A.G.M. Reports

Leinster Coarse Fishing Federation

Provincial Council to the National Coarse Fishing Federation of Ireland

Chairman Mr. Ambrose Devlin , Hon-Secretary Mr. Fergus Crowe, Hon-Treasurer Mr. Brian O'Donoghue


My Fellow Anglers,

First and Foremost, let me on behalf of Leinster extend our "Deepest Sympathy" to Mrs Martin Carolan and Family, on their recent great loss".
I find it hard to believe that a full year has gone since our last National A.G.M.. A lot of things have gone on in the fishing world in the last year.
We had the Salmon Anglers winning their fight over the "Drift Netting".
We had a new law passed by our beloved Government allowing the taking and slaughter of our coarse fish nation wide.
We had reports in Newspapers referring to our plight about the taking and slaughter of our Bream, Tench, Roach, Eel, the list goes on, which fell on deaf ears.
Time and space prevents me from going on, so just let's say it has been a good year for some and not so good for others.

But let me be very blunt and very clear about one thing.
The Leinster Federation will never

support the taking and killing of any Coarse Fish . We have always looked for

a "TOTAL" ban on this slaughter and we always will

On behalf of all Coarse Anglers in Leinster, I wish to "Thank" each and every member of staff from "Waterways Ireland" for the wonderful work that they are doing. Only for "Waterways Ireland" we would by now have a very low stock of Coarse Fish. This is why Anglers across the country have been calling for the introduction of a "TOTAL BAN". A "TOTAL BAN" would go a long way to help our stock.
We as Anglers must help "Waterways Ireland" in whatever way we can.

Congratulations to Connaught on winning the Interprovincial Championships August 2006. Mr. Brian Me Gourty and crew did a wonderful job in organising the event. Leinster looks forward once again, to going into battle come September. I send out a warning to the other Provinces that Leinster are on home ground this year, so watch this space. This year ( 2007 ) the Championships will go back to the normal date 22 nd / 23 rd September. The venue as yet to be decided, but as always (in Leinster) the championships will be fished on either the Royal or Grand Canals.

Congratulations must go to the (late) Mr. Martin Carolan and the Drogheda Coarse Angling Club for the way in which they ran the Junior Canal Championships. I send my best wishes with future events.

Congratulations once again to our National Chairman Mr. Egan, who keep the flag flying at the Swords Show. As always I was proud to be at his side in promoting our National Federation. I would also like to Thank Mr. Ron Durkin for his contribution at Swords. I would not be carrying out the duties of the Leinster Chair, if I did not mention one man. I watched this man in awe, the way in which he sold the National Federation was something that should be taken onboard by National Committee members. He could actuality sell sand to the Arabs. I am talking about Mr. Mark Egan (our Chairman's son). I will have no hesitation in proposing this man as National P.R.O. at this years A.G.M.
I will finish by "Thanking" our Chairman Mr. Egan and his Committee for the work that was carried out over the year. I will say just one thing, if you decide to go on the National Committee this year, please give it 100%. A lot of "National" work has been left to Mr. Egan (and Family) to carry out. This is not fair, you join the Federation to help each other to keep the National Federation alive. So please think before you accept a post on the National Committee. Doing a good job on the National means we the club Angler can be proud of our National Committee and we should help out from time to time in whatever way we can.

Tight Lines for 2007/8.
Ambrose Devlin,
Leinster Chairman.
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MUNSTER COARSE ANGLING COUNCIL

Report for NCFFI Annual General Meeting

This has again been another good year for Munster Coarse Angling, and it helped that the Clubs became more involved in the running of the Council. We had a couple meeting during the year where we able to discuss problems and prepared issue's we wanted addressed at the NCFFI AGM, our selectors were also able announce the selection of the Interprovincial Team rather that just approaching or making phone calls to anglers.

The league again went well with less matches so it didn't go on into the summer and in 2007 it will be over by the end of April. Again Fermoy were the winner of the League so well done.

1 st. Fermoy CAA67 pts. 115-12-5

2 nd Munster CA 79 pts. 113-8-0

3 rd. Waterford CAC 87.5 pts. 101-14-0

4 th. South Munster CAC 91 pts. 74-11-0

5 th. Templemore CA 107 pts. 50-0-5

6 th. Mallow C A 116 pts.

