ÀLAN LANDS LIFETIME TROUT TO WIN DONOVAN CUP ...
Last Sunday saw anglers take to the lake in the competition for the Donovan Cup which is the last one before the madness of the Mayfly season. There was twenty four boats taking part with everybody looking forward to a nice day on the lake but with the wind blowing from the north west there was a biting cold which kept everybody from getting too comfortable and it also meant that fish on the day were hard to come by except for one young man who caught the trout of a lifetime.
The weigh in and presentation of prizes was held that evening in Sean’s Bar where after the smaller fish were weighed the pike scales had to be used to get an accurate reading of the Lough Ree monster which was caught by Alan Mc Evilly with some assistance from his dad Paddy Mc Evilly. It seems that while Alan was playing the fish his father told him to hurry up and land that pike so they could get back to trout fishing but Alan kept his cool and landed the trout of a lifetime. Proud mother Avril also attended the presentation and informed us that the trout was actually heavier than Alan was when he was born, not too many of us can say that. Second place went to Tony and Declan Doolan when their trout weighed in almost six and a half pounds lighter and third place went to Richard and Liam O’Sullivan for their trout which was a further one pound two ounces lighter.
Our thanks to Paul and Timmy Donovan of Sean’s Bar for their very generous sponsorship and for the excellent hospitality on the night and the concoction used to fill the cup is without doubt the best ever with everybody making sure they toasted Alan’s success at least twice.

MAYFLY MADNESS ....
As you can see the Mayfly season gets under way next Sunday when the competition for the Lough Ree Inn cup will take place and as with all competitions during May this will be a Dapp or Fly competition only. Along with the three Sunday competitions there will be two other competitions as follows

ATHLONE ANGLERS ASSOCIATION CUP FOR HEAVIEST TROUT ON THE DAPP ....
This is the competition for the cup which is presented each year at the presentation night and starts from the first day of the dapp, which is next Sunday and finishes thirty days later. All members are automatically entered for this competition and no entry fee is required and fish caught on the Sunday competitions also qualify for this.

THE MONEY COMPETITION ....
This second competition runs for the same duration as the first one however the entry fee is €15 but all entry fees will be given back out in prizes in the following order. The winner will receive 50%, second place will receive 30% and third will receive 20%. Trout caught on Sundays will not be eligible for this competition regardless of whether the angler was participating in the Sunday competition or not and entry fees must be paid in advance of going fishing.
For the duration of the dapp the scales will be left in the Lough Ree Inn except on Sundays when the Captain of the Day will have them. We would encourage anglers where possible to use catch and release to help preserve trout stocks and regular texts will be sent with updates of the leading weights to help avoid needlessly brining in trout which would be out of the prizes

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 newspaper, on the Athlone.ie website and sent out to members by text message in the week prior to each competition.

• 10th May, Lough Ree Inn Cup, Trout Lough Ree,

• 17th May, Teddy Browne Memorial Cup, Trout Lough Ree,

• 24th May, Barra Flynn Memorial Cup, Trout Lough Ree.