The Clady is a small tributary of the Lower Bann with excellent wild brown trout and salmon. Managed by The Honourable Irish Society. Intimate fishing — narrow river, overhanging trees, pocket water. The trout are wild, free-rising, and average 6–10 oz. Salmon push through on the back of floods. Fly only. Atlantic salmon are managed under DAERA and Loughs Agency conservation byelaws, with mandatory catch-and-release on many waters; check current rules before fishing.
The Clady drains Lough Nacung in the wild Gweedore country of north-west Donegal and runs only about five miles through open moorland, past Bunbeg, to join the Crolly estuary and the Atlantic. It is a short, low, peat-stained river off the granite-and-bog uplands beneath Errigal, the water soft and dark, the banks rough heather and rock. Its flow is unusual: a hydro scheme at Gweedore regulates the system, and the river fishes on artificial freshets released down the catchment, so it behaves much like a spate river — quiet between floods, then sharp and productive when the water comes. The Clady takes a good run of grilse with the odd autumn salmon, returns averaging around five hundred fish, and a day of eight or nine salmon is not unknown on a good freshet. The character is short, rocky, moorland water. Wading is steady on firm granite rock, the banks rougher than the bed.
Wading: Rough heather and rock banks
No venue-specific hatch data yet; as an upland spate headwater, expect sparse, weather-driven stonefly and small upwing activity typical of these streams rather than a reliable rise — a general expectation, not an observed hatch.
- Mixed
- Partly confined
- Pool riffle