Spring 2020 £3.00 / 5.00 Irish and C OUNTRY C Angling &Gundog Edition OUNTRY S PORTS L
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18THON MAY SALE 2020 TO Irish COUNTRY SPORTS and COUNTRY LIFE 5.00 € 05 9 771476 824001 Volume 19 Number 1 Spring 2020 £3.00 / Volume Angling & Gundog Edition Irish COUNTRY SPORTS and COUNTRY LIFE Contents 4 ROI Comment 71 FISSTA’s News & Views 5 Northern Comment 74 Hunting Roundup - By Tom Fulton 6 Countryside News (including LEAD SHOT 78 The Multitalented Stanislaus UPDATE) Lynch - By Derek Fanning 30 THE 2020 ALL IRELAND 82 Dog Show Calendar GAME FAIR, SHANES Terrier, Lurcher & Whippet CASTLE 83 Show Roundup - Be part of the greatest By Margaret McStay Front Cover: demonstration of support New Lurcher Racing & Fishing for steelhead in the Smith for Irish Country Sports 84 Showing Classification and River in Northern California. ever! Photograph by Jan Evans, Rules for the Irish Game Polarstar Photography. 34 The Country Sports Interview Fair, Shanes Castle, 27/28 - With Derek Bell Jnr, June 2020 Angling Guide 85 IKC Spaniel Championship - 40 Shooting’s Big Days & Small Report By Norman Blakeney Days - By David Hudson 90 Dog Test Calendar 44 Nile Buffalo Quest - Pointers & Setters Autumn By Simon K. Barr 91 Review - By Hugh Brady 48 Art & Antiques - The KC AV Spaniel By Michael Drake 95 (exc. Cocker) Championship 51 Country Life & Air Rifles - 2019 IGL Retriever By Frank Brophy 98 Championship - 54 In Search of Wild Trout - Report By Peter Smith By Simon Everett 103 53rd IKC Irish Retriever 57 Boat Build - A Winter’s Championships - Report Project By Joseph Owens & Photography By Mary Murray 60 Plastic (not so) Fantastic - By Johnny Woodlock 109 2019 Irish Kennel Club Championship for Cocker Inland Fisheries Ireland - 64 Spaniels - Initiatives & Outreach Ronan Gorman Reports 68 Fishing Resolutions - By Michael Martin, Six Mile Water Trust Managing Editor: Albert Titterington, ROI Editor: Derek Fanning, NI Editor: Paul Pringle, Associate Editor: Irene Titterington Publishers: (Editorial & Advertising) Country Lifestyle Exhibitions Ltd. Cranley Hill, 5b Woodgrange Road, Hollymount, Downpatrick BT30 8JE Tel: (028) (from ROI 048) 44839167 Email: Email: [email protected] Web: www.countrysportsandcountrylife.com ROI Office: ROI Office: Derek Fanning, E: [email protected] Tel: 05791 20003 Printed by W.&G.Baird Distributed by Easons (Dublin), E M Distribution Also Available by Subscription ISSN No. 1476-8240 The views expressed by the contributors are not necessarily those of the editor or the publishers. Whilst every care is taken to ensure that information published is accurate and reliable, the publishers cannot be held responsible or accept liability for any errors or omissions in this pubication. ALL RIGHTS ARE RESERVED. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior written consent of the owner. No liability is accepted for the safe custody of unsolicited materials and manuscripts. Publication of accepted articles is not always guaranteed and the publishers will not be held liable for any manuscripts, photographs or other materials lost or damaged while in their possession, although every care will be taken. The editor reserves the right to amend any such articles as necessary. Published in association with Ireland’s country sports and country living web portal www.countrysportsandcountrylife.com Country Sports and Country Life RoI Comment y last day out mink hunting It was good to receive a press statement, soft and we sometimes sank up to our during the 2019 summer season at the beginning of 2020, from the knees in the mud, which at one stage Mtook place in mid September on governmental department which looks after sucked off one of my boots! A short while the Bandon River in southwest Cork. I Inland Fisheries, which stated that the later, as I was struggling through a thicket joined about 40 other hound enthusiasts at government is opening 82 rivers for of brambles and branches, the briars ten in the morning at one of those myriad, salmon and sea trout fishing this year. removed my cap, my spectacles and stonecut bridges which are such a rich Forty-one of the rivers will be fully open scratched my cheek, drawing blood. I am part of our country's heritage. Motorists with a further 41 available on a “catch and quite shortsighted so I needed the glasses don't have an opportunity to appreciate release” basis. It's all being done on an for the drive home. A foot-follower the beauty of these bridges as they whizz environmentally aware basis, therefore the coming behind nearly stood on them as he past, but when you are hunting on foot