by Paddy Donagher
Ballyshannon is a quiet little town with a population of around 3,000, some famous people who have a direct association with the town are the British Prime minister Tony Blair, whose mother Hazel came from Ballyshannon, and Tony as a young lad spent many happy summers here. Rock Guitarist Rory Gallagher, the Poet William Allingham and his grandson Jimmy Kennedy, the author of many popular songs such as, �The Hokey Cokey� �South of the Border� �Red Sails in the Sunset� and many more. Local amenities include, a Leisure Centre, Cinema and Theatre Complex, A Caravan and Camping Site, Horse Riding and Pony Trekking, Nature Walks, Two 18 hole Golf Courses just a 15 minute drive away and off course a variety of lovely beaches.
by Owen McManus at the Mall Quay
The Erne Estuary at Ballyshannon, is a popular Sea Trout fishery, the season is from the 1st March until 30th Sept. each year, this is a beautiful winding river that flows for 4 miles from the Mall Quay (5 minute walk from the town centre) through some of the tallest sand dunes in Europe until finally flowing out into Donegal bay, while shore fishing the river is best fished during the last two hours of the ebb tide and the first hour of the flood tide or while fishing by boat it can be fished at all stages of the tide, Boats with an outboard engine can be hired at the Mall Quay, other species on this river are Salmon, Brown trout, Eels, Mullet and Flounder. Fly fishing is very popular here, and some of the most popular flies used are the Gadget, Parson Tom, Daddy Long Legs, Needle Eye, Artic Special, and the Gosling, while those who prefer spinning the Blue and Silver Toby, Tasmanian Devil, Silver Crill are some of the most popular spoon baits, Sand Eel and Worm fishing is another method used.
There are somewhere in the region of a hundred mountain lakes which have stocks of wild brown trout, one of the more popular lakes in this region is Lough Melvin it has Salmon and four varieties of trout namely Brown, Feroux, Gilaroo, and Sonaghan.
The Bunduff River is a popular Salmon Fishery and the River Drowes is probably one of the better Salmon fisheries in the North West, this river normally produces Irelands first rod caught salmon each year, the season is from 1st January until 30th September.
Lough Unshin in Cashelard is a very good lake that produces wild brown mountain trout, from a half to one and a half pounds.
The Irish Tourist Authority do not even know that we have Coarse Fish here in Donegal, a few anglers from Sheffield, England who are regular visitors here, reckon that Coarse fishing in Ballyshannon is one of the best kept secrets of all time, there is excellent Pike, Bream, Roach, Perch, Roach/Bream hybrids and Eel fishing, it is not unusual to catch Bream and Hybrids in excess off 8lbs and Pike on Assaroe Lake can reach the 40lb plus mark, while there is no recorded Coarse specimen fish for this region there are specimen fish in several of the lakes, access is good on most of the lakes.
Donegal Bay holds somewhere in the region of 30 plus species, BBC Discovery TV on a recent visit to Ballyshannon during June 2001 had the pleasure on a days Sea Angling expedition from the Fishing Village of Creevy, a total of twelve species of sea fish were caught. Some of the species in Donegal Bay are Pollock, Wrasse, Tope, Shark, Cod, Mackerel, Conger, Ling, Ray and Tuna, a 534 lb Tuna was caught during the year 2000. Shore fishing is very popular and access is good, some of the more popular fish that can be caught shore fishing are, Pollock, Wrasse, Conger, Mackerel, Plaice, Cod, Flounder and Fluke. While there are those who prefer Boat fishing, there
are many charter boats for hire in Donegal Bay, these charter boat operators take great pride in their fishing prowess and on most trips it is not unusual to land at least seven or more different species.
For further information on Angling, a recently published �Donegal Bay Angling Guide� covering �Game, Course and Sea� is available in most good Book Shops and Tourist Outlets or contact Paddy Donagher on 00 353 72-51815 or 0035386-8724370
