Fishing in Co. Mayo

Mayo is Atlantic-facing, cut through by rivers and dotted with loughs from the coast to the inland limestone plain.

It sits in the west of Ireland, where the land is wet enough and the catchments large enough to hold serious wild fisheries across almost every type of water — spate rivers, big limestone lakes, tidal estuaries, and open ocean.

The fishing here isn't a single scene; it's several, and they don't overlap much. The River Moy is the anchor.

It produces around 9,000 salmon to the rod in a good year — roughly a third of Ireland's annual rod catch — and runs through Ballina before meeting the tide.

Access ranges from association day tickets through East Mayo Anglers to private beats, and the Ridge Pool in Ballina is as well-known a piece of salmon water as you'll find anywhere in the country.

For those who want to get further out, the Owenduff and Erriff are spate rivers that fish well when there's water in them, and Carrowmore Lake near Bangor Erris holds both salmon and sea trout.

The Burrishoole Fishery and Newport River are worth knowing about too — quieter than the Moy, and capable of producing sea trout alongside their salmon. The great western loughs — Conn, Carra, and Mask — are a different kind of fishing entirely.

Lough Conn is a self-sustaining wild brown trout fishery that has never been stocked; the recorded annual catch runs to several thousand fish averaging around a pound, with the real figure likely higher.

The Mayfly hatch towards the end of May is the peak, but the lake fishes well into October. Lough Carra holds wild browns averaging closer to 1. 5 lbs, while Lough Mask is where people go looking for ferox — fish that regularly exceed 10 lbs.

These are big, open loughs that reward local knowledge, and hiring a ghillie is a reasonable investment if you're new to them. Sea fishing runs along a long and varied coastline.

Clew Bay and Killala Bay offer sheltered ground for mixed species — ray, conger, coalfish, dabs. The rocky coast around Mulranny and Achill Island is better for pollack and mackerel from the shore, with blue shark available further out. Licensing matters here.

Salmon and sea trout fishing in the Republic requires a State Licence, and most waters also require a separate local permit on top of that — the issuing body is Inland Fisheries Ireland.

Brown trout fishing doesn't require a state licence, but local permits often apply. Check current rules with the fishery operator before you go, not least because sea trout stocks on some systems have been under pressure and regulations can shift.

Mayo rewards the angler who does a bit of homework before arriving. The Moy will always be there and always be busy.

But the quieter spate rivers, the limestone loughs in autumn, the rocky shore marks on a calm evening — those take a little more finding, and they're usually worth it.