State agencies and local businesses come to rescue at Rosslare Small Boats Festival

Press release 18th September 2012

For the third time in the last four years an Irish Boat has won the Rosslare Small Boats festival. In what was an extremely tight competition, ‘Screaming Reels’ from Rosie’s sea angling club in Cork won the competition with 24 different species of fish, beating 28 other boats from the UK.

Sponsored by Inland Fisheries Ireland and Failte Ireland and Sea Angler magazine, the event, now in its 27th year attracted more than 85 anglers from the Isle of Wight, Southport, Liverpool, Wales and Ireland. This year’s event faced some challenges most notably that prior to the competition going ahead the accommodation company Self Catering Ireland went bust in July meaning the anglers had no accommodation. Inland Fisheries Ireland and Failte Ireland came to the rescue by sponsoring the prizes to the tune of €3,000 as the original prizegiving money had to be used to refinance the accommodation for the anglers.

This generosity was replicated by local business’s who realised the importance and the value of this competition to Wexford and many prizes were received. These included donations from Sea Angler magazine, Sefton Sea Anglers, Wirral Boat Angling Club in Liverpool, Kelly’s Resort Hotel and Spa, Redmond’s The Bay, Grangewood Holiday Homes, Grangecove Holiday Homes, Southside Angling, Kilmore Quay Harbour office and Widgeon’s Rest.

The weather conditions proved to be very challenging for the competition with south westerly winds making boat fishing very difficult. However as the week wore on, conditions improved slightly and competitors managed to fish the normally four day competition in three days by launching their boats once from Kilrane in Rosslare and twice from Kilmore Quay and fishing restricted areas along the Wexford coast. The fishing was very good with 30 different species recorded.

Phil Hallsworth (UK organizer), Seirt Shultz, Orla Woods (Failte Ireland), Martyn Rayner, Neville Murphy (all from the team Screaming Reels), Suzanne Campion, Director, IFI

The competition was exciting from start to finish due to the close results each day despite the changeable weather conditions. The overall results demonstrated this with first place going to ‘Screaming Reels’ (Martyn Rayner, Seirt Shults, Neville Murphy) with 24 species for 23.12kilos. They were followed closely in second place by ‘Uptide Girl’ (Gordon Thornes, Mike Roberts and John Williams from Wallasey in the UK) with 22 species for 25.15 kilos. In third place was ‘Nirvana’ (Richie Stead and Keith Pemberton from the Wirral Boat angling club in Liverpool) with 20 species for 13.78 kilos.

A great variety of fish were recorded during the week with 30 different types of species including coalfish, dogfish, dab, flounder, pollack, bull huss and some unusual species such as sea scorpion, shanny and tadpole fish. There were some fantastic specimen fish caught during the week including a Triggerfish of 2.32kilos caught by well known UK angler and writer Gordon Thornes from the boat ‘Uptide Girl’, which is very close to the Irish record of 2.54 kilos. There were two other specimens recorded, one a fine Ballan Wrasse of 3.16kilos caught by Neville Murphy from Cork and a specimen smoothound of 3.78 kilos caught by Seirt Shults from Dundalk. Both of these are from the winning boat ‘Screaming Reels’. (All specimen fish have to be verified by the Irish Specimen Fish Committee).

The heaviest round fish was a conger of 8.18kgs caught by Leslie Trish of ‘Seeker V’ from Liverpool and he was also awarded a perpetual trophy sponsored by Inland Fisheries Ireland for the biggest fish caught. The heaviest flat fish was a plaice of 0.80kilos caught by John Meaning from ‘Joe 90’ from the Isle of Wight. Lewis Radcliffe aged 15 from Wigan won best junior of the competition and he fished with his Dad Simon and Grandad on the boat ‘Cod n Bass’ which came 5th with 19 species for 13.04 kilos.

‘Redmond’s The Bay’ in Rosslare Strand hosted the prizegiving ceremony for the second year running which was a great success, the hospitality of John Redmond and his staff were outstanding. Prizes were awarded in a variety of categories including the best specimen, heaviest flat fish, heaviest round fish, winners from each day as well as the overall winners. The prizes were presented by Suzanne Campion, Director of Business Development, Inland Fisheries Ireland and Orla Woods, Projects Officer Destination Development, Failte Ireland.

Suzanne Campion, said ‘I thank you for coming to Ireland to fish this fantastic competition. The festival is very important not only to promote the great sea fishing we have on the East Coast, and in particular, the variety of species available but also the investment it brings to the local businesses in the area each year. I would like to congratulate all competitors for their participation in this competition and for sticking with the difficult weather conditions and challenges you faced this year. Thanks to Josie Mahon and Des Chew from Inland Fisheries Ireland for their help. I would like to extend my sincere appreciation to Phil Hallsworth who has organised this festival for the last 12 years for his hard work, commitment and dedication to the festival and who is now retiring from it - Good luck Phil and keep fishing in Ireland’.

Next year’s event will take place from the 14th – 21st September 2013. Inland Fisheries Ireland would like to invite all small boat anglers to take part. Further information is available from Ms. Josie Mahon, Inland Fisheries Ireland, Tel: 01 278 7022 or email: josie.mahon@fisheriesireland.ie

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Media enquiries

Josie Mahon,
Inland Fisheries Ireland,
15A Main Street, Blackrock, Co. Dublin
Tel: 01 278 7022 / 087 6538202 email: josie.mahon@fisheriesireland.ie

Notes to Editor

Inland Fisheries Ireland is a statutory body operating under the aegis of the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources and was established under the Fisheries Act on 1st July 2010. Its principal function is the protection and conservation of the inland fisheries resource. IFI will promote, support, facilitate and advise the Minister on the conservation, protection, management, development and improvement of inland fisheries, including sea angling and develop and advise the Minister on policy and national strategies relating to inland fisheries and sea angling.