lakes around south west donegal

This is a lough of some 40 acres, 2 miles form Belleek on the A47 Pettigo road. It is stocked annually with brown and rainbow trout and being a limestone lough has a good stock of natural trout too. The season runs from 1 March to 30 September and there is a 4 trout bag limit and a 10 inch size limit. Only orthodox fly fishing is allowed. Boats may be hired from Mr John McGauran, Bally-megaghran, Leggs Post Office, or from the Carlton Hotel, Belleek. The avergae size of the trout here is over 1...

This lough is also on the Fermangh-Donegal border. Most of it is in Co. Fermanagh, but the best access is off a by road on the Donegal side. It has a nice stock of trout ranging in size from a half to one and a half lbs. Recent reports indicate that the fishing is not as good as it used to be and that the trout are smaller. There are good hatches of duckfly, olives, sedges and even mayfly. Lough Rushen is easy to fish from the shore and seems to fish best in the evening. An unusual feature of th...

Lough Derg is a large, shallow lough of over 2,000 acres, 4 miles north of Pettigo. This is the lough with the famous island known as St Patrick's Purgatory, with its basilica and penitential exercises, where pilgrims flock every year from June to August. What is less well known is that it holds a stock of nice trout averaging just under a pound and some much better ones too-trout to 4lb have been reported. The fish are pink fleshed and their diet consists mainly of Gammarus-freshwater shrimp. O...