Spend a couple weeks touring around the flyfishing byways of Ireland, and you will notice that many of the country’s beautiful backroads are extremely narrow, bordered on both sides by thick, centuriesold stone walls. Driving at high speeds mere inches from these jagged guardrails is a lot like fishing at slow speeds for wary Atlantic salmon—both require hours of focused vigilance despite the slim chance of running into either.
The challenge of landing a Salmo salar in Ireland shouldn’t deter anyone from trying. Wild Atlantic salmon—like their cultural siblings, wild Pacific steelhead—are hard to catch no matter where they’re found. Indeed, it is the species’ difficult nature that attracts many a masochistic follower in the first place. But at least in Ireland, you’ll never be far from salmon-adjacent activities like golfing or drinking or castle-roaming or trout fishing, and you won’t break the bank accessing the water.
“There’s a perception among American anglers that all the water in Ireland is going to be private,” says Paul O’Reilly, a passionate Irish flyfisher who helped host my visit. “And it’s not.” We had just left Ballynahinch Castle, one of the country’s most exclusive salmon-fishing areas, where anyone can walk in off the street and buy six hours of guided fishing for around 250 bucks. And that’s for a salmon river. If swinging for salmon isn’t your cup of Guinness, Ireland’s waters feature an impressive B list of species including native browns and sea trout. Permits for some rivers cost $15 a year.
“Most of the trout rivers are managed by a local club, so in that sense they’re privately managed,” O’Reilly says, “but there are always day tickets available. Maybe the clubs don’t market themselves or make the day-ticket information as available as it should be, but we always advise people: These are all small Irish towns—if you go into the local shop or pub, you’ll find out how to buy a ticket. It’s as simple as that.”
O’Reilly and fellow fanatical flyfisher Myles Kelly both work for Inland Fisheries Ireland, the government agency primarily responsible for the protection and conservation of Ireland’s inland waterways. The group is
