Hi All
I would just like to thank you all on behalf of the team and myself for all your support, best wishes and congratulations, both before we went away and on our return as " World Champions"
For all of you that turned up to our fundraisers and those of you that were at the airport yesterday I give you a special thanks. It meant a lot to us.
There was a vast effort put into the preperation for this championship by a group of anglers that I can only describe as amazing.
Nothing was left to chance. All theories were tested and retested, All information was shared at daily meetings and conclusions met.
We won this event by one of the biggest margins in its history and this does not show the whole story. Due to the fantastic areas we were fishing there were quiet alot of what we called "bonus" fish around. These fish were the likes of eagle ray, blue ray and smoothhound, these fish could run to 70/80lb weight. These fish could not really be targeted, it was just a case of hoping that one turned up.
The Irish team only had one of these fish for the whole week, some teams had as much as five or six per day. This meant that we had to win by sheer numbers of fish. using our own system of sheer length we probably would have won three of the days. This makes victory all the sweeter.
I hope the success of this team will lead to more success in the future for Irelands anglers. It just show what we can do when we get the right bunch together. It proves that the Fish Off system that we are running is starting to work. There are still alot of work to be done but I am sure with all the anglers and the IFSA singing from the same sheet that we can establish Irish anglers as the dominant force in world angling. We have the anglers and the system is getting there, heres to much success for the future. Lets hope the sports council will recognise this achievement and help future teams with some sponsorship.
I would like to finish with a special thanks to Tom Lilas our manager and chaiman of the IFSA for his leadership, our team - John,Derek,Tim,Mark and Brendan for being immence and to Kevin for helping out at all points throughout our trip.
Its a fantastic feeling knowing Ireland are Champions of the world!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
JP