I provide professional guiding services on Lough Melvin, located in the West of Ireland. Most recently I have guided and tied the winning flies for the Irish team that helped them achieve a gold medal on Lough Melvin in June 2022. Lough Melvin is 8 miles long and 3 miles wide and famous for the Kingsmill patterns from TC Kingsmill Moore who regularly fished it and wrote about it in his famous book "A Man May Fish". It is still read all over the world to this day.
A 45 min drive from Sligo on the N15 road to Donegal, between Leitrim (Ireland) and Northern Ireland, will take you to the world famous Lough Melvin and it's famous Gillaroo and Sonaghan Trout that only habitats Lough Melvin. It also holds Brown Trout, Char Trout and Ferox and is the only lake in Ireland to do so. Lough Melvin also gets a run of Salmon from the famous Drowes river that runs out of the Lough and they are often caught on trout flies while chasing trout.
Lough Melvin is home to the Gillaroo Trout, a species of Trout that eats primarily snail. The name Gillaroo is derived from the Irish language "Giolla Rum" which means red fellow. They bear a bright golden colour in it's flanks with bright red spots. They are manly bottom feeding fish, but also get caught frequently on fly patterns on the surface.
The Sonaghan Trout is unique to Lough Melvin, it is a light brown colour with large black spots, with fins also dark brown. Sonaghan are found in open deep water where they often live in shoals and quite often you would hook 2 to 3 on a cast of wetfly drifting from a boat. They are a very powerful fish for their size and often get caught up to 14 inches. They feed mostly on Daphnia and Midges.
The Brown Trout is found mostly in bays on Lough Melvin, but they can also venture out into open water where they are often caught up to 5lbs in weight. Typically Brown Trout on
Melvin have a brown back, with lighter coloured sides and with black or reddish spots pale belly and reddish brown fins.
When Guiding on Lough Melvin I often offer my guests a chance to chase these 3 species, which in Guiding terms is called the "Melvin Treble".
March and April sees the start of the fishing for Trout with hatches of duck fly and olives appearing, fishing consists of small wet fly patterns to match the hatch.
May and June sees the start of the Mayfly with Trout starting to move in open deep water. Fishing can be very lively with some great fishing to be had. Early June sees the start of Caenis fishing with early mornings and free rising fish again appearing. Casting must be spot on as these fish spook very easily, this sort of fishing is definitely for the more experienced angler in casting.
In July, August and September, these months can see some excellent fishing on the Lough for Trout feeding on Daphnia, again fishing in open water can be exceptional.
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 in the morning at Breffni Pier:
(click to view on Google Maps)
There is a guide to Lough Melvin online on the Fishing in Ireland website, with a second page covering
Salmon fishing.
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 "Typical Day Out" section below, or the following sections:
- "Let's Go Fishing..." options throughout the season
- Accommodation around lough Melvin
- Other activities around Melvin