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Displaying items by tag: NCFFI

Co Monaghan is hosting “the Olympics of angling” this weekend (Saturday 22 and Sunday 23 April) with the World Feeder Club Championships, as RTÉ News reports.

Lough Muckno is the venue for 28 teams representing 18 countries who will fish for the top prize in the competition hosted by the National Coarse Fishing Federation of Ireland (NCFFI).

Local anglers in the Cavan Monaghan Lakelands Feeder Club are joined by one other Irish team from Lurgan Coarse Angling Club in the international field that’s already been a hospitality boon for Castleblayney and environs.

RTÉ News has much more on the story HERE.

Published in Angling

#Angling - The National Coarse Fishing Federation of Ireland (NCFFI) has announced its line-up for the 2017 FIPS-ed Feeder World Championships.

Michael Buchwalder, Nick Howell, Cathal Hughes, Johnny McKinnley, Rimantas Kondrackas and Paul Leese comprise the team to represent Ireland in Portugal this June.

“I am very pleased to be able to present a refreshed world championship team this year, and welcome the three new members to the squad,” said team manager Brenton Sweeney. “In the last three years, Ireland has achieved a team silver medal and four section wins and we are currently ranked 12th in the world.

"It has always been my ambition to introduce younger members to the squad and it’s great to start my second term by welcoming the enthusiastic Johnny and Rimantas along with Nick, who brings extensive knowledge of international championships.

“Former team member Philip Jackson and Paul Heaney of Lurgan CAC will provide support to the team in Portugal and I’m delighted to appoint Philip my assistant manager as we coach these anglers at home and away.

“I would like to take this opportunity to thank the NCFFI and our sponsors for their invaluable support as we look to the year ahead.”

Teams are also being assembled for the European Championships in Italy this May and the Worlds in Belgium in September, as well as the Home Internationals in Scotland the following month.

The NCFFI is a voluntary body, a member of the Angling Council of Ireland and the national governing body for coarse and predator angling recognised by Sport Ireland and SportNI.

Published in Angling

#Angling - Tuesday 31 January is the deadline for anglers across the island of Ireland to express their interest in joining one of two teams prepping for international competitions this year.

As the Belfast Telegraph reports, the National Coarse Fishing Federation of Ireland (NCFFI) will be sending teams to the European Championships in Italy on 20-21 May and the Worlds in Belgium on 9-10 September, as well as the Home Internationals in Scotland this October.

Interested anglers should complete the application form available HERE or by January 31 or contact Senior Float Team manager Vincent Walsh at [email protected] or +353 87 256 3669.

Published in Angling

#Angling - Feeder anglers should save Saturday 30 January in their calendars.

That's the date for trials for the Irish feeder team headed to Serbia this summer.

All feeder anglers are invited to Annaherrin Lake in Shercock, Co Cavan from 9am for a day's fishing to select the National Coarse Fishing Federation of Ireland's squad.

For details contact 087 251 0260 or email [email protected]

Published in Angling
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#ANGLING - The Corkman has paid tribute to the late Jack O'Sullivan, one of the best known Irishmen in the coarse angling fraternity.

"He is a man who worked hard to put the town of Fermoy, and the stretches of the River Blackwater that enhance it, to the forefront of tourism," the paper writes.

"For 25 years he led from the front, not just by putting Fermoy on the map as a coarse angling destination but also his country, when he brought the likes of the World Coarse Angling Championships to Fermoy in 1968, and many other prestigious events down through the years."

A founder member of the National Coarse Fishing Federation of Ireland (NCFFI), in 2007 O'Sullivan received a gold medal from the organisation for his services to the Fermoy Coarse Angling Association, and angling tourism both local and national.

The Corkman has more on the story HERE.

Published in Angling

#ANGLING - Qualifiers to select teams for the 2013 World, European and Celtic Cup coarse fishing teams will be fished over six weekends in 2012.

The float and feeder teams for the National Coarse Fishing Federation of Ireland (NCFFI) squads will be decided via an All Ireland Qualifier format to CIPS rules.

Team manager Mark Theedom will select his teams from the top 20 anglers in the float qualifiers and the top 50% of anglers taking part in the feeder qualifiers.

The series will be open to all anglers who are members of NCFFI-affiliated clubs, and is intended to be more inclusive and encourage many more anglers to participate.

All senior anglers will pay an entry fee of €60 for the six-match series which will help fund teams travelling to the 2013 championships. Individual anglers not intending to fish the series but wishing to fish individual qualifiers in their local area will be charged €15. Juniors will not be expected to pay any entry fee.

