lakes donegal

Lough Deele is the source of the Deele River which flows east towards Raphoe. It lies deep in the mountains 6 miles south west of Letterkenny and is best approached via a small road from the east. This is a difficult walk through forest and across bog and will take at least one and a half hours to complete. The effort of getting there and back - is generally well rewarded- the trout average nearly three quarters pounds and some excellent catches have been reported. An average catch should produc...

Lough Mourne is an impressive looking stretch of water by the N15 road between Ballybofey and Donegal. You may be tempted to fish, but don't bother because the trout are very small indeed. Permission: Not usually required...

Trusk Lough Trusk is 3 miles south of Ballybofey. The trout there average half pound and you might be lucky and get one up to three quarter pound. This lough is used a lot by speedboats, which can make the fishing very uncomfortable. Permission:Not usually required....

Access to these three loughs is either off the small mountain road to the north and in by the west side of Lough Boyle or by taking another small road from the west and coming in past Lough Keeran. Either way, it is difficult going and will take well over an hour. Golagh has an nice stock of good trout averaging three quarter pound, with some to nearly 3 pounds. The banks are difficult to fish in places, but at some points it is possible to wade. One of the best areas is the long, sometimes very...

This is another artificial sea water lough on the shores of Lough Swilly, where the level is controlled by floodgate. It holds occassional salmon and sea trout and fishes best in July. It can be fished from the shore and July is the best month for sea trout. Permission...

The Letterkenny and District Anglers' Association exercises rights on that part of the lough to which it has title and the rest of the lough is free fishing. This was one of the great spring salmon loughs until its stocks were hit by UDN in the 1960s, a disaster from which it never recovered. It is now fished for its brown trout and can give superb sport. The trout average a half lb and fish up to 1lb are encountered fairly frequently and you may even get on over 2lb. It is a shallow lough, nerl...

This is a small narrow lough just over a mile south west of Creeslough village. Access is gained by the farmhouse on the north west shore and approximately half of the bank is fishable. The average size of the trout is over 1lb though the lough used to hold trout of 2-5lb before stocks were reduced by gross over fishing. The fishing is now very dour but a small stock of good trout still survives. There are hatches of duckfly in spring, murroughs in Jume, and Green Peter in late July and August....

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 lies less than one mile due east of Milford and is approached off a by road that links the L78 Milford-Carrowkeel road with the T72 Milford-Rathmelton road. The lough is only one field away from the road and access is opposite the little pond on the roadside. The trout average about three quarters lbs and in the past the lough is known to have produced trout of over 4lb. The north and west sides are easily fished while the east side is unfishable. There is another little lough a few h...

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...