Salmon and Trout fishing

In Ireland the trout season opens on the 1st February and the salmon season opens on the 1st January in some areas. On the river Suir the season opens on the 17th March and closes on the 31st of September. The best time for trout is from mid April to the end of June. For salmon the best fishing  is from late August to the end of the season.

There is a large variety of fishing for trout available, from reservoirs rainbows (which have no season) to mountain stream wild brown trout. Personally If you want the true Irish experience, you have to give Irish Lough style a try and dry fly on the river Suir. Both of these offers superb may fly-fishing from mid May to the end of June. Here you will find plenty of good size trout rising freely that is until you put your fly close to them. There is a saying here in Ireland that the trout are so clever they could tie flies for you.

Quality leisure time on the river Suir

The river Suir (pronounced Sure) is a limestone river and is 115 miles long, making it the second biggest river in Ireland. Only a handful of rivers can compare with it in terms of trout density and I doubt if any river can equal it in terms of overall range in size from 12oz to 2.5lbs. Blue winged Olives are very predominant from June onwards; before that there is May fly and large dark Olives; small black Midges fish well in April also. If you require a list of flies and patterns please email me at philip@fishhunt.ie.

The river Suir is noted for its prolific run of big Atlantic Salmon, typically between 5 – 7kg in weight. On the Suir there is a brown tagging policy throughout the season (see decnr news release) and fishing with the fly, spinner or prawn is permitted.

  river_suir_and_tributaries.pdf (79.3 KiB)

The Blackwater river

Second only to the river Moy, the Blackwater river accounts for more than 10% of the salmon caught in Ireland. The total number of salmon caught by rod and line in 2008 in the Blackwater was 4,666 and approximately 33% of these were released (source: The central and regional fisheries boards wild salmon and sea-trout statistics report 2008).