Angling

Angling on Lough Carra

Lough Carra became famous in the angling community as a top rate, wild brown trout fishery where the trout were free-rising and where massive hatches of mayfly, olives and sedges provided the fly fisherman with some of the best opportunities to carry out the traditional techniques of lough-style trout fishing. Unfortunately, changes in the ecology of the lake caused by modern, intensive agriculture in the catchment have resulted in a significant decline in the quality of the trout fishing. This section of the website provides some limited information on catch statistics (which will be added to as further historical data are processed), a summary of the current regulations and a map showing some of the features of relevance to anglers.

There is also a good population of pike (an introduced species) which is controlled to some extent by the Western Regional Fisheries Board (through an annual gill-netting operation) and the Lough Carra Trout Anglers' annual pike fishing competition (in which the pike are now translocated alive to another fishery).

There are some aspects of the information on the lake and its surroundings which overlap between different sections of this website. We have arbitrarily placed these aspects in the section which we feel is most appropriate, but if you cannot find what you are looking for in one section, use the search facility to locate the relevant material.

Please click on a title below to link to the chosen subject.