Caddisflies
Two Connemara fisheries of different scale and character that are often grouped together under the Ballinakill District heading. The fishery covers Kylemore Middle and Castle lakes, part of the Upper Lough, and 5.5 km of the Dawros River below. Kylemore Lough itself is the more famous — enclosed in a glacial valley below the Twelve Bens, drained by a short river to the sea at Tully Cross, and surrounded by one of the most photographed landscapes in Ireland. Salmon and sea trout enter on high water from June, and the lake drift can be exceptional, though the sea trout are not as plentiful as in former times and average around the half-pound mark. The Dawros below the lough is smaller and more typical: a short spate system running off blanket bog, fishing only when water is right. IFI-managed. Do not oversell — runs are variable and water-dependent. The setting compensates for many a blank day. For 2026 this remains an open fishery — salmon may be retained in season under the Wild Salmon & Sea Trout Tagging Scheme and bag limits, with catch-and-release at other times.
No venue-specific hatch data yet; as a lough-river system typical of Connemara's acidic-lough country, expect buzzers and terrestrials to dominate over rich upwing hatches, with the connecting river adding occasional spate-driven stonefly and sedge activity - treat this as a general expectation, not an observed hatch.
- Lough system
- Granite
