I provide professional guiding services on Lough Key, located in County Roscommon Ireland.
Lough key in country Roscommon is a rather triangular shape and composed of about thirty islets, which are all mainly wooded including castle island which houses a medieval castle. The lake is in the northern part of the river Shannon which flows from Lough Gara through the town of Boyle and into Lough Key. From there it flows eastward until it reaches the river Shannon at just about Carrick on Shannon. Lough Key is 5 kilometres in length and 3 kilometres in width, with an average depth of 17 feet.
Lough Key gets a very early hatch of Mayfly so it's a great place to start on Mayfly before the other lakes kick in, and also of course to lengthen that part of the season. Free rising wild Brown Trout can be seen picking of the these Mayfly duns, and pulling Wet fly or Dry Mayfly patterns through these rising fish can produce some lively days on the water. Lough Key is also renowned for it's Spent Gnat fishing and there is some excellent fishing to be had with large falls of Spent landing on the water. Larger Brown Trout can be seen coming up and sipping Spent Gnat patterns into the evening with Trout often up to the 6lb or 8lb mark being caught.
We start to see Sedges appearing in July and again Trout will often be seen taking these Sedges with some excellent dry fly fishing to be had around the islands.
In August and September Fry start to make an appearance and once again the larger Brown Trout start to take an interest, feeding hard on Perch and Roach Fry and can often be seen hitting these Fry on the shorelines and fishing can be excellent with some large fish often been caught in the 8lb mark.
The season for Brown Trout on Lough Key is from March 1st to September 30th.
You can arrange booking with me throughout the year using email (mahonjackie@gmail.com), or through the details on my contact Jackie page. Please note that if we don't answer your query straight away, that means we are out on the water guiding and we will get back to you as soon as possible.
Once bookings are made, I will contact you a few days in advance to talk about conditions, directions and times.
Where do we meet?
We meet up at Doon Shore on the west side of the lake, please refer to the map below.
(click to view on Google Maps)
Please note: We fish rain or shine, unless the weather is deemed unsafe by Jackie. In the event of dangerous weather, we will reschedule for a future date. To protect our wild fish this is a catch and release (C&R) fly fishing guide service.
To learn more please refer to the Frequently Asked Questions page.