This is Ireland’s angling festival and once again it produced a great list of result despite some of the highest water levels recorded in Cavan and Leitrim.
But there were plenty of fish to be caught and Kevin, owner of Messingham Sands Fishery in Lincolnshire, was the angler who took full advantage to finish with an 83-280 kilo (185lb) total across the five days. And his success was rewarded by the sponsorship of Tourism Ireland and Irish Ferries with the guaranteed £3,000 winner’s cheque and another £1,000 from the optional pools.
“I’m on cloud nine”, said the 53 year old as packed his tackle away after a nerve wracking last day session on Corfree Shore, Lough Gowna.
Kevin gained the overall lead on the third day when he put together 27-560 kilos (61lb) from what he called the “pick of the pegs” by drawing number seven on Eonish Shore – a noted peg used regularly by pleasure anglers for bream fishing.
“It was easy enough fishing because the fish were there”, he explained. “I started by dropping eight large feeders full of groundbait but then spent 30 minutes on the pole catching a few small fish.
“At the end I had 44 skimmer bream on the feeder and 32 of them came on 30 casts in the middle of the match on a combination of worm, caster and red maggot. There were also 25 roach in the net”
On day one he fished on Upper Gulladoo Lake and caught 12-100 kilos, made up of 169 fish (mainly roach) on a 13 metre pole with caster and chopped worm. Day two he drew Leonard’s Farm and got a cracking 21-840 kilos of roach and hybrids while feeding six pints of caster on his pole line.
Thursday was day four of the festival and this time he plucked a poor peg and ended up on Glasshouse Lake scratching about and eventually caught 109 roach and perch on the waggler with worm and caster. At the weigh-in he had mustered 8-180 kilos but which allowed the pack to close up behind him; turning Friday of the 2009 King of Clubs more-or-less into a one-day sweepstake!
Behind Kevin was a batch of anglers who started the final day with hopes of getting those few extra fish to overtake Johnson’s fragile four kilo lead.
On paper, peg C16 at Corfree Shore was a handy draw and had been used in three weeks of consecutive festival fishing with some fair results, But as well all know, a combination of match nerves can lead to ‘a bit of over fishing’, the sudden appearance of a cool breeze didn’t help his confidence and basically Kevin was chopping and changing between pole and feeder to squeeze every ounce from his swim.
The catch rate was so fragmented that he couldn’t gauge his weight and simply plodded on doing his best. The loss of a two kilo bream at the net and a broken hook in the last 20 minutes would have wiped out most competitors but this man kept his head down and was delighted to be credited with 13-600 kilos by the scalesman.
That meant he had finished with 83-280 kilos.
Realistically the main challenge was Kevin Rowles (Devizes) on Gulladoo Lake who needed 4.65 kilos to catch the leader and the before packing his gear away, Johnson was on the telephone to him, asking what he had caught.
The reply was 14-250 kilos and that put Rowles on 79-280 and four kilos behind the new champion.
Result:
1 Kevin Johnson Messingham 83-280
2 Kevin Rowles Devizes 79-280
3 John Whincup Fox Match Van den Eynde 74-320
4 Lee Klimczuk Van den Eynde Bait Tech 72-660
5 Baz Smith Enniskillen 65-420
6 Dave Brettle Doncaster 64-730
King of Clubs ‘Roll of Honour’ for the past 25 years
Peter Hodge
Alan Larkin
Stan Piecha
Dickie Carr
Peter Clapperton
Dennis White
Mark Downes
Bob Nudd
Colin Gowers
Denis Knight
Adrian Broomhead
Steve Carrier
Damien Bracken
C Evans
Steve Canty
Neil Parkinson
Dave Swain
Dave Swain
Neil Parkinson
Mike Barlow
Mark Theedom
Ian Fieldhouse
John Jowett
Simon Willsmore
Kevin Johnson
The 2009 King of Clubs champion Kevin Johnson is pictured centre
being presented with his trophy by Martin Donnelly of Failte Ireland
and Ann Pye from Irish Ferries.
