European Police Fishing Championships, Ireland 2019
Club secretary Donncha Maguire reports on the Inland Fisheries Ireland European Police Fishing Championships held between Sunday August 26th and Saturday 31st August 2019.
Lough Muckno, Castleblaney, Co Monaghan was the venue for the competition. A decision to hold the Championships in Ireland during 2019 was made by the governing body of the EPFC at a meeting held in Holland in 2018 and members of An Garda Coarse Angling Club were involved in the planning & preparations for the event from September 2018.
The championships, which take place annually, attract anglers from all across Europe. This years event was attended by teams representing 21 Police forces from, Ireland, England, Scotland, PSNI, Holland, Germany, Hungary and Belgium. The organising committee recognised that the staging of an International fishing championships presented a unique opportunity to promote Irish angling tourism and fishery development with a cohort of anglers from across Europe. At the same time, the championships would provide a valuable stream of income to local hoteliers & providers of services in Castleblaney, Carrickmacross & surrounding areas.
Advance bookings for the event indicated that in excess of 100 anglers (in teams of 5) would attend the championships from across Europe. Preparations for the championships necessitated collaboration with Monaghan County Council, Concra Wood Golf Course, Inland Fisheries Ireland, Coilte, the National Coarse Fishing Federation of Ireland and members from the Cavan Monaghan Garda Division.
After a protracted process of organisation & planning, the event was held at Lough Muckno during the last week in August 2019. A total of 105 anglers from across Europe took part together with team managers, friends & followers attended the event. Feedback from all anglers taking part in the championships was overwhelmingly positive with many of the participants indicating their interest in return visits.
During the championships, staff from I.F.I., were present throughout the venue and assisted in the organisation of the championships. In particular staff from I.F.I. were involved in issues to do with:
• Supervision of bio security measures & dipping of nets & boots
• Issues to do with bye law enforcement
• Fishery protection issues
• Weigh in oversight (providing an honest broker witness to weigh in process)
Stewards attended the event from the N.C.F.F.I. who assisted I.F.I. staff marshal the event.
Competition was rife throughout the week as many teams sought to stop the fancied home team win three European Titles in a row. The Garda National Team were in second position at the end of day 1 with 32 points some 5 points behind the German team and similarly 5 points ahead of the English Team. Day 2 posed to be a difficult day with the host team drawing some unfancied pegs resulting in a number of poor results which permitted England to overtake Ireland for second place.
Following calculations and deliberations, the announcement of the results were made that evening at a Gala dinner at Treacy’s Hotel, Carrickmacross. Significant prizes were presented by a number of guests including 4 times World Champion Bob Nudd and George Kendrick from Browning who travelled from Germany to the event. In addition to luggage, rods and seatboxes Browning provided their flagship Sphere pole as first prize.
The following is a summary of the National & Regional team and individual competition results:
National Team’s Competition
1st Place – Germany with a weight of 68.77 Kg and a total of 51.5 points
2nd Place – England with a weight of 66.94 Kg and a total of 58.5 points
3rd Place – Ireland with a weight of 48.49 Kg and a total of 80 points.
Regional Team’s Competition
1st Place – Germany Region 1 with a weight of 60.28 Kg and a total of 60 points
2nd Place – U.K. West Midlands with a weight of 50.29 Kg and a total of 77 points
3rd Place – U.K. Leicestershire with a weight of 56.61 Kg and a total of 80 points.
Pole Competition, Day 1:
1st Place – P. Arnold (National Team Germany) with a weight of 10.77 Kg.
2nd Place – J. Rayen (National Team Belgium) with a weight of 9.70 Kg.
3rd Place – D. Maguire (National Team Ireland) with a weight of 8.800kg
Feeder Competition, Day 2:
1st Place – M. Murdock (U.K. South West Region) with a weight of 12.10 Kg.
2nd place – D. Stockton ( National Team England) with a weight of 11.96 Kg.
3rd place – G. Garnham (National Team England) with a weight of 11.64 Kg.
Overall Individual Competition, (Over 2 days)
1st Place –H. Seifert (National Team Germany) with a weight of 17.70 Kg and a total of 3 points
2nd Place – P. Arnold(Germany Region 1) with a weight of 15.77 Kg and a total of 4 points
3rd Place – S. Burdeken (U. K. South West) a weight of 18.47 Kg and a total of 5 points.
The Garda Siochana Coarse Angling Club would like to thank the following for their continued support;
Support for the event was also received from:
• Inland Fisheries Ireland
• Monaghan County Council
• Browning Fishing Tackle (Tackle sponsors)
• Champion Feed Groundbait Belgium (suppliers of groundbait for the event)
• St Paul’s Garda Credit Union
• N.C.F.F.I. (Fishing organisation supplying advice & support & also match stewards)
• Lough Muckno Match Group
2020 brings new challenges with an increased entry of Eastern European Nations to the European Championships being held on the Silo Kanal near Brandenberg, Germany and preparations have commenced to ensure that the event remains a success.
For all images visit the gallery here
