Spate · Mixed · East / Louth

River Dee (Louth)

River Dee (Louth) terrain map

East coast spate river in County Louth.

Prime · Brown Trout
Partridge and Orange · 14-16
Primelive now
About as good as it gets
Low and clear — careful approach country. Take your time — read the water before you cast.
90% confidence
What moved it
  • Level0.44 mLast reading 6h ago
  • Water temp14.3°C
  • ClarityClear
Today's fly
Partridge and Orange
Partridge and Orange14-16
Upstream
Conditions on the water
Live gauge
Level
Steady
0.44 m
Last reading 6h ago
Water temp14.3°C
ClarityClear
Weather23°C
WindSW 13 km/h
Pressure1020 hPa
Rain · recent0.0 mm
Rain · ahead0.7 mm

Live readings only. Trends shown where the gauge supports them.

Water temperature for Brown Trout
Ideal
14.3°Cideal 10–16°C
0°14°28°
How to fish it · for Brown Trout
When
Nymphing can work through most of the day.
Where
Cover mixed depths.
Method
Start with tight-line nymphs and adjust if fish rise or drift higher.
Kit
9 ft #4 rod, floating line, 12 ft tapered leader to 4–5 lb fluoro tippet.
Why this works
Excellent — water temperature is right today, though time of day could be better.
Hatch timeline · todayPeak at 6am

Hatch predictions

Today's headline hatch shown — see all 12 active hatches hour by hour with Pro.

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Sub-surface · on the nymphunder the surface

Hatch predictions

Top nymph shown — see all 3 guilds with Pro.

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Beyond the hatch · worth watchingambient prey

Hatch predictions

Top prey shown — see all 2 with Pro.

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Evidence
Survey-backed · regionalHigh confidence

Backed by regional invertebrate surveys; no sampling on this exact reach yet.

Through the year
0–3 scale · August highlighted
J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Salmon runRun
Sea trout runRun
Trout seasonSeason
1
2
2
2
2
2
1
Daddy Long LegsHatch
2
3
2
March BrownHatch
2
3
2
GrannomHatch
2
2
Large StoneflyHatch
2
3
2

Numbers are intensity 0 (none) to 3 (peak) — a guide, not a guarantee.

Ranked for today
Brown Trout fly box
What's coming
Plan ahead
5-day outlook
Other water nearby · 5
River Dee (Louth)
< 1 km
Brown trout
Castletown River
11 km
35
Brown trout · Sea trout
Ballymascanlan River
14 km
39
Brown trout · Sea trout
River Fane
17 km
Brown trout
River Fane
17 km
Brown trout
About this water

East coast spate river in County Louth. Wild brown trout and occasional sea trout. Mixed geology catchment draining the Cooley peninsula hinterland. Good fly hatches: mayfly (E. danica), olives, sedges, black gnat, reed smut. Salmon and sea-trout runs in the lower river below Cappogue Bridge.

Hatches & food

EPA invertebrate monitoring on the River Dee (Louth) confirms mayflies, caddis, midges and blackflies, and freshwater shrimp and hoglice are present across its WFD segments, with stoneflies recorded too though only lightly. This is food-presence evidence from kick sampling, not a dated hatch calendar.

  • Mixed
The full read · show the working · for Brown Trout · confidence 90%
How the 84 is built — score × weight = contribution
Temperature100 × 28%28.0
Flow80 × 22%17.6
Clarity95 × 18%17.1
Feeding Time60 × 13%7.8
Pressure80 × 7%5.6
Insect activity66 × 12%7.9
Conditions total= 84
Can you trust it?
Water temperaturelive gauge readinggauge
Level / flowon-river gaugeobserved
Prey activitysurvey-backed invertebrate datasurvey
What would change the calculation
The dawn and dusk windows score higher than the midday lull.
Directions
Apple MapsGoogle Maps
Seasons & zones
  • Salmon 1 February → 30 SeptemberClosed
  • Sea trout 1 February → 30 SeptemberClosed
  • Trout 1 March → 30 September
Related guides
ConnemaraIrish fishingEuro Nymphingsubsurface methods
Casting instructors near here
Booking & contacts