#Angling - Screaming Reels celebrated its fourth win in a row at the Rosslare Small Boats Festival recently where it also set a new contest record.
In the best competition seen in many years, the boat from Rosie’s Sea Angling Club in Cork raised the bar with 32 different species of fish caught, beating 35 other boats from Britain and Ireland.
Sponsored by Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI), Fáilte Ireland, DAIWA Sports UK, Lowrance and Sea Angler Magazine, the sea angling event – now in its 29th year – attracted more than 110 anglers from the Isle of Wight, Southport, Liverpool, Cornwall, Wales, Scotland and Ireland.
For the first time in many years, persistent high pressure over Ireland meant that competitors were blessed with sunshine and very light winds resulting in flat calm seas.
This gave them a great chance as they could launch their boats from Kilmore Quay every day, enabling them to target all species.
There were seven new boats to the competition from Wales, Cornwall and Scotland which marked a significant increase especially during challenging economic times.
And the competition was fierce, with boats recording up to 18 species on the first day and 16 on the days thereafter.
With Mediterranean-like weather conditions continuing all week and a very tight leaderboard, the finale was an exciting one, with 41 different types of fish species recorded.
The overall results demonstrated this, with first place going once again to Screaming Reels – Martyn Rayner, Seirt Shults and Neville Murphy – with 32 species for 26.1kg. They were followed closely in second place by Sea Witch (Rob Shefford, G Prothergoe and Paul O’Connor) from Penally in Wales with 29 species for 15.6kg. In third place was Nirvana (Richie Stead and Keith Pemberton) from the Wirral Boat Angling Club with 28 species for 18.35kg.
Of the 41 species, a number of streaked gurnard were caught, making it a new species for the competition. Other unusual fish caught were tadpole fish, black goby, black bream and painted ray.
The huge variety of species caught demonstrates the quality of the fishing in Wexford and indeed the very high standard of the competitors.
There were five specimen fish caught during the week (four in the competition). A specimen red mullet, close to the Irish record, was caught by Phil Dawson on board the Liverpool boat Seeker, which won him specimen of the week.
Other specimen fish included a Ballan wrasse of 2.3kg caught by David Jones from Wales, a black bream of 1kg caught by Eddie Butler from Kilkenny and a cuckoo wrasse of 0.56kg by Bert Williams from the Wirral in England. A pollack weighing 5.5kg was caught by Gavin Parker. All specimen fish are pending verification by the Irish Specimen Fish Committee.
The heaviest round fish was a conger eel of 8.65kg caught by Keith Gray from Liverpool on board the boat Seeker, and he was also awarded a perpetual trophy sponsored by IFI for the biggest fish caught of the week.
The heaviest flat fish was a turbot of 0.7kg caught by Richie Stead from Nirvana. James Cherry (16) from Dunshaughlin in Co Meath, aboard the Irish boat Fin Chaser, won the best juvenile of the competition with 18 species for 18.2kg.
Redmond’s The Bay in Rosslare Strand hosted the prize-giving ceremony which was a great success with outstanding hospitality. Other sponsors included Wigeon’s Rest Tackle Shop in Rosslare Strand, Shamrock Tackle and the Kilmore Quay Harbour office.
The total prize fund for the competition was €12,000 including fishing equipment and substantial monetary prizes and engraved trophies.
The prizes were presented by IFI director Brian Beckett, who congratulated all competitors and thanked them for visiting Wexford, for the invaluable contribution to the Irish economy that they make which is estimated to be in the region of €100,000.
In addition, over €1,000 was raised for the Oncology Unit at Wexford General Hospital and a presentation was made to them on behalf of the festival.
Next year’s event will take place from the 5-12 September 2015, and IFI is inviting all small boat anglers to take part.
