River fishing in France

[Wolf]

Great catch , good report & piccys well done mate ???????

 

[joe cod]

Nice barbel and excellent updated report . It looks really nice in france there . Ive notice my local river changes alot in flow in the summer months compared to winter when all the weedbeds die off . The fish are harder to locate aswell .

 

[Wolf]

Doesn't any one do sea fishing in France ?? ?

 

[Steve Arnold]

Doesn't any one do sea fishing in France ?? ?

There is some great sea fishing on the Atlantic coast. Like the UK though, it is very localised and seasonal!

Brittany has plenty of bass, particularly for the boat anglers. Around La Rochelle and Arcachon you can add meagre (corvina in Spanish), they grow to hefty sizes!

If you live in these areas you have a chance, as a tourist you really need a guide. A guided boat trip works out expensive and I have been ripped off in the past (not just in France!)

Now I can catch big freshwater fish on my doorstep I am less inclined to go on sea angling adventures. Getting old as well!

As a quick edit, forget the Med for fishing! So frustrating and local knowledge is the only chance IMHO!

 

[Wolf]

Thanks Steve A,my brother asked me about sea fishing in France ,as I didn't know I said I'd ask on the forum,thanks for your info I will pass it on.

 

[richtic]

Wow great report and pictures.

 

[Steve Arnold]

I had my days exploration upriver. Very little flow in the river until the last hour and only the last swim produced a nice barbel and five "3' twitch" bites which failed to find a hook-hold. But it was worth the drive to find what will be some cracking swims on the right day.

You have probably seen enough barbel photos now, but here are some more photos of the river. I never tire of these river views, it's quite wonderful here!



and a bream photo for a change.....you can tell it's late autumn!

 

[Wolf]

Nice catch,nice piccys ??

 

[Steve Arnold]

End of 2021 report and a good start to 2022.

December is the one month of the year where I have never caught a barbel here, 2021 kept that tradition going!

I did try hard for the barbel but weather conditions, floods and some low temperatures put the lid on that. Eventually I dropped to smaller baits of maggots, worm sections and paste in a desperate attempt to catch something. At least that brought me some bream around 4 lb and quite a lot of roach!

January 2022 has started very well. First trip down the river Lot in freezing fog brought one bream and a string of missed bites. I stuck it out for barbel, failed to hook up but did see a few swirling in quite shallow water - a very good sign, at least they were in that section!

Next day the temperature topped 16c with warm sunshine. I had agreed to take my wife to a very scenic village, so no fishing! It was worth the visit.......



But as we we climbing the steep streets my mind was back down the river, just a chance the warmth would get the fish feeding!

So next morning I was back at another river Lot swim. Overnight temperatures had dived to MINUS 5c and daytime temperatures forecast for just 6c. I could only hope the previous days warmth would have remained in one of my deeper swims. It catches the sun here, so I was fairly confident!



......and the fish were biting! First two bites resulted in chub of 3.8 lb and 4.6 lb, both very lean and long....





Then an almost 5 lb barbel, I gave a silent cheer for that one as I had been suffering "barbel withdrawal syndrome" for over a month!



An hour later my rod bent double over the rest. Even with the baitrunner on the rod was close to following the fish! As soon as I felt the weight of a good fish (carp probably!) my line fell slack. The hook-length must have been pulled under a rock!

So I fished on into darkness (with a stronger hook-length) in expectation of a carp. No carp but another barbel did take, this one looked bigger than the first but not weighed. Time to go home, dinner to cook!

Glad to have got out, back to winter now and it has actually snowed!



We frequently get very low winter temperatures, but snow is fairly rare. No fishing for me today!

 

[Trampster]

End of 2021 report and a good start to 2022.

December is the one month of the year where I have never caught a barbel here, 2021 kept that tradition going!

I did try hard for the barbel but weather conditions, floods and some low temperatures put the lid on that. Eventually I dropped to smaller baits of maggots, worm sections and paste in a desperate attempt to catch something. At least that brought me some bream around 4 lb and quite a lot of roach!

January 2022 has started very well. First trip down the river Lot in freezing fog brought one bream and a string of missed bites. I stuck it out for barbel, failed to hook up but did see a few swirling in quite shallow water - a very good sign, at least they were in that section!

Next day the temperature topped 16c with warm sunshine. I had agreed to take my wife to a very scenic village, so no fishing! It was worth the visit.......

View attachment 20846

But as we we climbing the steep streets my mind was back down the river, just a chance the warmth would get the fish feeding!