Tommy Lawton was individual winner of the league; from five matches he had 4 section wins and a 2nd in section.
River Bank was the hosts, for the Munster Confined Junior and senior competition, venue Knocknanaig Reservoir.
We would like to thank the Club for running the event; the competition was spoilt with a bad storm the night before the junior event, but it had calmed by morning so the event went ahead, but with extra water pouring into the lake it seemed to have put off the fish. We would like to thank all the Clubs who provided the fishing gear for the juniors event. The winner of the junior event was Cian Powell so well done. On Sunday the senior event was held and the fish still were not having a go, and the winner of the event was Trevor Fradgley, Mallow, and again well done.

Munster finished 2 nd at the Interprovincials again this year, but the sections were only lost by a fish in most cases which made for a good match fishing, the only problem with this match was the time of year, and a lot of people were on holidays which left us without a lot of our first choice anglers, I believe the dates will be back to September in 07 and that the match will be held on a Canal in Leinster. Again well done to the lads who travelled.
Connacht got their 3 in a row wins in 2006 so we congratulate them.

The proposed dates and venues for the League 2007 are as follows;

14 th, January, Knocknanaig Reservoir. „
1 st. February, River Blackwater, Mallow.
4 th. March, River Shannon, O'Briens Bridge.
25 th. March, Grand Canal, Tullamore.
2 nd . April, Ballyshunnock Lake, Waterford.

Munster Officers 2007;
 Chairman/Treasurer. Kevin Leahy.
Hon. Secretary. Tommy Lawton.
Match Co-Coordinator. Sean Barr.
Youth Officer. Martin Keating.

 

Tommy Lawton .
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Four events of international team

European Championships
Celtic Cup
Home International
World Championships

European Championships

The European Championship was held on the river Vilaine in France. The venue was full of skimmers, bream, mullet and lots of catfish. Methods were in the main waggler and Bolo. But in some pegs where it was possible to reach with the pole it played a big part.

We were very confident going into the first day believing that our heavy feeding would attract the larger bream in the venue. Although this did seem to work for us we still ended 9 th overall after the first day which we were very disappointed with. Bad draws in a couple of sections did the damage. The second day saw us approach the venue in a similar way and a slightly better draw saw us finish 4 th on the day and sixth overall. We were only a few points of a bronze medal.

Celtic Cup

The Celtic Cup was the 2 nd match with Wales unable to attend. It was a 2 headed affair between Scotland and us. We fished at Eonish lodge in Co. Cavan where we expected the fishing to be difficult at that time of the year but in the end it proved to be quite good. Scotland ran out overall winners for the two days.

Six Nations (Home International)

Again this was fished on Eonish in August. France & Belgium failed to show which was a disappointment but they definitely missed out on what was one of the best six nations there has been since its conception. (Feeling of the other teams)

We believed this was going to be a good venue to us and with this in mind picked a very strong team for-the venue. I believe that the English were taking no chances on this match by taking there big guns with them in the form of Alan Scothorn, Stu Conroy and Will Raisan

The weather for the practise was flat calm and bright sunshine which was net good for catching the roach that abound in Eonish. We formulated a plan that allowed us to catch roach and hybrids in these conditions. We did fancy our chances to win. But typical of this great country of ours come Saturday morning the weather changed to proper Irish weather with strong winds. The methods of feeding changed, which saw us slip to third on the day. A change of feeding saw us pull back and come second to England on Sunday. A great deal of thanks has to go to Cavan tourism, Anglers rest pub and Irish bait services for the facilities that they provided and the great help that they gave me during this event.

World Championships

The world championship was held in Portugal on a relatively new venue where stocking offish was required. Unfortunately there was not nearly enough fish stocked. The majority of there fish were mullet with some Borg, sunfish and black bass. Early in the week the fish were not very cooperative and in fact I would be inclined to say the feeding was scaring the fish away. As the week went on we found that the fish could be caught over a light bed of ground bait and learn, topped up regularly with balls of joker and learn allowing the mullet in to forage over this feed.

We ended up 12* after the first day but believed we could improve on the second day. Unfortunately we slipped to 14 th overall over the two days which was disappointing for the team and not what they have become used to.

I have many debts of thanks to pay. Maver UK, Sensas France & Irish Bait Services for all there support. Cavan tourisim, for there support on the Six nations. Michael Fitzpatrick, Dave Egan for the financial support that they organised with the help of the Anglers Council of Ireland But my biggest thanks would have to go to the anglers themselves that have participated in last years events, for there great loyalty, commitment, and professionalism while representing there country. Also not to forget the people that came to help and make the life of the anglers easy. Namely Dave Slater and Fintan Lawler this year and runners Mark Davis, Dave Hill, and Roger Baker and to any other people that I have forgotten to mention. Finally to the NCFFI for there continued support and confidence in me. Hopefully this year we can come home with the metal that I think we deserve.
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