Had a week over in Mayo and fished Mask for a day. My favourite trout lough but once again this year met with bright , virtually windless conditions. Tried the dries for a spell then went on to the buzzers. My pal had a fish of 3lb , I had one of 2lb but broke ( just after the fish took ) in a large fish which leapt out in front of the boat after breaking me. Looked at least 4lb. I was fishing 7lb Riverge fluorocarbon. The ghillie said he always uses 9lb for this type of fishing . You live and learn. We had three salmon from Carrowmore but , again , weather conditions weren't ideal for much of the week. Things were "slow" on The Moy. As ever I hugely enjoyed the trip. A couple of shots on Mask.

Netting the 3 pounder





A sight seldom seen , Mask like a mill-pond

Good God!.... as flat as a witches tit! (as they say in the trade). That looks like it coulda been kinda tough mate. Beautiful to look at...hard to fish. Always a great reward though those fish from the west.

Your pictures look like the Southern part of the lake where I fish each year.

I got back from my annual sabbatical to Mask last week having fished the lake for 7 days solid. I released about 10 trout and kept just one. It was very disappointing this year as despite the weather being reasonable albeit with a touch of an East wind most of the time, the fish never really took to the hatch of Mayfly. We had one 2 hour session where "anything went" and I landed 6 trout in that window. Other than that despite 10 hour days on the lake we had three complete blanks!

That said, fishing is just half the story when it comes to Lough Mask. The scenery is breath taking and nothing beats the cup of tea from the Kelly Kettle! The pint in Burkes in Clonbur isn't bad either....
Roll on next year.

Some photos to add to the thread which I hope have been resized...

brilliant pictures

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David (little machin)