Gowla Lough sits in the heart of one of the west of Ireland's finest sea-trout systems — the Gowla fishery, two chains of interconnected loughs drained to the sea by the short Owengowla River across the granite-and-bog country of south Connemara. Like all the Connemara waters it is acidic and peat-stained, the rain filtering down through vast acres of blanket bog over hard granite bedrock to give soft, dark, tannin-coloured water. Gowla Lough is famous for its stock of sea trout and salmon from late June onward, with native brown trout through the season, the fish running up off the tide on the summer floods. The character is low, rocky, wind-swept lough country — shallow margins, granite shoals and peat-fringed bays. This is drift-and-bank fishing read by the wave and the lies along the shore; wading the connecting streams is steady on firm rock and gravel.

Wading: Exposed wind and shallow granite shoals