The Irish Loughs
Why fish the Irish Loughs
No matter what sort of angling you are looking for, Ireland has the answer. Because of the rich diversity in landscape and and water type, there are limitless destinations for the angler in Ireland, with a huge network of rivers and loughs, attracting anglers back year after year to fish.
Brown trout are a native Irish species and the most widely distributed freshwater fish in Ireland. It thrives in waters of all types, from mountain streams to broad limestone rivers and loughs. Ireland has 16,000 km of main river channel and 10,000 km of tributary which are unspoilt and relatively unpolluted. In addition, there are in excess of 500,000 acres (200,000 ha) of loughs providing ideal habitat for trout. In this respect Ireland offers the pursuit of trout taking hatching fly in natural waters. Irish trout can and do achieve a large size.
Every year trout over 10 lbs are caught with the occasional one up to 20 lbs. The trout angler can use a wide range of methods including, bait, spinning and fly fishing
Many Irish rivers also have large runs of salmon with the first rains of the autumn. This autumn run often makes up the bulk of the adult salmon returning to any catchment. These fish continue to come into the systems after the season closes and so ensure productive salmon fishing on many waters right to the end of the season.
Salmon and sea trout anglers can use a wide range of methods including, bait, spinning and fly fishing. On rivers, the fishing is normally divided into beats managed by Inland Fisheries Ireland, private fisheries or local angling clubs. Lough (or Lake) fishing is normally from a boat in the company of a guide or ghillie. Salmon fishing opens on January 1 on a handful of rivers and after that the remainder of rivers open on various dates in February, March, April and May. The majority of rivers close on September 30th but some rivers remain open for sea trout fishing to October 12.