So next morning I was back at another river Lot swim. Overnight temperatures had dived to MINUS 5c and daytime temperatures forecast for just 6c. I could only hope the previous days warmth would have remained in one of my deeper swims. It catches the sun here, so I was fairly confident!

View attachment 20848

......and the fish were biting! First two bites resulted in chub of 3.8 lb and 4.6 lb, both very lean and long....

View attachment 20849

View attachment 20850

Then an almost 5 lb barbel, I gave a silent cheer for that one as I had been suffering "barbel withdrawal syndrome" for over a month!

View attachment 20851

An hour later my rod bent double over the rest. Even with the baitrunner on the rod was close to following the fish! As soon as I felt the weight of a good fish (carp probably!) my line fell slack. The hook-length must have been pulled under a rock!

So I fished on into darkness (with a stronger hook-length) in expectation of a carp. No carp but another barbel did take, this one looked bigger than the first but not weighed. Time to go home, dinner to cook!

Glad to have got out, back to winter now and it has actually snowed!

View attachment 20852

We frequently get very low winter temperatures, but snow is fairly rare. No fishing for me today!

Nice one Steve! You set me thinking, do the French ever eat freshwater Bream? I ask since saltwater Bream here are said to be such good eating. Never tried it myself.

 

[Beach]

I think/hope you are right. All throughout Covid & Brexit, there seems to have been a lot of chest beating & sour Grapes from Macron. He doesn't seem very popular and I can't say I like the bloke Steve.

Lovely country, shame about some of the people, a bit like a few countries I have visited/worked in.

 

[Beach]

Nice one Steve! You set me thinking, do the French ever eat freshwater Bream? I ask since saltwater Bream here are said to be such good eating. Never tried it myself.

I remember when I was fishing on the Sussex Ouse I caught a bream about 2lb (times were hard those days) brought it home and it was cleaned opened up and put in a dish of salt water overnight in the fridge. Tasted ok but very boney. After that they all were put back.

 

[Wolf]

Nice catch mate well done, great report and piçcys ??????

 

[Steve Arnold]

I would not eat the bream, very bad rep!

Sea bream a completely better "kettle of fish" - I prefer them to bass!

 

[Trampster]

I would not eat the bream, very bad rep!

Sea bream a completely better "kettle of fish" - I prefer them to bass!

Thanks for the reply Steve! Don't get out fishing as much as I would like due to health issues, only ever caught 2 small Bass which were returned, and so I actually bought some supermarket fillets recently just to try it! Nothing to write home about, sooner have a decent Mackerel.

 

[Exile65]

Enjoyed the end of year report ? Enjoyed the start of the year report even more .,??

 

[Kine262]

Nice report Steve and made me jealous reading about the barbel fishing. Most UK barbel fishing is not a patch on what it used to be a few years ago.

 

[ouchthathurt]

Nice start to the year mate, well done ?

 

[Beach]

Thanks for the reply Steve! Don't get out fishing as much as I would like due to health issues, only ever caught 2 small Bass which were returned, and so I actually bought some supermarket fillets recently just to try it! Nothing to write home about, sooner have a decent Mackerel.

Probably they were farmed bass Tramps, you should try a wild one caught, then cook it whole (after gutting it of course). My misses prefers fresh caught cod though.

 

[Steve Arnold]

A bit remiss of me not updating this thread for some months! A few fish to report.

My eyesight had deteriorated more than I realised, age related. Finally I had to have cataract operations which now involves replacing the old natural lens. Although it's a common operation of course it's still a worry! Anyway, successfully completed we bought an old camper-car!



Really, I don't think I could have driven this safely along our narrow roads with my "old" eyes!

This has given us access to some of the campsites situated along the river Lot valley.....and of course the fishing swims along their banks!

It did not take long to benefit from this, we camped and fished at Cajarc....



Only two fish over two short sessions, the first evening a barbel of 6.5lbs....



...and the following morning another barbel of 8.5lbs.



Great to have Christened the camper-car with these lovely barbel. Sure there will be more!

Other than that my late Spring fishing has seen barbel between 3lb to 6lb on an infrequent basis. Between getting over the eye operations and sorting out the camper-car my trips have been limited. Recently the weather has been too dry and along with a heatwave period the river has low flow and is too warm for the barbel. But I have lost three big carp....too many snags and the carp are big and incredibly fast!

I spent some time exploring for new swims and have come up with a few. River is wide here but may fish when the river is in spate late season....



Fishing buddy Alistair had the only fish on this short session, a nice bream of 5.6lbs.....



With a bit more baiting this might prove a good swim.

That's all for now!