UPDATED 28th January 2012

The new year has blown itself into Oughterard with buckets of rain and strong winds in contrast to last year. Temperatures are well above normal so unless we have a cold blip in January or February the new season will be well advanced.

Spawning of trout in the Owenriff river was really good with hundreds of fish counted in the stretch from the house to the Church. - Clearly the anglers did a bad job catching the fish in 2011 - there's always 2012!.

Already boats are being painted and several having some timber work done in preparation for the new season. At last the days are getting longer - a sure sign to start thinking of fishing trips for 2012.

On the 29th November we had the second biggest flood in memory at Camillaun. Early in the morning the road to the house was underwater and as can be seen the jetty was inaccessible  even later in the day despite the flood having dropped in the meantime.

In keeping with our policy for the last few years we have again frozen prices in order to encourage visitors - please make sure to tell your friends about us! Any enquiries can be directed to our email: camillaun@eircom.net

 3rd October 2011

The season finally ended on the 30th September following the lowest Summer temperatures in years. Ironically some of the last days of September were the hottest of the year - but most of the good weather was in Dublin!

Trout fishing wise it was a disappointing year with fewer anglers fishing the Corrib than in recent years. This was in part due to disappointing catches in May due to poor fishing conditions and the lack of nice evening weather over the summer - for dry fly fishing. At least Lough Mask produced some good fishing and in line with local trends Lough Corrib will follow either next year or the year after!!

To our regular anglers for April and May its time to ensure your booking for the coming season. We have received a number of new bookings so please book to ensure your 'spot' is still available!!

September 2011

On the 4th September Oughterard was part of the route for the Ironman 70.3 endurance event. The town provided 50 people to man a feeding station in the cycle. It was a very early start with the station having to be set up by 7.00am and the road from Galway - Maam Cross completely closed to traffic for 7 hours. Well, while it was very enjoyable manning the station, the weather was dreadful - so much so we posted a short video on Youtube!

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFXV7ehISRM! 

August 2011

Towards the end of August Christopher and I headed to Kerry for a few days prior to the starting of the school term. We climbed Carrauntoohil - the highest mountain in Ireland for the first time. We planned to climb the mountain by one of the nicer routes and followed the route in Jim Ryan's book. As we approached the higher part of the climb we noticed a group approaching and clearly heading in the same direction. Not being familiar with the precise route the guides leading the group invited us to join them.

It was a fantastic feat and many thanks to Felicia Thomas www.scrapzville.com  and Jim Long for assisting us.

July 2011

For the very first time in 25 years we actually took a holiday in July. With a wedding to attend in New Jersey on the 16th July we spent two weeks in New York State, Connecticut and New Jersey. Thanks to Dave Phat and Brian Walshe of Long Island we were treated to some fabulous fishing. We have now added Blue fish and Fluke to our list of species caught as well as large mouth, small mouth bass and sun fish!

We did return to the busy part of the season with the Arts Festival and Galway races!

June 2011

 The summer has been very unusual this year. April had the best dry sunny weather, may was very windy for every day of the month. Much of that continued into June and we are still having more than our fair share of colder than normal weather. Because of this fishing has in general been poor. Nevertheless, there have been some nice fish caught and at the moment there are salmon running.

 The photo shows Michael Twomey and Brian Forrestal on a outing to Lough Corrib on the 25th June with a fine 2lb trout.

May 2011

Well  the new trout season is well and truly underway and some good fish have been caught. The mayfly is up and running and most people are catching fish. it is quite windy so the flies are skating over the surface - difficult for dappers but successful for dryfly fishermen! The boating requires care not to be washed up on the islands.

it was a lovely day today but has been very windy. if you have not booked some Mayfly fishing its time to act fast!!

On the 1st and 2nd May we hosted a German Blogger in "mission-ireland.de" a Failte Ireland and Avis sponsored promotion of Ireland. They are travelling for a month throughout Ireland and do Missions or challenges proposed by their followers in Germany, you can check their blog out at: www.mission-ireland.de The blogger is Kai Muller and his driver and assistant Marcel. 

