Darren
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WOODFORD LEXUS RESULTS 08Woodford Fly Fishery
Lexus European Fly Fishing Championships
Woodford Fly Fishery held the Irish heats for the Lexus European Flyfishing Championships on Friday 6th and Saturday 7th June, this was the sixth year in a row that the Carrickfergus venue has hosted Europe’s biggest flyfishing event.
With anglers travelling from Belfast, Dungannon, Armagh and as far away as Maynooth, Co.Kildare and a strong contingent of local anglers this competition was shaping up to be one of the best yet. All the anglers were competing to gain one of the 8 places for the Grand Final at Chew Valley Lake, Bristol, with a top prize of a Lexus RX 400H car, worth over £40,000, for the individual champion and a weeks fishing on the Yukon with event organiser John Horsey for the angler with the heaviest fish at the final.
This year’s competition also had a 6-man team heat running in conjunction with Friday evening’s individual heat, with a place at the Grand Final on Rutland Water for the winning team.
The competition was to be fished to a 10 fish bag with a time bonus of 1kg per hour, with the top 3 and the anglers with the heaviest fish from the 2 days qualifying for the final.
Friday heat was fished on warm balmy evening, which had the anglers fishing in a near flat calm and contending with the hatching fisherman’s curse (caenis fly) making the fishing that bit harder.
At the weigh-in there were only 2 anglers that blanked giving the rest a very good chance of qualifying for the final. Local angler Campbell Baird had top spot with 10 fish weighing 9.43kg, making this the 7th year in a row of qualifying for the finals for Campbell, 2nd place went another local angler Ross Hill with 9 fish for 8.32kg, the 3rd time Ross has qualified and in 3rd place qualifying for his 5th final was Eden lad Darren Haggan with 8 fish weighing 7.22kg. Newtownabbey man Kenny Ferguson took the wildcard spot with the heaviest fish of the night weighed in, the 4th year in a row that Kenny has qualified.
The 6-man team heat had Team Woodford Greys in 1st place with 44 fish for 40.84kg, 2nd spot was Team Woodford Hermins with 16 fish and 3rd Team Turnaface with 12 fish.
Saturdays heat had the anglers competing in a baking 24 degrees and very little wind, a good day for the beach but not for flyfishing. Newtowabbey man Kenny Ferguson had top spot with 7 fish for 6.91kg, as Kenny had already qualified his place was taken by runner up Stephen Allison from Mossely, with 6 fish for 5.52kg, the 2nd year in a row that Stephen has qualified, next up was Darren Wallace, 3rd on the day, with 6 fish for 5.35kg, the 5th time Darren has qualified, Mark Smyth from Tunaface qualified next, 4th on the day with 5 fish for 4.42kg, this will be Marks 1st finals, Belfast angler Geordie Hall had the heaviest fish out-side of the qualifiers to take the wild card spot.
Everyone at Woodford would like to wish both the 8 individual qualifiers and the team qualifier all the best for their respective finals in September 08.
Heat Qualifiers
Campbell in action on Friday's heat.
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Darren
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WOODFORD – Friday 6th June 2008
Top 10 Individual Results
1st Campbell Baird, 10 fish 9.43kg, Qualified
2nd Ross Hill, 9 fish 8.32kg, Qualified
3rd Darren Haggan, 8 fish 7.22kg, Qualified
4th Darren Wallace, 7 fish 6.65kg
5th Stephen Allison, 6 fish 4.96kg
6th Kenny Ferguson, 5 fish 4.76kg, Wild Card 1.07kg, Qualified
7th Clinton Irvine, 5 fish 4.46kg,
8th Andrew Millen, 4 fish 3.23kg
9th Ray McKeeman, 3 fish 2.22
10th Mark Smyth, 3 fish 2.03kg
Top 3 Team Results Friday 6th June
1st Team Woodford Greys, 44 fish 40.84kg
2nd Team Woodford Hermins, 16 fish 12.32kg
3rd Team Turnaface, 12 fish 9.41kg
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Darren
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WOODFORD – Saturday 7th June 2008
Top 10 Individual Results
1st Kenny Ferguson, 7 fish 6.91kg, Already Qualified
2nd Stephen Allison, 6 fish 5.52kg, Qualified
3rd Darren Wallace, 6 fish 5.36kg, Qualified
4th Mark Smyth, 5 fish 4.24kg, Qualified
5th Darren Haggan, 3 fish 4.30kg,
6th George Hall, 3 fish 3.77kg, Wild Card 1.13kg, Qualified
7th Jim Fleming, 3 fish 3.27kg
8th Brian Kerr, 2 fish 1.19kg
9th Linda Straghan, 1 fish 0.98kg
10th Ray McKeeman, 1 fish 0.76kg
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fossil-fish
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Well done to all and thanks for the results Darren. This match had been the biggest topic of conversation at Woodford for the last fortnight. I am glad it all went well.
I paid a visit on the Saturday and that was definitely sun bathing weather.
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ChrisDickey
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Congrats to all the qualifiers
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