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Displaying items by tag: Dean Kennedy

Denis O'Toole has spoken of his amazement at catching a record 16-pound sea trout from the Acova River in Co Wicklow.
The angling hobbyist and professional fly dresser told the Bray People how he had spent the day fishing with a friend in what has been described as 'the most polluted river in Europe' when he spotted the monster, and decided to take up the challenge.
"I went down to the pool where I had previously seen the fish move," he said. "I put on a 1 1/2 inch aluminium tube with a salar single hook (with the barb squeezed down) and started at the head of the pool.
"On my fourth cast while stripping the fly back he hit it with a bang and all hell broke loose; all I could see was white foam on the water through the inky darkness. I thought I had hooked Free Willy."
O'Toole continued: "He was lying in only three feet of water when he took and in total the fight lasted 20 minutes. My fishing partner, Dean Kennedy, netted the fish. He was then carefully weighed and measured and released back to spawn to produce more 16 lb'ers."
The Bray People has more on the story HERE.

Denis O'Toole has spoken of his amazement at catching a record 16-pound sea trout from the Acova River in Co Wicklow.

The angling hobbyist and professional fly dresser told the Bray People how he had spent the day fishing with a friend in what has been described as 'the most polluted river in Europe' when he spotted the monster, and decided to take up the challenge.

"I went down to the pool where I had previously seen the fish move," he said. "I put on a 1 1/2 inch aluminium tube with a salar single hook (with the barb squeezed down) and started at the head of the pool. 

"On my fourth cast while stripping the fly back he hit it with a bang and all hell broke loose; all I could see was white foam on the water through the inky darkness. I thought I had hooked Free Willy."

O'Toole continued: "He was lying in only three feet of water when he took and in total the fight lasted 20 minutes. My fishing partner, Dean Kennedy, netted the fish. He was then carefully weighed and measured and released back to spawn to produce more 16 lb'ers."

The Bray People has more on the story HERE.

Published in Angling

Irish Sailing Classes and Association – There’s no shortage of one-design classes from which to choose and each gives its enthusiasts great competition, fun and camaraderie, writes Graham Smith in this review of the classes. 

One-design racing is where it all starts. It is, after all, where all the top sailors earned their stripes, battling away for line honours without a thought for a handicapper’s calculator wiping away a hard-fought victory!

Indeed, you could count on less than one hand the number of top Irish sailors who didn’t cut their teeth in a one-design dinghy! Just think of Cudmore, Barrington, Watson, Wilkins, Hennessy and Dix to name a few and you realise that they honed their skills in everything from Enterprises to Lasers and a lot in between.

At present count, there are a little over 30 one-design classes in Ireland, split almost evenly between dinghies and keelboats, a statistic which might raise a few eyebrows. They range from the long-established Mermaids, IDRA14s and Dragons to the newer additions like Fevas, Topaz and RS Elite. They all fill a particular need and give their owners and crews considerable enjoyment.

Many have attracted their World or European Championships to Irish waters over the years and while 2009 is notable for a lack of such events here, the following year will see the Etchells Worlds at Howth and perhaps a few other international regattas too.

In addition to the review, we asked each class to complete a questionnaire giving details of their fleet numbers, whether they were on a growth pattern or holding their own, so we could highlight those ‘on the up’ and those remaining static in terms of numbers. The older traditional designs, as you might imagine, fall into the latter category, although that’s not a negative!

CLASS REVIEW  The State of the Classes – League Table (as at February 2009)

S = Static; U = Up/growing

275     Optimist   U

200+   Laser   S

189     Mermaid   S

160     Flying Fifteen   S

130     RS Feva   U

115     Shannon One Design    U

100+   Mirror   S

100+   Topper   U

99       Topaz   U

94       Laser SB3   U

87       GP14   U

85       Squib   S

70       Fireball   S

70       Ruffian   S

60       J24   S

60       Shipman   S

52       Dragon   S

50       RS400/200   S

50       420    U

43       Multihulls    U

42       Dragon    S

40       Water Wags    U

40       Wayfarer    S

34       IDRA14    U

33       Puppeteer    U

28       Etchells    S

27       E-Boat    U

26       Glen    S

25       Enterprise    S

18       Sigma 33    S

18       Howth 17    U

13       RS Elite    U