Can anyone rent a boat on lough Corrib/Mask for a day?

Nash56

Hi,

Just wondering can anyone rent a boat for the day for fishing on the Corrib or Mask....and when I say anyone I mean a stranger to the area who does not know the lakes and also who would prefer not to bother using the services of an experienced ghillie which can be costly....I'd only be going with 2 other lads and would love to get a day out before the 17th of May as Il be out of the country then...I'm from Limerick and wouldn't require accomodation..simply just to rent a 2 or 3 man boat with a motor for the day...any information ye have would be greatly appreciated...impossible and frustrating trying to find my answer on google...
Also if your wondering what sort of fishing....trolling for half the day...fly fishing for the other half...for trout!

Cheers!:)

keppler

You definitely can for Corrib.......but for Mask it may be different as the water is very rocky and if you dont know the water someone renting boats with outboards may be reluctant to give one to you but hey..... give it a go

Zzippy

Get in touch with IFI in Galway, they have a list of people who hire boats on both lakes. I'd also advise Corrib if you're not hiring a guide, Mask can be very dangerous if you don't know the lake, there are rocks that lurk just under the surface there and they can put a hole in a boat very easily.

fisherking

keppler wrote: »

You definitely can for Corrib.......but for Mask it may be different as the water is very rocky and if you dont know the water someone renting boats with outboards may be reluctant to give one to you but hey..... give it a go

halls angling centre do for sure on mask
I dont know why it has a worse rep
Ive hit as many rocks in both...:D

keppler

fisherking wrote: »

halls angling centre do for sure on mask
I dont know why it has a worse rep
Ive hit as many rocks in both...:D

I would imagine its because some people would like to portray lake boating as a science as opposed to the piece of piss it actually is:D

stylie

keppler wrote: »

I would imagine its because some people would like to portray lake boating as a science as opposed to the piece of piss it actually is:D

It is a piece of piss but still people drown every year on the lakes

stevenmu

I think a "piece of piss" is really over simplifying it. It's certainly possible to do it and survive, but a certain amount of caution is required.

Local knowledge certainly isn't everything, last year I clipped a rock in a place I've gone through a hundred times because the water level was much lower than I realised. I got away it without damaging the boat or the prop because I was going slowly and carefully and watching the water and more importantly what was beneath it.

I wouldn't want to put anyone off fishing such a beautiful lake, but I would urge anyone doing it to be careful, to take proper safety precautions, and to have proper safety equipment.

Go slow and keep a good eye out for rocks near the surface. If you can see the bottom at all, even on a clear sunny day, assume that you're heading straight for a big cluster of rocks. Keep a close eye on the weather and conditions, they can change very quickly, and keep in mind that even if it looks calm in the bay you're going to launch from it can be much rougher when you get out of it. Waves make rocks invisible. Wear a lifejacket, keep it fastened. Don't stand in the boat, there's a wave following you waiting for the chance to rock the boat and throw you over. Bring spare fuel, rowing seems like good fun until the wind strength doubles.

ironbluedun

keppler wrote: »

I would imagine its because some people would like to portray lake boating as a science as opposed to the piece of piss it actually is:D

when weather conditions deteriorate its far from as described above. the advice in post 7 is what you should heed.

okedoke

Hope I'm not hijacking your thread but similar question. I'm going to be in Galway working in June and am going to try and get out on Corrib for a day. I was out with a boatman last year but don't want to drop €150 on a days fishing again if possible. What's the likelihood that some of the bigger ghillie operators would have an od number - thus allowing me to join up with someone for the day? And who would be the bigger (multiple boat) operators?

Alterantively - I'm fairly used to handling an outboard so would be happy enough with the safety aspect of hiring a boat - but how crucial is local knowledge to actually finding fish?

Steve

Zzippy

fisherking wrote: »

halls angling centre do for sure on mask
I dont know why it has a worse rep
Ive hit as many rocks in both...:D

Mask has a worse rep because the water level fluctuates much more, up to 8 feet winter to summer level, and so rocks that are well submerged in early season may be exposed or just under the surface when the level drops, so local knowledge is very important. Corrib doesn't fluctuate as much, usually 2-3 feet.

Also, the rocks on Mask seem to be a lot more jagged than on Corrib, on Corrib most of the rocks are clusters of boulders, whereas on Mask they are outcrops of bedrock - I'm not an expert on geology but I'd guess its something to do with glacial deposition and erosion? Mask being closer to the mountains, glaciers rising there would have eroded the rock and carried away loose material, whereas on Corrib as the glacier reached the sea and melted it deposited that loose material, hence all the loose boulders....

