Castlepollard teen angling for UK success

Castlepollard teenager Conor Mooney is representing Ireland at an International Fly Fishing Competition.

Travelling as part of the Irish Trout Fly Fishing Association Youth International Team (ITFFA), Conor is off to Warwickshire’s Draycote Water, to compete on Wednesday August 1. Conor is one of 15 selected young people, 14 boys and one girl.

“The qualifiers for the team were held last year on Lough Lene. Since being selected I have travelled throughout Ireland including outings to Straid Fishery in Ballyclare, Antrim, and Carrigavantry in Waterford and Loughmacrory in Tyrone for training weekends with the team,” Conor told the Westmeath Examiner.

Conor is representing the Lough Bane Angling Association and has received support and mentorship from this group as well as the White Lake Angling Club and Mullingar-based fishing shops Wild and O’Malley’s.

“I first starting fishing at the age of four on the White Lake and I was hooked,” said Conor, no pun intended. “I just loved it. Over the years a lot of people have given me guidance and advice. I go fishing with my dad Paul and there is nothing I’d rather be doing than going out on my boat fishing.”

The competition will see Conor paired with a competitor for the day and they will go out together on a boat with a gillie.

“This is fly fishing from a drifting boat. Whoever wins the coin toss will be able to select the first spot that we fish from. And then we will take it in turns to select the place we cast from.”

And of course you have heard all about the one that got away. In this competition, the teen anglers will be working from the length of the fish and not, as in Ireland the weight.

“If you are fishing wild trout they tend to be in deep channels and near reed beds in the warm weather we are having. But in a competition like this we are heading to a stocked lake and stocked fish behave a little differently. Every fish hooked is measured and returned to the water and every fish counts.”

Conor is just heading into his fifth year in Castlepollard Community College and was a pupil in St Feichin’s NS in Fore. He has received so much support from the local area and the angling community in and around the White Lake and Lough Bane.

“Noel McCabe, on the White Lake has been a great mentor down through the years. He knows so much about fishing and has always given me great advice. All the fishermen do, it’s a great sport, you know a great community of people and out in north Westmeath there are a lot of young people involved in angling.”

Local business, The Seven Wonders of Fore and the proprietor Ita Halpin was also an important support for Conor’s participation, raising sponsorship for his trip over the last number of weeks.

“I’m really grateful to the Lough Bane and White Lake Anglers and Ita Halpin as well as Wild and O’Malley’s. Their support and sponsorship has given me the opportunity to compete at international level in a sport I love.”

If angling is Conor’s first love it is followed a close second by rugby for the rest of the year. Conor is part of the successful and talented Mullingar squad who captured the Leinster U16 cup this year, and he also has awards at U14 and U13.

Conor has invested in his own boat and down through the years he has spent hundreds if not thousands on his fishing gear. But he would recommend the sport to anyone.

“I love fishing and I think it has so much to offer as a sport. If anyone would like to take it up they should contact their local angling club and they will find a great bunch of people only to ready to help and share their experience.”

Conor, in representing Ireland this week, follows hot on the heels of Fore native Mae Gilsenan, who secured bronze for Ireland at an international showjumping competition, and Coole’s Karl Curtis, who represented Ireland and placed third in Europe at the field archery in Germany.