Banagher Five-Day FestivalIRELAND’S River Shannon is alive with coarse fish but they were hard to catch in bright sunshine and a cold easterly downstream wind – as some of the UK’s top match anglers discovered in the Banagher Five-day festival.Linda Bell from Doncaster – a regular in the England Ladies team – got the 50-peg event off to a flying start with a 29-800 kilo (65lb 8oz) catch of roach and hybrids on the opening day.
From then on it was more of a struggle and the man who had the stomach – and skill – for the job was Widnes welder Ray Rigby (Ted Carter’s Southport), who won the tournament in 2006 and has previously been joint winner three times but lost out on weight. For the first three days, 59-year-old Ray stuck to feeder fishing, working with a plastic open-ended version carrying mostly crumb – three parts brown and one white – with a touch of molasses as an attractor, along with chopped worms and caster. His hookbait was three red maggots on a 14s hook. That approach produced mainly hybrids with a sprinkling of roach and skimmer bream and his score sheet read: D1 Meelick win 17-100kgs; D2 Sheebeen second 4-400kgs; D3 Salmon Run win 10-600kgs. Ray changed his approach when returning to the Salmon Run and changed to an 11 metre pole and netted another section win with a level 17kgs. The only other angler who could have possibly won by the time the whistle went for the final day was Helen Dagnall who by then had three section wins and a 4th place, but she got a duff draw in the end and slipped down to fourth place overall with seven points. This is when Steve Butler (Ted Carter’s Southport) stepped up to the line. Steve is a neighbour of Ray Rigby’s, lives in Widnes, fishes for the same match squad and was his partner in the ‘Pairs’ competition that was running alongside the main event. He had a section 3rd from day on, 2nd day two, joint first day three and 2nd on day four – and a decent draw for the final match and all important decided in this close finale. 28 year old Steve caught 16-400 of hybrids and roach at Meelick for a grandstand finish and help his partner to snaffle the ‘Pairs’ with a combined total of 111.700 kilos.
Liverpool’s Paul McCarthy was consistent but lost out on weight and then England ladies international Helen Dagnall turned it into a north-west showdown finishing fourth. Results Ray Rigby (Ted Carter’s Southport) 5pts Daily winners D1 Linda Bell (Doncaster) 29-800 Pairs Ray Rigby & Steve Butler 111-700 kilos |
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