State Fisheries

A fishery is an area where fish are caught for commercial or recreational purposes. In freshwater, the term ‘fishery’ can describe anything from a small section of a river or lake to a whole river system, including every lake and stream within a river catchment. Where there is a fishery in freshwater, there is a right to fish, and Inland Fisheries Ireland owns the fishing rights to a wide range of these fisheries in Ireland, ranging from picturesque small lakes to long river stretches and everything in between.

State owned fishing rights are made available for licence to interested angling clubs every year and Inland Fisheries Ireland generally has licence agreements with over 50 fishing clubs, allowing them to fish on more than 90 fisheries where the rights are State owned. Many more State-owned fisheries are managed locally by our staff on a ‘pay per day' basis.

Licence terms with clubs can vary in length and when a fishery becomes available it is advertised as part of an open tender process through which fishing clubs can bid for the rights for a single season, or for a number of years, depending on their preference.

We want to make angling as accessible to as many anglers as possible fisheries where fishing rights are State-owned and we also want to ensure that our rivers are maintained, preserved and protected by the clubs who fish them. For those reasons, the licence agreements that we enter into with each club ensure that day tickets must be made readily available to visiting anglers by the club and that club members play an active role in conservation and protection efforts on these rivers.

If you have any queries, please contact Paul O’Reilly at paul.oreilly@fisheriesireland.ie.