The qualifier weekends are as follows:

  • 21-22 April – River Barrow, Co Carlow
  • 19-20 May – Inniscarra, Co Cork
  • 2-3 June – River Shannon (O’Brien’s Bridge), Co Clare
  • 11-12 August – Lough Muckno, Co Monaghan
  • 22-23 September - Lough Oughter, Co Cavan
  • 20-21 October – Lower River Bann, Co Antrim
Published in Angling

Sharks in Irish waters

Irish waters are home to 71 species of shark, skates and rays, 58 of which have been studied in detail and listed on the Ireland Red List of Cartilaginous fish. Irish sharks range from small Sleeper sharks, Dogfish and Catsharks, to larger species like Frilled, Mackerel and Cow sharks, all the way to the second largest shark in the world, the Basking shark. 

Irish waters provide a refuge for an array of shark species. Tralee Bay, Co. Kerry provides a habitat for several rare and endangered sharks and their relatives, including the migratory tope shark, angel shark and undulate ray. This area is also the last European refuge for the extremely rare white skate. Through a European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) project, Marine Institute scientists have been working with fishermen to assess the distribution, diversity, and monthly relative abundance of skates and rays in Tralee, Brandon and Dingle Bays.

“These areas off the southwest coast of Ireland are important internationally as they hold some of the last remaining refuges for angel shark and white skate,” said Dr Maurice Clarke of the Marine Institute. “This EMFF project has provided data confirming the critically endangered status of some species and provides up-to-date information for the development of fishery measures to eliminate by-catch.” 

Irish waters are also home to the Black Mouthed Catshark, Galeus melastomus, one of Ireland’s smallest shark species which can be found in the deep sea along the continental shelf. In 2018, Irish scientists discovered a very rare shark-nursery 200 nautical miles off the west coast by the Marine Institute’s ROV Holland 1 on a shelf sloping to 750 metres deep. 

There are two ways that sharks are born, either as live young or from egg casings. In the ‘case’ of Black Mouthed Catsharks, the nursery discovered in 2018, was notable by the abundance of egg casings or ‘mermaid’s purses’. Many sharks, rays and skate lay eggs, the cases of which often wash ashore. If you find an egg casing along the seashore, take a photo for Purse Search Ireland, a citizen science project focusing on monitoring the shark, ray and skate species around Ireland.

Another species also found by Irish scientists using the ROV Holland 1 in 2018 was a very rare type of dogfish, the Sail Fin Rough Shark, Oxynotus paradoxus. These sharks are named after their long fins which resemble the trailing sails of a boat, and live in the deep sea in waters up to 750m deep. Like all sharks, skates and rays, they have no bones. Their skeleton is composed of cartilage, much like what our noses and ears are made from! This material is much more flexible and lighter than bone which is perfect for these animals living without the weight of gravity.

Throughout history sharks have been portrayed as the monsters of the sea, a concept that science is continuously debunking. Basking sharks were named in 1765 as Cetorhinus maximus, roughly translated to the ‘big-nosed sea monster’. Basking sharks are filter feeders, often swimming with their mouths agape, they filter plankton from the water.

They are very slow moving and like to bask in the sun in shallow water and are often seen in Irish waters around Spring and early Summer. To help understand the migration of these animals to be better able to understand and conserve these species, the Irish Basking Shark Group have tagged and mapped their travels.

Remarkably, many sharks like the Angel Shark, Squatina squatina have the ability to sense electricity. They do this via small pores in their skin called the ‘Ampullae of Lorenzini’ which are able to detect the tiny electrical impulses of a fish breathing, moving or even its heartbeat from distances of over a kilometre! Angel sharks, often referred to as Monkfish have a distinctively angelic shape, with flattened, large fins appearing like the wings of an angel. They live on the seafloor in the coastal waters of Ireland and much like a cat are nocturnal, primarily active at night.

The intricate complexity of shark adaptations is particularly noticeable in the texture of their skin. Composed of miniscule, perfectly shaped overlapping scales, the skin of shark provides them with protection. Often shark scales have been compared to teeth due to their hard enamel structure. They are strong, but also due to their intricate shape, these scales reduce drag and allow water to glide past them so that the shark can swim more effortlessly and silently. This natural flawless design has been used as inspiration for new neoprene fabric designs to help swimmers glide through the water. Although all sharks have this feature, the Leafscale Gulper Shark, Centrophorus squamosus, found in Ireland are specifically named due to the ornate leaf-shape of their scales.