Angling
County Leitrim is widely acknowledged as an angler’s paradise for recreational and sport fishing with some of the most lightly fished natural waters in Europe. Ballinamore is a well-developed angling centre with access to rivers and lakes, home to a large population of wild fish.
A premier location for the coarse and pike angler host to national and international fishing competitions and the world-famous World Pairs Angling Championships.
Angler's Welcome
At Hamill’s anglers will experience a warm welcome. Early risers can enjoy breakfast before setting off for the day with a hot flask, returning to the ‘angling shed’ to dry wet weather gear and cold store bait for the next day. With off street parking and room for your boat, just a few steps from the town’s many bars and restaurants, Hamill’s is the ideal base for your fishing holiday.
Where to Fish on your Angling Holiday in Leitrim
Ballinamore is in the middle reaches of the Shannon-Erne Waterway, a navigational canal linking a series of lakes from the River Shannon to the mighty Lough Erne. The Ballinamore Canal has healthy stocks of Bream, Roach, Tench Perch, Eel, and Pike with several notable areas with accessible fishing.
The lush green countryside contains numerous well-hidden lakes just waiting to be discovered by the pike angler. There are many opportunities to fish from the bank, but these can be maximised with a float tube or belly boat with lake boats available to hire locally. The lure of these fine predators often caught on the fly, with a varied range of waters keeps the pike angler returning year after year to discover more. Guiding services can be provided.
The specimen hunter will enjoy a cluster of lakes downstream of Ballinamore, including Bolganard Lake home to the Irish bream record of 12lbs 3oz until more recently. Bream, Roach, Perch, Rudd and Pike are present in these reed-fringed lakes to include Corgar Lake and Corduff Lake, with Tench to specimen size also found at Drumlonan Lake.
Home to big shoals of Bream, the 1200-acre Garadice Lake is now better known for its fighting hybrids and bags of roach. This premier coarse angling venue, to include the popular Church and Haughton’s shores offers 65 swims with roadside access and parking at your peg. Both shores offer access for the less able, also providing WC facilities and a slipway.
At the roadside as you leave Ballinamore in the direction of Carrick on Shannon is Kiltybardan Lake, home to 15 bankside swims along a barrow-friendly pathway. Popular with both the coarse and pike angler there is a car park from which you can launch a boat. A small channel connects to St. John’s Lake, with both venues popular for roach, hybrids, skimmers and pike. Further northwest is Lough Scur, a popular year-round match venue where good roach catches can be had in the shallow waters during the summer months.
Other notable coarse fishing spots close by are Kiltyfea Lake, and Lough Allen at nearby Drumshanbo. All within easy reach a variety of waters from the river at Carrick on Shannon to the upper reaches of the Erne system provide for unlimited angling opportunities.
Specialised fishing maps, bait and tackle together with angling expertise and knowledge are available locally.