April 2011

On Friday 1st April 2011 Oughterard hosted the President of Ireland to a presentation of all the voluntary effort around the town. A fantastic day was had and everyone in the town made a huge effort to ensure that the town looked splendid. Deirdre was the co-ordinator and host of the event!

So Oughterard has had a good start to the season and lets hope the town will be looking well for the season ahead.

March 2011

The development 50 competition took place last weekend and there was a very tight battle to the finish by two local teams - - it was won by Mike Faherty and Kevin Molloy who beat Martin Butler and Gerry Molloy into a very close second place.

January 2011

December - January was one of the coldest spells in history around here! The river froze - to the extent that we needed a crow bar to break the ice! The lake froze all the way to Rouillaun! We had temperatures of -12 degrees centegrade on Christmas morning - with no water!!

We got over four days with no water and finally the thaw came and the water came back. Thankfully no leaks!

 The days are now getting longer but its again starting to get colder.

December 2010

We saw salmon spawning the other day. its hard to photograph but there are two fish in the photo, one sideways digging the gravel the other patiently waiting just above the first fish!

It's time to start planning the year ahead! So why not put a few days aside for trout fishing in April its a particularly good time of the year!!

2010 Was a mixed year with poor fishing conditions during the peak times and better conditions when everyone was on holidays! But already we are looking towards next season. Bookings are coming in steadily. We are maintaining just 11 boats now - as we like to keep our boats maintained to a very high standard - 14 was too many!!

Brian Cowan has ensured that no-one can take a holiday this Christmas! So much for the grand ideas and all the efforts and hard work put in over the year things will just have to wait until the economy picks up.

We are all looking forward to Christmas in Oughterard with lots of family, timber fires and winter walks. 

There was a great run of salmon into the Corrib this year so we expect some great spawning - another thing to look out for over Christmas.

July 2010

 I caught a lovely salmon on the Erriff at the start of July weighing 11.5 lbs. That's a hard weight to break so I have not tried to better it!

Following the opening of the Dublin - Galway motorway Oughterard is less than 2.5 hours from Dublin - no excuse not to come!

2010 - General

Unfortunately the zebra mussel population underwent an explosion last year so anglers leaving the Corrib to other water as yet unaffected must be vigilant. This has resulted in the water being very clear, this will mean that fish will be harder tricked into taking your fly - so get some finer leader so that you can catch the fish!

The fisheries staff continue to work hard to control and eradicate the Lagarosiphon  - curley leafed pondweed. This has infested many bays in the upper basin of the lake. Anglers should avoid driving through the weed as propellers fragment the weed and spread it. If you come across a big stand of weed - avoid it. There are also many bouys around the lake marking areas being treated by the fisheries staff please leave these where they are.

May 2010

At the end of May 2010 we hosted the SIGMA SPORTS team who were competing in the FBD RAS cycle race around ireland.

It was hard to count the calories consumed to re-fuel the team at the end of the day. Dinner alone included four carbohydrates, potatoes, rice, pasta and cous cous. An hour later they were back for cereal!

The team did well but did not win this year.

At the end of May 2010 we hosted renouned journalist, Joulien la Journade who wrote a great article on Lough Corrib.

April 2010

The Development 50 competition on Duckfly took place back in March and was won by a guest of Camillaun - well there's a first!! David Dinsmore and Mike Shanks scored with 15 minutes to go with a trout of over 9 pounds!!. Wonderful for them and a mighty shock to second place who had managed 6 small trout for the day!

March 2010

Well in March 2010 I realised a dream and caught my first bonefish. It meant travelling to Peter Mantle's magnificent new lodge in Abaco, Bahamas but was certainly worth it!

So anyone who wants to know more about it all just ask!!

December - January 2009 - 2010

We avoided most of the really cold spell at Christmas having spent Christmas and the new year in Cuba so here's a couple of contrasting photographs!! Havana at about 25 degrees centigrade and Oughterard at minus five all in the same week!

In December - January 2009 / 10 we spent two weeks in Cuba. The last of the foreign holidays for some time I fear - due to the severe budget! Here are just a couple of photos for the record!