forty-one rivers which are being fully passed through. and up to your waist in the waters of a opened have been found to have a surplus A couple of weeks later I was down in river you have time to give them due of fish in their waters. The other forty-one north Cork for an annual beagling festival appreciation. rivers don't have the same surplus therefore which I have attended every February for My fellow Cork hunters were, as a catch and release system will be in place. several years. It was good to see many always, very friendly. It was obvious that The statement pointed out that 65 other familiar faces and catch up with old their mink-hunting excursions were rivers will be closed as they have no friends. The festival lasts for nine days and something they greatly looked forward to surplus of fish available for harvest. It on the sixth day of hunting, about fifty of every Sunday, that it was one of the seems the government is taking a common us gathered with 12 couple of beagles in highlights of their week. As I was speaking sense approach to the situation, closing the village of Kilteely in east Limerick. to these friendly Cork people I was some rivers to give them time to replenish The pack had been invited over from reminded of the words written by a their stocks, whilst giving anglers plenty of Somerset by the local organisers. politician in his diary when visiting the scope to enjoy fishing on lots of other I have enjoyed some of my best days county many years ago - “They are a rivers. It will no doubt be irritating for beagling in the Kilteely area, and this splendid people.” anglers to see they can no longer fish particular occasion was no different. It was One of the great pleasures in this world rivers which they have fished for many a cracker of a day, in calm, sun-blessed is following a pack of hounds as they go years, but the vast majority of anglers are conditions with plenty of quarry in the about their business with considerable reasonable people and they will see the vicinity and excellent, lengthy chases. It's energy and enthusiasm. It's a pleasure logic of the situation. hilly, picturesque terrain with wide valleys, which never palls for me. During the winter hunting season I and hills defined by cliffs which were This day's hunting along the Bandon usually get out once or twice a week but formed by volcanic activity millions of was a red letter day, the best mink hunting this year, up until Christmas I only years ago. Wide drains crisscrossed the day of the whole season for me. We didn't managed a few days, which was unusual valleys which were too wide to jump across catch any mink but the hounds never for me. Life got very busy for me in and meant we had to wade across, stopped speaking for five hours solid. My November and December and I couldn't sometimes up to our waists. This was a hunt legs were weary and aching after so much get out as much as I wanted to. When I did with plenty of walking up hills and jogging exercise. get out, the scenting conditions were poor down the other side. The beagles were large A couple of weeks later I enjoyed my and the hunting was disappointing. That all for their breed and fast. We enjoyed five last game fishing outing of the year. I went changed in January when I joined a hours of nearly non-stop action. to the same small lake in Offaly where I number of beagling packs around the Afterwards, we drove back to the pub had caught five fish in an afternoon in country for several days hunting. The in the village where the publican very August, but on this occasion, despite doing scenting conditions also noticeably kindly provided us with soup and my best for four hours, I caught nothing. improved during my January outings. sandwiches. As we chatted, one of the The trout and perch nosed around the There were a couple of outstanding foot-followers told me he's in his seventies worm bait on several occasions but they days during the month when I experienced and used to be a huntsman. He said never bit. The previous outing they had foot hunting at its finest. The first day was retirement doesn't suit him and he has been practically leaping onto my lap. This with a beagling club in Westmeath continued to work. On the hunting field time around, for some unknown reason, consisting of many friendly followers, one could tell that he was as physically fit they weren't interested. I didn't mind, but I including quite a few children (which was as a man thirty or forty years younger. felt sorry for my ten year old nephew who great to see when one is considering the Another follower, also in his seventies, was with me for the afternoon.