Dam Multi-Cache

As you travel up the river you will see the dam and the Hydroelectric Power Station. The Dam was built at Leixlip in the late 1940s. It was built for the ESB and covered up the Salmon Leap Falls. It uses water from the Liffey to generate electricity. Canoeists cannot travel past the dam. They have to get out and carry the canoe during a famous race called the Liffey Descent.

Leixlip Reservoir:

This 3km (1.5 miles) long reservoir is situated above the hydro electric station and damn on the River Liffey. Excellent coarse fishing can be found here. The fishery is owned by the E.S.B. and a small section is leased to the Dublin Trout Anglers Association. Fishing is free and available to all anglers. There is very limited access at present on most of the reservoir with the main fishing area (400 metres) between the M4 Motorway bridge and the picnic area. The picnic area above the dam offers a wide variety of coarse fish. Water depths in front of the picnic area to the protective boom (car tyres in the water) behind the dam go from 1 metre down to 10 metres (3ft to 30ft) and the bottom can be quite snaggy. Float fishing and slider float tactics are best for roach, hybrids and rudd. Swimfeeder methods work but tackle losses can occur due to snags. Hybrids over specimen size (3lbs) are taken every year and roach and rudd to 2lbs are also recorded. Pike fishing is also very good with fish between 10lbs and 25lbs recorded annually. Spinning, artificial baits and deadbaits work well but float legered deadbaits can be most productive. In winter, pike fishing is often best early in the morning.