Fishing

Teach Bán B&B is situated near Ballinrobe, an area famous for its Wild Brown Trout. Loughs Carra and Mask are nearby and your hosts can arrange local ghillies, boats etc, if required.

The trout season normally extends from March to the end of September

Of course as fishing is free in the area you may simply want to try the local streams or lakeshores at your leisure.

May and June are particularly busy months in South Mayo as this is the peak Mayfly season. Early May can be the best time to fish the Mayfly on Lough Carra whereas Lough Mask performs better towards the end of May and Lough Corrib comes good early in June.

Lough Mask hosts the World Wet Fly competition during the Irish August bank holiday, the first full weekend in August.

The best flies for the Mask are the Connemara Black, Green Peter, Invicta and Murragh. The Carra is best fished with a Bumble or Golden Olive and is a renowned Dry Fly lake. The artificial Mayfly is good on all these lakes at the right time but if you wish to dap then you may wish to catch the real thing first, which is an adventure in itself. The Green Dabbler fishes well on both lakes and merits a place on the cast at all times.

Western Angling Report 19th May 2009

Lough Mask

On Lough Mask, fishing was very good with good fly hatches and lots of fish rising to surface flies. The European Cup was fished out of Tourmakeady over the weekend, with 110 anglers landing 105 trout over the 13 inch limit. Pat Feerick from Ballinrobe took first place with 8 fish for 14.05lbs, with Gerry O’Brien, also Ballinrobe, taking second with 4 trout for 9.03lbs. Steve Smith from Antrim was third with 3 trout for 7.10lbs, and also took the heaviest fish prize with a fish of 5.3lbs. The top lady angler was Dorrie Gibbons from Cong with a trout of 2.3lbs.

Tony Grehan emailed us to report his capture of a salmon kelt on a wet mayfly at the mouth of Caher Bay. The fish was well mended but a little gaunt. It was carefully returned and Tony was later told by locals that it was probably the first salmon in the area since the 1930s. Recent findings by the CFB and WRFB on the movement of ferox trout indicate that there may be a breach between the lakes.

Lough Carra

Over on Carra, the mayfly is yet to get into full swing, with hatches just getting going this week. Cian Murtagh from Cavan had 4 trout for a half day in Flannerys Bay, with the best 3lbs, but I have no other reports. As mayfly hatches get into their flow here there should be lots more to report soon.

The coarse fisherman has lots of access to free fishing for pike and perch locally and other species are just a short drive away.