This article is from page 12 of the 2008-08-05 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 12 JPG
A WORLD title in fly fishing has been landed by an east Clare angler.
Ruari Costello (31) from Scariff has been fishing since he was just five years old and years of practice on the lakeshores of Clare has now Oem) ee
Ruari took the world Salt Water Distance Championship with a cast
of 41 meters recently.
He won the title, one of two which were up for grabs, at the CLA Game Fair in Blenheim Palace in Oxford.
The CLA Game Fair is one of the world’s original, largest and most prestigious countryside exhibition. The fair celebrated its 50th anniver- sary this year at Blenheim Palace.
Now a very capable May Fly fish- erman, Ruari started fishing in the
lakes of Clare at his father’s knee and has been hooked on the hobby ever since.
‘“T’ve been fishing since I was five but I’ve only been involved in com- petition in the last few years”, said NUE ee
Ruari is being sponsored for his equipment and his travel by Scot- tish-based tackle company, Carron Jetstream. He is part of a team of an-
glers sponsored by the company, the others all being Scottish.
“We came together by accident re- ally. They saw me casting at a game fair in England four years ago and the following year, they asked me to join the team.”
Since then, Ruari, who is also a member of Mountshannon Angling club has travelled extensively to com- pete and has cast in three competi-
tions in San Francisco, in Norway, Scotland, England and he is hoping that he and the team will be able to travel to Japan in October to com- pete there. Closer to home, Ruari has a boat on Lough Derg, which 1s his favourite place for fishing in Clare.
He says that the lake water has im- proved and the fishing “is very good. The real problem is the weather now – that’s just rotten.”