WTT in Ireland

WTT’s stated brief is to work for wild trout across Britain and Ireland, north and south. The island of Ireland boasts some of the world’s very finest trout lakes and rivers and some of the most passionate Defenders of the Trout.

Last year, Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI), the state agency charged with the protection, improvement and development of the nation’s fisheries and its angling resource, launched a National Angling Strategy Development Fund which aimed to drive this work, in partnership with other governmental and non-governmental agencies.

WTT met with IFI senior managers to discuss how we might bring our incredibly successful model in England to help work for trout in Ireland. We applied unsuccessfully to the Fund for some advisory visits as proof-of-concept but did contribute to a successful bid by a group on the Clare River, Cairde na Chlair, for a major river improvement project on the Abbert River, a Clare tributary, ultimately draining into Lough Corrib. That work will go ahead in the autumn of 2018, with our Conservation Officer, Andy Thomas, providing some of the trout habitat nous. We very much hope that a successful project on the Abbert can demonstrate what WTT can bring to the party and add to other projects across Ireland.

However, some in Ireland have raised concerns about how resources appear to be being deployed; further information at https://​www​.change​.org/​p​/​d​e​n​n​i​s​-​m​o​s​s​-​s​a​v​e​-​i​r​i​s​h​-​f​i​s​h​eries

The Abbert River, where WTT will contribute to an improvement project with a local group, Cairde na Chlair