Angling

Fishing in Lanesborough, photo by Brigid Mullooly

County Longford has gained a reputation as having some of the best and unspoilt lakes and rivers available for today's angler.  This is particularly true of its coarse angling with a choice of over thirty lakes, rivers and canals never more than ten minutes away.  Longford contains the longest county shoreline of the River Shannon and also the Inny and Camlin rivers as well as Lough Gowna and Lough Ree. Although game fishing is popular, with numerous locations where excellent catches can be taken, it is coarse fishing that offers the greatest pleasure to the Longford angler.

The quality and quantity of bream, roach, tench and in particular pike in the extensive river and lake systems provide excellent opportunities to catch bumper weights. Some of county Longford's best places to fish are: the River Shannon, which carves its way through Longford from Rooskey to Lanesborough and holds excellent stocks of pike in its weedy inlets and wider stretches.  The weedy inlets and wider stretches upstream from Lanesborough are most productive especially where the Feorish and Camlin rivers enter and downstream from Termonbarry Lock with the best location on this stretch being Lough Forbes.

Upstream from Rooskey, the Shannon enters Lough Bofin and Boderg which are also worth attention.  Lough Ree which is also noted for its pike and its many bays contain roach, tench and in particular bream.  It also contains fine trout, particularly early and late in the season.  It should be noted that Lough Ree is the equivalent of an inland sea, being over 30km long, and weather conditions can deteriorate quickly.  Lough Gowna which is really a collection of numerous large and small interconnected lakes which provide some of the best coarse fishing locations in Ireland and is especially noted for roach, bream, perch and tench.  The River Inny which is a top class coarse fishery and also between Ballymahon and Abbeyshrule a productive wet and dry fly trout fishery.  Most of the river can be fished from the banks and the principal centres for fishing the river are Abbeyshrule, Ballymahon and Granard.

North Longford is noted for its wild well conditioned bream, roach, hybrids, pike, perch and its two games lakes with brown and rainbow trout, it has few equals as a holiday haven – probably none.

Lanesborough is located on the main River Shannon at the northern end of Lough Ree in County Longford.  It is 135 kilometres from Dublin and 15 kilometres from Longford Town.  This is a renowned Angling Centre where you will find all supporting services including Tackle and Boat Hire etc.  Advise is always readily available locally.  This is an ideal base for the Pike angler interested in fishing Lough Ree where you can expect Pike up to 20lbs +.  Lanesborough offers excellent facilities for the Coarse Angler.  There are three venues from which to choose – The renowned Hot Water Stretch, The Cut and Kilnacarrow.

Coarse fishing in this areas centres on the Royal Canal.  The Royal Canal holds an excellent stock of pike, perch, bream, roach, tench and eels. There has been extensive development on large stretches of these waterways and there is good access for disabled anglers in some areas.

Fishing at Abbeyshrule - Fisherman: Niall Dowler, Video credit: Conor Keegan

Some useful links: Fishing In Ireland, North Longford Angling Club, AM Pike Guiding, Lough Ree Lanesborough Angling Hub,  Inland Fisheries Ireland