The competition programme in 2023 attracted all the usual competition anglers and every now and again a few newcomers. The competitions were extremely competitive and as enjoyable as ever. There was a good spread of individual competition winners with a number of anglers in the running for Angler of the Year right up to the end of the season. Indeed at the end of the season there were two new Anglers of the Year. Kevin Conwell won the adult Angler of the Year and Xavier Mackle won the junior Angler of the Year. Kevin finished just ahead of the vastly experienced Wilson Clinghan who was a very close second. Kevin is relatively new to the Club’s competition scene but he has always fished the competitions with a lot of skill and determination. It is not unususal for Kevin to do a couple of laps of the Corbet as he searches out the bigger fish that can win the competitions. He has great faith in the nomad flies and they attract the big fish. In 2023 Kevin won the Dominic Downey Cup, the Toasty Jardine Shield and the Kerr Cup. He was also in the top three in a number of other competitions.
Unfortunately in the Juvenile Angler of the Year competition there was no winner in 2023. A number of the juveniles have now moved on to the Adult category and there is a bit of a gap to the Junior anglers. Hopefully there will be some new juvenile anglers fishing the competitions in 2024.
The Club’s junior competitions were primarly fished over the summer months and there was a good turn out of juniors in 2023. Xavier Mackle took the accolade of Junior Angler of the Year 2023 for the first time. In 2023 he won the Martin Dynes Trophy and was second in the Bill Gault Glazing Cup. Xavier is just 6 years old and he will be fishing hard to win the Junior Angler of the Year title again in the coming years.
Congratulations to Kevin and Xavier on their great success in 2023.