 2016
Two new fish records in 2015
The Irish Specimen Fish Committee has just ratified two new Irish record fish. Dublin angler Tom Lynch has broken the Irish Twaite Shad record while the new Smooth Hound record was broken by Garech Murphy.
Full details are in the Irish Specimen Fish Committee report 2015 which just been released and is available on the ISFC website www.irish-trophy-fish.com or from the Inland Fisheries Ireland website http://www.fisheriesireland.ie/
As well as the new record fish detailed information on almost 450 specimen fish (i.e. large fish) taken by anglers from venues throughout Ireland in 2015 are presented. Hard copies of the report will be available from 18/1/16 from Inland Fisheries Ireland offices nationally.
The new Records are –
Twaite Shad 1.64 kg from the River Barrow, St. Mullins on 15th May 2015 – Thomas Lynch
Smooth Hound 8.62 kg from Wicklow Bay on 24th May 2015 - Garech Murphy
The new report has details of 45 different species of specimen fish taken by anglers in 2015. 32 different species (including Blue Shark, Pollack, several species of ray, Gilthead Bream etc) were taken by sea anglers while freshwater anglers accounted for the remaining species. Particularly large numbers of specimen thick lipped mullet (16% of total ratified) and smooth hound (14%) were caught, weighed and released, and in freshwater, carp (10%) dominated specimen returns. Large numbers of the exotic mullet species, golden greys and thin-lipped, were also ratified.
Download a copy of the Irish Specimen Fish 2015 ‘Here‘
The ISFC Awards Day, when anglers will be presented with their awards and certificates, will be held on 20th Feb 2016 in Dublin (in conjunction with Irish Angling Show weekend). Meanwhile, anglers both at home and abroad will be reading the report carefully to plan their angling trips to catch the big fish in Ireland in 2016.
Ends…
For further information contact William Roche, ISFC Sec at 01-8842600
Issued by Irish Specimen Fish Committee, Inland Fisheries Ireland, 3044 Lake Drive, Citywest Business Campus, Dublin 24, D24 Y265.
Notes to Editors
Founded in 1955, the Irish Specimen Fish Committee, is an independent voluntary body, representative of angling interests in Ireland, whose principal function is to verify, record and publicise the capture of large (i.e. specimen) fish caught on rod and line by anglers in Ireland, both in freshwater and marine waters. The Committee also ratifies Irish record rod caught fish. The ISFC coordinates and administers the unique specimen awards scheme which is designed to recognize any angler who catches a specimen fish and to publicise the angling venue. Successful anglers are awarded a certificate and a commemorative badge. Specially commissioned silver medals are presented to captors of record fish and special awards are also made to captors of multiple specimen fish (on a cumulative basis). This report is a detailed listing of all particulars relating to specimen and record fish captures in Irish waters in 2015. Over 29,000 claims have been received by the ISFC over the past 60 years. This dataset is one of the most valuable and long-running time-series of its type.
ISFC is funded primarily by Inland Fisheries Ireland, some angling federations, individual anglers and its activities are also supported by representatives from the various agencies that serve on the Committee.
Irish Specimen Fish Committee Members 2015
Dr. Robert Rosell (AFBI), Chairman, Dr. William Roche, Secretary, Shane O’Reilly and Micheál Hennessy (Inland Fisheries Ireland), Alan McGurdy, Stewart McGrane (Game Angling), Dr. Edward Fahy, Dr. Patrick Boylan (Loughs Agency), Der Casey (Coarse Angling) and Brian Cooke (Sea Angling).
