Photo:  Keith Dowling and Philip Keogh accept the Fallon Memorial Cup from Geraldine Fallon watched by Joe, Darren, Paul, Gordon and David Fallon after the Athlone Anglers Association competition on Lough Ree - photo courtesy of Athlone Anglers Association. 

The Fallon Memorial Cup always attracts a large turnout and last Sunday, 1st April, was no exception and thirty boats took to the waters of Lough Ree crammed to the gunnels with eager anglers. Anyone looking out their window that day would have said that it was a beautiful day but the biting cold wind from the northeast meant that everyone stayed wrapped up with more layers than an onion.
However the thirty boats was soon reduced to twenty nine when Jimmy O’Rourke and Jimmy Flanagan suffered from an overheating engine due to a blocked impellor and had to be towed back to Athlone by the Cunningham brothers. A lesson to us all, make sure your engine is in perfect working order before heading out on to the lake as the last thing anyone needs is to break down particularly if the lake is rough.
Philip Keogh and Keith Dowling suffered no such problem and had a fantastic day’s fishing at their favourite secret location catching Pike and Trout and even Perch and when the scales came down that night in Walsh’s Bar they topped the leader board with a fantastic trout which none of the other anglers came close to matching. They now have two points on the Angler of Year leader board and are staking an early claim to this year’s crown. Michael Sheriff and James Kearney did their best to retain the cup which they had won last year, which was their second time to win it in the five years that it has been running, however on this occasion their efforts were only good enough to claim second place. Third place went to a delighted Eddie O’ Donovan who only missed out on second place by just over an ounce but was over two ounces ahead of Barney Kelly and James Greene who claimed fourth spot. One of the Fallon family themselves managed to claim fifth place when Owen Murphy and Rickie Fallon weighed in a lovely trout and eagerly accepted fifth prize from father Paul.
Sincere thanks to the Fallon Family for their generous and consistent sponsorship of this fantastic competition and to Walsh’s Bar on Connaught Street for their excellent hospitality on the night at the weigh in and presentation of prizes. Thanks also to Paul Fallon and Angela Sloane who between them carried out the Captain of the Day duties.

NEXT COMPETITION....
As next Sunday is Easter Sunday their will be no competition in order to give everyone a chance to crack open their Easter eggs and for those, including myself, who were off the drink for Lent a chance to enjoy a pint or two. The following Sunday, April 15th, will see the resumption of competitions when the competition for the Angler’s Rest Cup will take place. This is a trout competition will take place on Lough Ree with a 10.30am start at Gallagher’s Boat Shed and will finish with lines up at 6pm.

FOR YOUR DIARY...
The following is the schedule of competitions that it is proposed to hold over the next few weeks. Please note this list may change due to unforeseen circumstances, however the details of each competition will be published in the local newspaper, on the posters, the Athlone.ie website and sent out to members by text message in the week prior to each competition.

• April 8th – Easter Sunday, no competition.

• April 15th – Anglers Rest Cup, Trout, Home and Away.

• April 22nd – Poyntonia Cup, Pike. April 29th – Tipperary Water Cup, Pike.

• May 6th – Bank Holiday, no competition.