We have not increased prices on 2009 and some prices re reduced on 2008 levels so its all great value for the years ahead. We anticipate a good year and with the long cold spell over December - January perhaps we will have normal seasons for a change!!

As with the suggestion in our update of the 18th December when I suggested that as the salmon were spawning early we were heading into a long dry spell, well that was exactly what happened - so if you want to know the forthcoming weather just ask a salmon.

December 2009

Great news on the access front the M6 motorway from Dublin to Galway opened on the 18th December. You can now get from the west of Dublin to Oughterard in 2 hrs 20 mins!! - no excuse for not coming fishing for a weekend break great brown trout fishing was never closer!!

 Given the very encouraging mayfly last year we are expecting another good year in 2010. Please tell us of your needs and we will try to cater for them. By the way Aer Arann is offering very competitive rates to Galway Airport from many destinations in the UK for 2010 so check with their website: http://www.aerarann.com/  We can arrange transfer from Galway airport for those who wish to come and not bother with a car.

The early season fishing with Duckfly from around the 10th March is also good with buzzer fishing the most successful method. Anglers coming at that time of the year can have some excellent sport. This is followed by Olive fishing in April which for a good period overlaps with Duckfly fishing. May brings the Mayfly and anglers coming during that time should be prepared to give a few days to the traditional dapping of the natural mayfly - it tends to be more successful than the artificial fly.

July 2009

We had some great fishing in  2009, certainly the Corrib produced some excellent trout and it was encouraging for evening outings to be well rewarded in the summer.

In late July I caught two good trout which we kept for a large family dinner, best 3lb 7 oz and second 1lb 14 ozs in two hours! The Green Peter and Johnston flies delivered!

May 2009

2009 saw the best Mayfly in years. Trout returned to the surface in large numbers splashing at hatching mayflies. Those that did not record good catches were happy to report great hatches of fly and  large numbers of trout feeding. Not everywhere every day but consistently good hatches and rises through a three week period. The mornings saw the greatest activity with less fish moving later in the day. The Mayfly started in earnest on the 3rd or 4th of May and continued right up to the end of the month. In fact in June trout are still being caught on Mayflies.

 Excellent bags of trout were recorded and virtually everything returned by guests at Camillaun. Johnny Mac and his 6 welsh anglers recorded 145 trout with just 31 retained. The Kieseweiser party had 48 with 33 returned. Pat Doyle, Dermot O'Mahony and Timmy O'Connor recorded 36 fish with just 9 kept. In addition the Priestley party had some excellent trout including one at 6lbs, 1 at 5lbs and several in the 2 - 3 lb range. Niall O'Connell and Stephen Ryan had 10 with all returned and Alastair and Graeme McLoughlin also had 10 all returned.

The fishing has been very good with fish coming to the dap, the wets as well as dry flies. Last year we saw the best fall of spent gnat on the lake for years and as expected hatches of flies are good this year. the trout are also feasting on the mayfly with all ranges of trout coming to the dap from small fish to trout of 5 and 6 pounds being caught. Anglers caught up to 6 or 7 trout in a day but respected the new regulations and in fact only brought one or two fish home for dinner. By all reports from the dozen or so boats out of Camillaun this is the best mayfly in 8 or 9 years.

There has been a good run of spring salmon into the Corrib this year the grilse run was not as good as last year.

2008

The Special conservation measures for wild brown trout were signed by the Minister into law in 2008. These apply to the three main lakes, Loughs Corrib, Mask and Carra and their feeder rivers and streams. The laws primarily are as follows:

All trout under 33 cms (13 inches) must be returned immediately alive to the water.

The daily limit of trout that can be retained by an angler is 4 this includes a maximum of one (1) ferox trout or brown trout over 4.54kg (10 lbs) in any 1 day. - Anglers are however encouraged to return all ferox trout alive.

An angler cannot use more than one rod when fly fishing or dapping and not more than 4 flies when fly fishing or trolling flies.

An angler cannot use more than 2 rods at any time when bait fishing, spinning or trolling from either the bank or a boat.

No more than 3 rods in total can be used when bait fishing, spinning or trolling in any boat at any time by two or more anglers.

