www.irish-trophy-fish.com . The Irish Specimen Fish Committee (ISFC) produce this booklet every year and its a veritable who’s who of the top catches in sea, coarse and game angling in Ireland. The awards are in special categories with 10 for species, 60 for specimens, a number of other special awards and for visitors to Ireland, the Best International Specimen Fish Award. The ISFC was founded in 1955 and is an independent voluntary body. Successful anglers are awarded certificates and commemorative badges. Over 25,000 claims have been made in the past 55 years. This year’s awards were held in the Red Cow Moran’s Hotel in Dublin on Saturday 26th February. The booklet also provides important information about weighing fish and tagging photographs, and how to claim an awards. Basically, an award can be had by catching a fish at a specimen weight set by the committee, which is not is top weight, but a weight that represents a significant catch. The ISFC also sets out all the rules an angler has to abide to qualify for Specimen, Special or Best awards. To identify a species, an anglers has to submit photos and scales, a head and gills, just scales, a body, a head photo showing mouth and eyes etc depending on the species. ISFC Chairman Trevor Champ said, “Irish angling continues to prosper. This is reflected in the number of specimen claims ratified (607) and new records establishd in 2010. Angling is a natural resource of immense importance for tourism revenue generation and the increasing numbers of specimens reported from Red Bay in recent years is evidenc efro the potential for further growth in this sector in this industry throughout Ireland.” Some County Down anglers who featured in the awards were delighted with their catches. Donaghadee’s David McCormick received a Special Species Award category (engraved bronze medal) for his performances in 2006 ( ballan wrasse, cuckoo wrasse, lesser spotted dogfgish, pollack, spur dogfish: 2007 red gurnard, tope, three-bearded rockling, and 2010, blackmouth dogfish. david also collected a Gold Badge for achieving 50 Specimenn Awards from 2006. David Murdoch from Bangor also received a Silver Pin fro 10 Specimen Awards. Nick Parry, well known TV angling pundit and specimen hunter picked up a specimen bream in Lough Ree (10.69 lbs) using corn and maggot. And Terry Jackson from Kircubbin, well known angling writer, landed a record dace of 1lb 2oz (specimen weight was 0.66 lbs). He also had a specimen river pike at 24.5 lbs. (The record is 42 lbs). Jackson again had another specimen for roach/bream hybrid at 4.5lbs in Blackies Lough caught on maggots, and also landed a superb specimen flounder at 4.91 lbs (the specimen weight is 1.1 lbs) at Ballyteigue Bay on crab/lugworm. An increasingly popular coarse species, tench, also produced a few specimens with Nick Parry again topping a t 7.25 lbs (Record weight is 8.15 lbs) and a few were landed at Ballyhoe Lake. On the 18th May James McPugh landed a 32 lbs salmon to earn his medal (Record weight is 57 lbs). Lough Corrib and the Cong River produced the most specimen brown trout and Lough Currane ran away with the honours as the best sea trout venue for specimens (2.72lbs) mostly all on the fly. There is a growing sea bass fishery around the Down coast albeit small, but it does not compare to the mighty bass fishing off the South of Ireland coast which produced specimens of 4.54 lbs on mackerel strip, sandeel, lures, and crab. It was Christopher Heading who landed a 12.38lbs pollack off St John’s Point on the 13th July on a leadhead/twister proving that Red Bay may be a brilliant venue but specimens and records may be univesral. There is a large amount of information in the report for the serious angler with a few quality photographs. Log in to get your copy now: www.irish-trophy-fish.com]]>
News In Brief
- Advertisement -
