Woodford Festive Competition 07

Woodford Fly Fishery, Carrickfergus held its annual Festive fly fishing competition on Saturday 29th December, with a full turn-out of 30 anglers, travelling from Belfast, Lisburn, Dollingstown and as far away as Maynooth Co.Kildare, and a strong support of local anglers.
Fishing conditions for Saturday where some of the worst experienced in a competition at Woodford with a strong westerly wind and heavy rain showers, but this did not dampen the competitor’s enthusiasm.
Within seconds the 10am start the 1st fish of the competition was being netted by Belfast angler Geordie Hall, caught on intermediate line and black lure, closely followed by Lenny Magee from Lisburn fishing nymphs on an intermediate line. Local angler Ross Hill caught 3 fish on his first peg and caught 2 more in quick succession on his second peg, making him the 1st competitor to bag up, all caught on intermediate line and lures.
In the 3rd hour the wind strengthened and moved to a northwesterly, sending a few of the anglers to the fishing lodge for a bit of shelter and a mug of tea. The competitors that stayed at their pegs where mostly rewarded with a fish or two.
The usual lunch break at 1 o’clock could not come soon enough for the competitors, to receive a bowl of (the now famous) mothers home made stew and freshly made sandwiches.
After lunch the wind eased and made the afternoons weather a lot more comfortable for the competitors, which in-turn made the fishing that bit easier and anglers where starting to bag up all over the lake.
Maynooth angler Rodger Fowler used small flies and nymphs on a floating line to catch his five fish, finishing within minutes of the restart. The loudest cheer of the day came when local angler Peter McMurtry bagged up, as Peter has only been fly-fishing for over a year.
With the wind dropping some of the anglers changed from intermediate lines with lures to floating lines with nymphs and blobs fished under a sight indicator, one of which was Belfast angler Paul Browning, who used this method to catch the couple of fish he needed to finish.
At the weigh in 15 anglers had caught their 5 fish bag limit, giving the organiser a bit of adding up to do which gave the competitors time to have a drink and chat about how the day went, most popular method of the day was to fish an intermediate line with either Cats Whiskers or Minkie lures using a slow figure 8 retrieve.
Top 3 places all went to local anglers for the 1st time in 2007, with Harry Lindsay taking top spot and £150 with 5 fish weighing 11Lb 14oz, 2nd place was Harry Moffett (£100)with 5 fish for 11Lb 0oz, and 3rd was Campbell Baird (£50)with 5 fish weighing 10lb9oz.
The other anglers to catch their 5 bag fish where, Rodger Fowler (Maynooth) 10lb3oz, Ross Hill 10lb2oz, Uel McClure 10lb1oz, Dougie Dunlop 10lb0oz, Peter McMurtry 9lb15oz, Harry Dunn 9lb13oz, Paul Browning (Belfast) 9lb10oz, George Hall (Belfast) 9lb9oz, Ray McKeyman 9lb4oz, Stephen Allison 8lb10oz, Gordon Dowds (Lisburn) 8lb4oz and Lenny Magee (Lisburn) 8lb0oz.