Brown Trout, Wild Sea Trout and Salmon Angling

Connemara offers some of the best fishing in Europe for wild brown trout, atlantic salmon and sea trout in its many rivers and lakes. The great Western loughs Corrib, Mask and Conn are superb wild brown trout lakes. Numerous other rivers and smaller loughs abound in the area, offering the visiting angler a wide choice of fishing, depending on weather and water conditions and his/her preferences. Connemara is an anglers paradise.

Lough Corrib is 42,000 acres in size and stretches in length from within 4 miles of Galway City to within 2 miles of Maum Bridge, a distance of 33 miles. (12 miles from Zetland House) The Lough is renowned for its wild brown trout and salmon fishing. Brown trout fishing is usually good from the first day of the season and the salmon fishing for grilse is best from around the end of May. Trout can be caught on wet fly from opening day, Feb. 15th. Each season, a number of specimen brown trout are caught on the lough, and the record stands at around 21.5lb, caught in September 2002.  There are boats for hire at several locations around Connemara, and boatmen and experienced Ghillies are also available by arrangement. Plan your fishing at the Zetland by calling +353 95 31111 or by e-mailing info@zetland.com 

The Zetland Private Fishery 

While angling on Lough Corrib and Lough Mask is free, many of the rivers and lakes in Connemara are privately owned and professionally managed as private fisheries. Fly-fishing on these managed fisheries is by prior arrangement only. The Zetland's private 'Gowla Fishery', a mainstay of the Hotel over the past century, has been closed to all fishermen for the past 5 years under a carefully managed conservation and rejuvenation initiative. The 4 miles of pristine river and the 14 natural lakes on the fishery are now in a very healthy condition, as the recent runs of wild sea trout and atlantic salmon attest. We will be allowing a very select, limited number of fishermen test their skills on the Gowla Fishery in 2009. To have your rod cosidered for this re-opening of the Gowla, please contact Colm Redmond at the Zetland by calling +353 95 31111 or by e-mailing him at info@zetland.com.

Sea Angling

The waters off Clifden are deep and clean and offer a huge variety of species of sportfish. From reef fishing to hunting Blue Sharks, or trying to tempt the mighty Bluefin Tuna. The angling season runs from March to mid October .

Drifting over reefs in 15 to 100m of water will yield Ling, Cod, Coalfish, Wrasse and Mackerel, to name but a few. Using Red Gill's and lead heads for Pollack is a speciality and provides excellent sport with fish average about 2.5 kg (5lbs +) and frequently edge over 5.5 kg (10lbs +). Summer cod are plentiful and fish in the 10 to 15 lbs range are common, shoals of Coalfish vary in size from clouds of 1lb fish to tackle smashing adults over 10 lbs. A day's drifting over reefs should yield 10 to 15 species and some additional bait could well increase this up to 15 or 20. The annual average number of species stands at an impressive 34 over the last 5 years with rarities like Bluemouth, Hake and Blue Whiting making up the numbers.

Anchoring over any of John's reef marks could well entice a whopper from the depths. A Mackerel strip or flapper fished on a flowing trace for Conger or Ling is often successful and there may well be a bonus Bull Huss or big Cod ready to take the bait. The many sand and gravel patches are home to different types of Ray, flatfish like Plaice, Dabs and Turbot and if your are lucky you may run into a common Skate.