Success for World Cup Fishing competition

The winner of the World Cup Trout Fly Angling Championships was Thomas O’Loughlin from Corofin, Co Clare. He won 23,000 sponsored by the World Cup Committee and local sponsors and a 15HP Suzuki Engine, sponsored by Duffy’s, Headford, from left: Paul Duffy, Sponsor; Joe Cusack, President; Patrick Molloy, Winning Boatman, Oughterard; Thomas O’Loughlin, Winner; Ronan Cusack, Boat Managaer and Denis Kelleher, PRO.?Pic: Trish Forde

Ciara Galvin

OVER 450 anglers descended on Cushlough Bay on Lough Mask last week to battle for the World Cup Trout Fly Championship.
Clare man Thomas O’Loughlin beat off stiff competition from across Ireland and overseas to take home the cup and prizes in the sixty-third year of the competition.
For his efforts in catching an impressive 12 trout, the Corofin angler took home €3,000, a 15 horse power Suzuki engine, a Sage fly rod and a watch.
Other winners in this year’s competition included Jonathan Crevan from Roscommon who took second place with eight trout and local winners Adrian Gorman and Danny Joyce in fifth and sixth place respectively.
Speaking to The Mayo News about this year’s competition, PRO Denis Kelleher said it was an all round success with numbers at 464 this year and again a high contingent of entrants from Northern Ireland.
“The weather was good enough throughout the weekend with Monday being the best fishing day,” he said.
Kelleher explained that this year the organisers brought about a new feature of the competition, limiting the catch to three fish per angler.
“The winner Thomas caught 12 but only three were weighed, the rest were measured and thrown back,” said Mr Kelleher, adding that the introduction was a conservation measure.
Local man Richard Cameron had the best catch for any heat over the competition with six on Saturday.

Local economy
In terms of a boost to the local economy, Kelleher outlines that all guesthouses in the Ballinrobe area were full over the competition weekend, which was also the August Bank Holiday weekend.
“In addition to guesthouses being full, houses in the area keep anglers too. Westport Country Lodge say they do very well from the competition, also the McWilliam Park Hotel would do well,” said Kelleher, adding that Ballinrobe would benefit from having its own hotel.
“If we had a hotel ourselves it would be a huge benefit. The August Bank Holiday isn’t going to keep a hotel going all year but it would bring people,” he added.
Kelleher explained that due to the lack of a hotel in the area, families of anglers do not travel along with them for the weekend, and that if they did, the area would benefit from a ‘bigger spend’.
The organisers have already started to concentrate on next year’s competition and look towards ‘balancing the books and improving regulations’.
“That’s what keeps us ahead. We’re the only open competition still running,” said the PRO.
The competition is one of the longest running events that had its origins in the An Tóstal Festival that was launched to celebrate Irish life in 1953.
Castlebar anglers came up with the idea for the World Cup competition before anglers from Ballinrobe took it over in 1965.