WATERWAYS IRELAND CLASSIC FISHING FESTIVAL - DAY 1

Although the sun shone brightly, a chilly wind blew over Lough Erne today as the 309 fishermen and one lady angler battled it out on the first day of the 2005 Waterways Ireland Classic Fishing Festival. Ideal conditions for a coarse fishing competition would be warm, dull and damp, so the weather today was not kind to the organisers of the festival and this was reflected in the catches, which were well down on last year.

While the weather conditions were far from ideal for a fishing competition, there were some reasonable catches, especially from the lower Lough Erne sections of Rossahilly and Ely Lodge.

Regular English visitor, Rod Scott from Northwich, who along with his father Mal forms one of several father and son teams fishing the Classic, landed 33kg 370gms from peg 7 at Ely Forest to earn himself the first day winner's cheque for £500, followed closely by English visitors Matthew Hall from Nottingham in second place and Raymond Thompson from Macclesfield in third, whose catches on the Rossahilly section earned them £350 and £250 respectively.

Top local angler was Phil McCaffrey from Lisbellaw, whose 23kg 240gms from the Rossahilly section was enough to put him into fourth place overall going into the second day of the Waterways Ireland Classic on Wednesday.

The organisers are hoping that the warmer weather predicted for the rest of the week will encourage the fish to bite and that the 30th Classic Fishing Festival will be one to remember for the anglers, many of whom have been coming to fish in Fermanagh for twenty years or more.

Organised by Fermanagh District Council, the festival is sponsored for the third year by Waterways Ireland, the North/South implementation body responsible for the management, maintenance, development and restoration of the inland navigable waterways system.

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Further information from:

Ms Aoife Morrissy, Marketing and Communications, Waterways Ireland, 00 353 71 9650787 or 00 353 87 9918412 or
Martin Dennany, Director of Marketing and Communications, Waterways Ireland, 00 44 28 66346203.

Date: 10.05.2005
PR050012