Just past Dripsey boy,

Having spent hours on Friday getting sorted we were in good shape to head to Cork early on Saturday for the second in the series of 6 NCFFI Intl Qualifers. Rob is fishing these for the experience and some of the proposed venues are amongst the best fisheries in the country, so the series is also an excuse to fish some of these places that we might not otherwise get to. Friday was spent tying rigs, mixing groundbait, tying hooklengths and generally getting ready. It's fair to say there was a high level of
excitement and expectation, it was after all the famous Inniscarra we were heading to. A water with a great reputation for good bags of quality fish.
05.30 hours and were on the road, with a three and a half hour drive ahead of us. After an uneventfull trip we arrived for the draw to be given the great news that all juniors were being given an "end peg".
Happy days and this in turn added to the expectation of a good day. Somewhere along the way that was changed for Rob and his Ireland team mate from last year, Aaron Hutchman. They were both placed mid section, Rob was on "The Garden Centre" stretch and after a look at the draw sheet it was nice to see Rob was pegged next to none other than venue expert and all round good guy, Shane Dunne.

Right lads, this is the way you tie it.......

Shane to his credit, had given us plenty of information regarding the venue and how to fish it. We'd also had good information from Cathal Hughes so we figured we were in good shape as the mountain of gear was lumped through the trees to his peg.  Thanks to both of them for the help and guidance it was really appreciated. Nothing to complicated was the order of the day and three top 4's were assembled with 2, 3 & 5 Grm rigs to be fished at 9M.
A 6M whip for a back up line was matched with 5 sections of a Trabucco Dream Team  jobby set up to fish to hand (we were expecting big things)

With 20 mins to spare before the 10 minute prebait time there was time for a chat with others and a quick pose.
The match was fished to CIPS rules so 10 mins before the all in it's time to feed the swims, 6 balls on the 9M line and three on the shorter one. Groundbait was Sensas Gros Gardons, Sensas Lake both Black and Black Crumb, caster, hemp and corn were added and chucked in about 2 foot short of the float to allow for the slope. At the all in it was straight on to the short line for a 10 minute look. With nothing doing, on went the 3 Grm rig and out to the 9m line. Straight aaway the float dips and roach on. Under the match rules feeding can only be done with balls made with one hand so it was a small ball at the float after every second fish. After the first hour Mark Theedom (Senior team manager) arrives behind us to see how things are going.  Rob has 18 roach, word is that those to his left have very little and two of the three lads to his right have similar. It's looking good, now keep the roach there and hopefully the skimmers will move in, they didn't. 

The guy to Robs right was in baggin mode and roach after roach came to his line as Robs dried up. Tried upping the feed in an attempt to get them back but it just wasn't happening. Different rigs were tried, lighter and heavier but they made little difference. Adding another section and going further out in the thought that they may have backed off, did bring bites back but they were slow and again only swinging roach.
A couple of hours in and the lads to Robs left are suddenly getting skimmers a plenty,

Getting amongst them now,

Rob and the lads to his right can only get roach, three swims in a row and not a skimmer between them. It's fair to say the stretch didn't fish particularly well and most anglers were dissapointed by the end. 16.30 hrs wasn't long coming around and the final count of 35 roach was enough to ensure a better score than the first round but a dissapointing final weight none the less. The final weigh sheets from the different sections showed that a lot of lads struggled and low weights were the order of the day. Dissapointed and frustrated at the lack of the
expected bigger fish, we headed back to the village for a catch up with lads from the other sections.
Rob dived into the chipper and shortly after, we were back on the road. As ever he's asleep within minutes and it's 3.5 hours driving to get home.
So thats the second of six qualifers done and the next one on The Shannon is in two weeks on June second.
Junior canal champs next weekend, it's all go at the minute for the young fellah. Will I ever get fishing again ?