Water chemistry can also have an effect - Lough Carra for instance is very rich in Calcium so you have a large accumulation of marl on the rocks there, which covers sharp edges and renders the lake much safer for boating.

Zzippy

okedoke wrote: »

Hope I'm not hijacking your thread but similar question. I'm going to be in Galway working in June and am going to try and get out on Corrib for a day. I was out with a boatman last year but don't want to drop €150 on a days fishing again if possible. What's the likelihood that some of the bigger ghillie operators would have an od number - thus allowing me to join up with someone for the day? And who would be the bigger (multiple boat) operators?

Alterantively - I'm fairly used to handling an outboard so would be happy enough with the safety aspect of hiring a boat - but how crucial is local knowledge to actually finding fish?

Steve

Steve
You can hire a boat from a good few people, off the top of my head in Oughterard there's Lakelands (Lal Fahertys), Ardnasillagh Lodge (Basil Shields) and Camillaun (Greg and Deirdre Forde). Google any of them for contact details. Fishing out from Oughterard around the islands there are plenty of shallows that hold trout, you don't need a guide to enjoy good fishing, and any of the people who rent you a boat will be able to point you in the right direction to good fishing areas.

keppler

ironbluedun wrote: »

when weather conditions deteriorate its far from as described above. the advice in post 7 is what you should heed.

Ironblue,
The experience one has while lake boating is totally subjective and hence going to vary slightly from person to person. However, in my own personal experience its seems to be nothing more than a 'piece of piss' and i cannot think for the life of me why it wouldn't be for any other normal person either.
As for the advice in post 7, I read nothing there but common sense too be honest why you're pointing that out to me is bewildering, I can only assume that you think I must go boating with no life jacket, standing with the motor at full throttle in shallow water while a gale is blowing

ironbluedun

keppler wrote: »

Ironblue,
The experience one has while lake boating is totally subjective and hence going to vary slightly from person to person. However, in my own personal experience its seems to be nothing more than a 'piece of piss' and i cannot think for the life of me why it wouldn't be for any other normal person either.
As for the advice in post 7, I read nothing there but common sense too be honest why you're pointing that out to me is bewildering, I can only assume that you think I must go boating with no life jacket, standing with the motor at full throttle in shallow water while a gale is blowing

its clear from the original poster has not much experience of corrib or mask (they said it themselves). to suggest to anyone who has little or no experience of those loughs that boating on them for the first time is "a piece of piss" is not correct and is misleading to others who may well be thinking along similar lines. all large limestone loughs are dangerous, especially in bad weather conditions, as referred to in post 8.

I was not pointing anything out to you only advising the original poster, as being inexperienced on those loughs, to read post 7.

bayliner

i have over 30yrs experience on ree, and i never sen such rocks like the ones i seen when i 1st went out from halls on mask:eek:, i have been back to mask several times since, and got caught in a storm once when on my own! now that was scary wondering was the next big wave gonna land me on a rock!! while i hada "fair" idea where i was going i wasnt confident i was right either!
all i would say is if you dont know the lake, get as much advice as possible and DONT go out alone, no fish is worth your life,
there are still parts of ree i dont know even after 30yrs! so just be careful....

okedoke

Zzippy wrote: »

Steve
You can hire a boat from a good few people, off the top of my head in Oughterard there's Lakelands (Lal Fahertys), Ardnasillagh Lodge (Basil Shields) and Camillaun (Greg and Deirdre Forde). Google any of them for contact details. Fishing out from Oughterard around the islands there are plenty of shallows that hold trout, you don't need a guide to enjoy good fishing, and any of the people who rent you a boat will be able to point you in the right direction to good fishing areas.

Thanks Zippy - will do that

Steve

keppler

ironbluedun wrote: »

its clear from the original poster has not much experience of corrib or mask (they said it themselves). to suggest to anyone who has little or no experience of those loughs that boating on them for the first time is "a piece of piss" is not correct and is misleading to others who may well be thinking along similar lines. all large limestone loughs are dangerous, especially in bad weather conditions, as referred to in post 8.

I was not pointing anything out to you only advising the original poster, as being inexperienced on those loughs, to read post 7.