The seasons on some rivers and the Cong canal have been amended.

These are welcome and will hopefully influence anglers attitudes to catch and kill into the future. There will be a bag limit of 4 trout per angler - more than enough -  the day of killing everything you catch is gone. These beautiful trout deserve more than a bang on the head - although I, like everyone, would take one for the dinner - why not.

November 2008

In November 2008 we took a short break for a week in Florida and smuggled a couple of rods into the bags! We managed a few hours fishing and added another few species to our list of foreign fish!!

February 2008

By the way we have a new addition to the family. After Christmas we adopted a dog in the GSPCA and her name is Spud. So in case you have allergies we now have a dog as well as a cat. Minxie the resident cat for the past 8 years is tolerating this new addition somewhat reluctantly!  Spud constantly plays with her ball.

2007

In 2007 we went fishing other species, both Christopher and I caught our first ferox trout - Christopher's is features on the home page. We also caught several really large bream.

December 2007

In December 2007 we went on a trip of a lifetime to the magnificent Galapagos Islands off Ecuador. It is the greatest place we have ever visited. So just to make you jealous I have added a few photographs of Christmas in the Galapagos islands.

2007

We have published our new brochure and a printed copy is available by request alternatively you can download it as a .pdf file on our website Home page .

The summer is a great time to take a boat out on Lough Corrib and go to an island for a picnic so it is a great option as part of a visit to Oughterard ad Connemara.

If you are intending coming fishing make sure you have checked the weather! To check the weather go to www.met.ie and click on forecasts then select Inland lakes this will give an excellent forecast for Lough Corrib.

We have plenty of boats available for the day tripper!

Bad news on the Zebra Mussel front. After years of campaigning this pest has been found to have settled in the upper basin of Lough Corrib in 2007 as well as in the small chain of lakes called the Moycullen lakes. A significant infestation has been found in Ross lake and specimens also recovered in Hamishmaconry and Drimcong lakes.

This picture shows Mr and Mrs Thomas Protheroe with their beautiful 3lb trout caught on the 24th March 2007.

Salmon fishing is subject to quota and the quota for keeping salmon on Lough Corrib is significantly improved on that for 2007. No brown tags will be necessary in 2008 - just the normal blue tag.

Some of the nice memories for last year were particularly Christopher's first Ferox trout which was safely tagged and released as part of the Ferox tagging programme - this fish is so good we put it on the front page!!

I also still have kept the picture of my lovely trout at Inchagoill which I successfully landed with the assistance of Christopher on a size 12 bibio! 

One of the favourite destinations on the Corrib is Inchagoill, however there are many very beautiful islands that are well worth a visit for a picnic.

During May 2007 boats caught from 0 fish to 15 per day!! - thankfully  most anglers are returning nearly all fish regardless of size with just a very small number kept for personal consumption. This is particularly encouraged for those fishing with buzzers in March and April as these take fish of spawning size and larger. We also encourage anglers to keep fish in moderation and to "let them go let them grow" !! Following an excellent spawning season everything is looking up for the year ahead. 

Last year Christopher had his first trout on the buzzer from his favourite bay - Kitts Bay.

 A superb trout was caught last summer in sunny conditions at Inchagoill - See Photo:

As with many seasons some of the best fishing is had in the early season with some lovely trout caught in late March and early April on the Duckfly. The Duckfly and Olive fishing are underrated in terms of fishing and excellent days can be enjoyed from the 17th March until May each year.

As some of you already know, we have made major improvements over the past three years. We have extended the dining room to ensure everyone is catered for at the same time if desired at breakfast. We have added a timber floor in the sitting room and an antique marble fireplace! 

To crown it all we have built on a major activities room this will be completed in time for the Mayfly with the addition of a full size snooker table, a fly tying area, a piano and a reading  / relaxation area.

No excuse for not coming to visit us in the Summer and Autumn of 2008 for an activity based holiday either.Looking forward to season and seeing you at Camillaun.

December 2006 - January 2007

In January 2007 we returned from our own holiday where some very interesting fish were caught by Christopher and myself!

If you wish to make an enquiry please contact Deirdre by phone, Fax or email to check availability.