The Black River is about fifteen miles in length from where it rises near Cloghan's Hill, off the Kilmaine/Tuam road, to where the river enters Lough Corrib just north of Greenfields. Counties Mayo and Galway border the Black River for most of the river's entire length. Access is very easy from beside the village of Shrule, Co. Mayo. The Black River is a rich limestone river and therefore has the food qualities to produce a good stock of young trout annually. There are a few stretches which give good wetfly fishing in the early part of the angling season but these stretches become weedy from June onwards and as a result fishing becomes very difficult, particularly when the water levels are low. There are very few salmon ever caught in the Black River.