Getting Involved with Athy & District Anglers Club
Cleaning our Swims
Maintaining our pegs and swims across Athy is a voluntary activity undertaken by members of the club and organized by the Athy & District Anglers Club committee. Any member can volunteer their time to help out!
Peg cleaning involves strimming surrounding weeds & grasses, cutting back overhanging trees for clear casting and cutting water-borne weeds in front of the peg
Swim cleaning involves using Rakes of various weights and sizes on long ropes to clear the bottom of the peg of weed, snags and intrusive vegetation.
The final result is a clear and easily accessible peg, with clean bottoms on the swims and snag-free fishing!
Athy & District Anglers Club provides all of the equipment required to the volunteers at each cleaning event, volunteers need only bring their time!
Joining Matches
Matches are 5 hour long fishing sessions where anglers compete to have the highest weight of fish caught. Matches come in 2 main types: Member Matches and Open Matches. These matches are organized regularly by the Athy & District Anglers Club in the Athy area. All matches have an entry fee which contributes to the winnings payouts and the running of the club.
Member Matches are for members of the Athy & District Anglers Club only, and are held at any one of our four venues in the Athy area depending on the time of year and how well each venue is fishing.
Open matches are for any angler to join, whether they are a member of the club or not, and are held at any one of our four venues in Athy also.
To participate in a match, you need to have at minimum a landing net for fish you cannot swing to hand and a keepnet to hold the fish you’ve caught for the duration of the match.
Some venues have stipulations about what kind of tackle can be used, such as bans on fixed feeder rigs or barbed hooks. These requirements are listed for each match in the event.
How a Match Works
Match details are posted in our Events section and in our Facebook Group. Details will include any specific requirements for the match, such as members only or barbless hooks, as well as venue location and times.
Arrival
Anglers arrive to the venue on or before the specified time in the event details. Anglers should have all of their fishing tackle and bait with them. Once all anglers have arrived (or by the specified time if people are late), match fees are collected and pegs are drawn. The draw is where each angler will pick a peg number from a bag, this peg is where they will fish for the duration of the match. Peg allocation is random, bribes are not accepted to specific peg placement! Anglers now have time to get to their peg, set their gear up and plumb their depths. No bait may be put into the swim before the match has started.
Fishing the Match
To signal the match beginning, a call of “All in!” will be heard across the venue. Anglers can now put bait in the swim and start fishing. You can have as many lines set up as you want however you can only fish one line at a time. This means that if you have a feeder rod in the water, you cannot also have a float/pole line in the water. The match will run for 5 hours, the challenge to each angler is to make in the moment decisions about bait usage, feeding strategy, size and weight of lines/hooks and where they fish in their peg to catch the most weight by the end of the match.
Ending the Match
At the end of the match, a call of “All out!” will be heard across the venue. Every angler must immediately remove their lines from the water. If you are currently playing a fish at the time “All out!” is called, you should respond with “Fish on!”. This lets the match organizers know that you were playing the fish before the match ended, and if you can land it you can put it in your keepnet and it will count to your total. Once the match has ended, the Athy & District Angling Club committee members will go to each anglers peg with a sling and a scales. Each angler will deposit their catch from their keepnets to the sling and be weighed in. Each angler can oversee this process so they are assured that it is fair. Once all weights are tallied, the winner and framers are announced and awarded their prizes. Anglers now pack up their gear and depart the venue. We always post the results of matches to our updates page!
Fish Care
All of our matches, and most of our match stretches in the Athy area, are strictly catch-and-release. This means that every angler has a responsibility to take due care when handling fish and return them promptly to the water without harm. Intentional harming / killing of fish is highly frowned upon and in some instances can result in legal seizure of fishing gear and fines being issue by An Garda Siochana. Athy & District Angling Club work closely with An Garda Siochana to protect our local waterways and fishing grounds.