Welcome to Navan& District Anglers Association website. over the coming months we hope to add information about fishing for Salmon and Trout on one of Irelands finest Game Fisheries

The River Boyne (Abhainn na Bóinne in Irish)  rises in County Kildare and makes its way East for more than 70 miles, through Trim (County Offaly), Navan and Slane (County Meath) , before entering the sea before entering the Irish Sea at Drogheda

The Boyne is famous for its Brown Trout fishing with good numbers of fish in the two to four pounds bracket and the occasional fish much larger, but it also gets good runs of Salmon and Sea Trout.

The club has approximately 6 miles of fishing on the River Boyne on either side of Navan. Upstream of the town, the fishing extends for about a mile on the right bank and for 2 1/2 miles on the left bank. This is mainly Brown Trout water, but it produces a few Salmon as well.

The stretch below Navan is about 2 miles of double bank fishing and includes quite a bit of the famous Blackcastle Fishery. It has another one mile stretch of the Dunmoe Fishery. Both of these stretches are very good spring beats and often produce 20lb+ fish. Many people ignore the excellent Trout fishing in favour of the Salmon fishing.

The club also has access to stretches of the Kells Blackwater between Bloomsbury's Bridge and Navan This water adds a further 6 miles to the clubs water and is an excellent Brown Trout Fishery.

Details of Day tickets and membership are available here.

The River has many historical, archaeological and mythical Interests. The Boyne Valley and surrounding area is one of Ireland's most beautiful regions. The Boyne Valley is recognised as a world heritage site and contains many megalithic monuments and tombs. These are man made structures many of which pre-date the Egyptian pyramids.

The River was also the site of the Battle of the Boyne, in 1690 and it was in this river where the mythical hero Fionn mac Cumhail captured Fiontán, the Salmon of Knowledge.

Peter O’Reilly is one of the longest serving members of the Navan & District Angling Association and one of Irelands leading authorities on Trout and Salmon fishing. He a best selling angling author of books on Trout and Salmon fishing and fly tying. With nearly 60 years experience his enthusiasim for fishing has never diminished. Peter is an APGAI fly tying and casting instructor who lives within a cast of the River Boyne at Kilcarn admits that trout fishing is his first love, but is happy to fish for salmon.

Peter describes the River Boyne as “a magnificent river with its gentle gradient lying entirely on limestone draining the plains of Royal Meath. The combination of broad glides interspaced with streamy high ph water makes it an ideal habitat for the production of prolific quantities of Atlantic Salmon and good quality Wild Brown Trout.” 

Peter offers the following advice to anglers “the thing that impresses trout is good presentation. Trout are impressed by how accurate your fly replicates the natural hatch, how your fly alights on the river, how accurate you mend for a drag free drift and how accurate your fly is delivered precisely where the fish are lying. The great thing about trout is they get hungry and they have to feed.”

Peter believes in watching the hatch but states that anglers don’t have to be entomologists. He will fish wet flies, dry fly, upstream nymph or New Zealand style as the occasion demands. Some of Peter’s favourite trout flies are Black & Silver Spider, Hare’s Ear (wet & dry), Various Kilnkhammers, Black gnats, CDC, Elk, Pheasant Tail and flash back nymphs. Peter would not be drawn his greatest number of trout in any single session but did admit that he has caught more trout on the Boyne that on any other Irish river and he has fished them all!

Success in Salmon fishing starts in knowing where to fish, fishing the fly at the correct speed and depth. Peter’s favourite flies on the Boyne are the Tosh, Foxford shrimp, Collie dog, and Cascade and Mini tubes.

Peter states that the Navan Association water contains some of the most coveted Salmon stretches in the country. (See “The Salmon Rivers of Ireland” by Grimble and “Fishing and thinking” by Luce). Thanks to the Association, stretches like the Molly’s on the Blackwater, Upper and Lower Blackcastle and Donmoe which were once reserved for a select and privileged few are now available to a wider public. 

For details on casting and fly tying lessons contact Peter at www.O’Reillyflyfishing.com