It was a great day for Ciaran Reilly two weeks ago at the National Youth Fly Dressing Championship in Mallow, as the young Loughrea man was crowned Individual All Ireland Champion on the day. It was double joy for Reilly as he also captained Team Connacht to the All Ireland team title by a significant margin.
Both Ciaran and Team Connacht have worked incredibly hard on the way to achieving this accolade, being in training for the previous eighteen weeks leading up to the contest. The dedication was such that not a single individual team member missed out on any of the training sessions. Training was carried out by international fly fishing anglers and dressers, including Loughrea brothers Robert and Frank Reilly of Western Lakes Angling School.
Success on the angling circuit is nothing new to Ciaran, who at the tender age of 15-years-old has already achieved an enormous amount in both fly dressing and fly fishing. Ciaran comes from a proud fishing background and was introduced to the sport by his father Robert, himself an internationally capped angler, at the age of eight.
This is Ciaran’s second time to claim this coveted title, having preciously won it in 2012. In 2013 he also added the Connacht Fly Dressing Championship to his collection of trophies. At just 15 years old, Ciarán is one of the youngest members of the under-18 team, despite this being his third year to represent Ireland at this level.
