Sean to represent Ireland in Youth Fly-Fishing finals

A Ballykeeran youth will represent Ireland in the Youth World Fly Fishing Championship in Italy later this month. Sean Dempsey, a member of Coosan and District Anglers Association, is no stranger to top-level international fly fishing having represented Ireland on a number of occasion over the last three years. The Irish team which consists of six youths travel to Italy on Wednesday, August 24. They will have a few days practising before competing over five days on the Tiber River in northern Italy. This youth team is organised through TAFI (Trout Anglers Federation of Ireland) and the six lads have been practising over the last few months on The Blackwater River in Cork, the Suir in Cahir and on the Inny near Ballymahon as well as the Kanturk River in Cork. The journey to the world championships started for Sean over a year ago when he competed in the TAFI Leinster youth river qualifier which was held in Stradbally in May 2010. Sean finished in second place, and along with two other Coosan Anglers youths, Fergal McKiernan and John Naughton, qualified for the Leinster team. In June last year, Sean emerged the overall winner of the Leinster youth lake fly-fishing qualifier and along Fergal McKiernan, John Naughton, and Martin Costello also qualified for the province's lake team. In the subsequent interprovincials, in August last, Leinster won the river competition, with Sean finishing sixth overall. The province also won the lake event, with Sean second overall. Sean and Fergal have already represented Ireland this year when they travelled to Scotland for the ITFFA (Irish Trout Anglers Federation) Four Nations youth fly fishing competition last July, for the third year in a row. This year Fergal was captain of the team and Sean was vice captain. Sean will be captain of this team next year as both he and Fergal have already qualified along with two other youths from the Coosan club, Moate duo Dylan Ennis and John Corbally. The 2012 Four Nations youth competition will be hosted by Ireland and the competition will be on Lough Owel near Mullingar. 2011 has already been a successful year for Sean as he was placed second overall in the all Ireland youth fly-tying competition last February. He was also crowned 2011 Leinster youths river and lake champion. The river and lake inter-provincial competitions will be held in September and Coosan Anglers are well represented with a total of six anglers on the teams. Sean, Fergal, Dylan and John have qualified for the Leinster lake team along with Alan Hevehan from Ballygar and Jack McGee from Mullingar. The Coosan and District Anglers Association committee and members have wished Sean the best of luck in Italy. A spokesperson said: "This competition includes countries from all over the world including England, France, USA, Australia, Czech Republic and Canada to name only a few. The competition will be tough and considering that the temperature is expected to be well over 30 degrees, it will not be easy. The five days competition will include a three-hour session each morning and another three-hour session each evening. The lads will be on the road every morning at 7am and will finish up around 7pm each evening. They will have a few hours break in the middle of the day while the temperatures are at their highest but it will be no holiday as each three-hour session is very intense and both physically and mentally draining." If anybody wishes to find out more about the World championships in Italy you can see http://www.sfwc.it/eng/ For more information on the activities of the Coosan and District Anglers Association please visit http://www.coosananglers.com/