Ironblue, is any of the advice given in post 7 difficult to comprehend or for that matter hard to follow through with? I really dont think it is to be honest. Now if these simple common sense concepts can be adhered to then boating on Corrib even for someone who is not familiar with the lake should be a breeze and really quite enjoyable.
As for the OP I was merely suggesting to him that boating on these lakes is not actually that hard (when common sense is applied) and that despite what he may have heard there is really no need to worry about having no experience of them (unless the said person chooses to leave his common sense at home on that particular day of course) I really dont think there is any need to use a guide on these lakes unless of course, you want them from a fish finding point of view:)

ironbluedun

thoughts and prayers to the family of the chap that drowned on mask yesterday.

rpmcmurphy

Makes earlier comments regarding tackling these lake as being easy rather invalid.
I wouldnt go near them without a guide or venture out in winds of the type we have been having of late. A friend of mine was on Conn last week and experienced 8-10 foots waves. He is used to the worst sheelin can offer and never experienced anything like it. I was so bad that a wave entered the boat and filled 3/4 of the boat. On close inspection after arriving home the water had split the wooden floor in the boat. Not worth risking your life over a fish.

stevenmu

ironbluedun wrote: »

thoughts and prayers to the family of the chap that drowned on mask yesterday.

+1, it's very sad to hear of something like this.

But without being morbid, hopefully we'll get to hear some more of the details and learn some lessons from what happened.

Zzippy

I believe the man who drowned and his fishing partners (one of whom was apparently a local ghillie) were fishing the Tourmakeady area. I haven't heard the specifics yet, but if true, I'm very surprised - the winds were southeast yesterday and very strong, the fetch to the Tourmakeady shore in a SE wind is quite long, so the waves would have been extremely large.

I know a couple of guys who were fishing Mask yesterday, but from the southeast shore so the offshore wind didn't have enough fetch to build a big swell - even so they were only drifting out from shore a couple of hundred metres before heading back and drifting out again. These are guys who have fished Mask for over 40 years and weren't prepared to head further out in those conditions...

Condolences to the family of the man who drowned.

premiercad

R.I.P, we should never underestimate these big waters

stevenmu

Zzippy wrote: »

I believe the man who drowned and his fishing partners (one of whom was apparently a local ghillie) were fishing the Tourmakeady area. I haven't heard the specifics yet, but if true, I'm very surprised - the winds were southeast yesterday and very strong, the fetch to the Tourmakeady shore in a SE wind is quite long, so the waves would have been extremely large.

The news articles (such as this) claim it was in the Tourmakeady area alright. It appears the deceased and his fishing partner were Romanian and visiting the area, the third was Irish.

Zzippy

stevenmu wrote: »

The news articles (such as this) claim it was in the Tourmakeady area alright. It appears the deceased and his fishing partner were Romanian and visiting the area, the third was Irish.

I had heard German, but that was local talk, the paper may have better info from official sources. In any case, I wouldn't like to have been out in a boat on that part of the lake yesterday...

stevenmu

No, that'd be the part I'd normally fish, last time I was down was there was a fairly mild SE wind and it was very marginal. There were one or two boats out but they were bouncing up and crashing down a lot.

It's a beautiful part of the lake, and since the wind is normally from the SW it's normally a great place to go out. Anything more than a gentle breeze from the SE gives good sized waves.

keppler

rpmcmurphy wrote: »

Makes earlier comments regarding tackling these lake as being easy rather invalid.
I wouldnt go near them without a guide or venture out in winds of the type we have been having of late. A friend of mine was on Conn last week and experienced 8-10 foots waves. He is used to the worst sheelin can offer and never experienced anything like it. I was so bad that a wave entered the boat and filled 3/4 of the boat. On close inspection after arriving home the water had split the wooden floor in the boat. Not worth risking your life over a fish.

I had a feeling someone was going to throw that one at me!
While this is a very unfortunate event it no more invalidates earlier comments than previous deaths on lakes
These two romanian people were taken out to that southerly exposed region by a gillie! The very people that other comments were recommending inexperienced anglers to hire.........does that render those earlier comments invalid?????

As sad as this whole affair is the fact still remains, those men were taken out into an exposed area in a strong gale of winds which were reaching 60 kph..........Not for the love of money my friend!

spaceHopper

keppler wrote: »

I had a feeling someone was going to throw that one at me!
While this is a very unfortunate event it no more invalidates earlier comments than previous deaths on lakes
These two romanian people were taken out to that southerly exposed region by a gillie! The very people that other comments were recommending inexperienced anglers to hire.........does that render those earlier comments invalid?????

As sad as this whole affair is the fact still remains, those men were taken out into an exposed area in a strong gale of winds which were reaching 60 kph..........Not for the love of money my friend!

I'm sure all those involve are replaying it in their minds over and over and right or wrong are probably not feeling to good. Maybe we should let the the dust settle before the internet judges them