A particular geological configuration
Belle-île is the largest Breton island. It is 17 km long and 9 km wide. It offers two faces to fishermen. On the mainland side, its coastline is a succession of sandy beaches and small sheltered harbors, on the open sea side, it is exposed to winds and currents. Belle-Île is dotted with granite cliffs cut into creeks, wild points and rocky spires.
This geological configuration determines the fishing techniques to be used:
- Surfcasting is best practiced in a sheltered area, i.e. on the east coast.
- The fishing to support from the edge is practiced mainly on the West Coast.
An exceptional diversity of fish
You can fish in Belle-Île all year round, but for shore fishing, the best season is from March to the end of June and from October to the end of November. The dominant fish are sea bass, pollack, conger eel, gilthead bream, mullet and flatfish.
As with all marine courses, some places have their own speciality:
- Taillefer Point is famous for its bass and places to catch on drift floats and casts.
- The Pointe des Poulains offers great fishing opportunities for bass, pollack, oldsquaw and very large conger eels when fishing with support.
Where and what to fish in Belle-île ?
The ports of Donnant and Kérel as well as the beach of Herlin these are offered to surfcasters and drifters:
- bars,
- places,
- sea breams,
- mackerel.
Other locations that work well are:
- The point of Pouldon : bars and old ladies.
- The points of Skeul and Kerdonis it has fabulous corners: bars, spots, garfish, mullets, king bream and conger eels.
- The beaches of Grands Sables and Sables Blancs : sea bass, sea bream and flatfish.
- The point of the Gros Rocher in Bordadoué: flatfish, pout, old and conger eels. For the latter the point of Ramonette is famous for its large pieces, fished mostly at night.
- The quays and dikes of the Port du Palais eels in the evening, smelts (excellent bait and good for frying), garfish in very large quantities from March to October.
Fishing on foot allows to collect, on all the circumference of the island :
- mussels,
- of the hulls,
- foot-pushers,
- of the currycomb,
- spiders,
- sea urchins,
- of the cakes especially to the needles of port Coton.
Fishing by boat
Boat fishing is very successful and the species caught are countless. The most common are :
- big congres,
- juliennes,
- places,
- tacauds,
- bars,
- mackerel,
- orphies,
- chinchards,
- all flatfish,
- gray and pink sea breams,
- rays,
- old,
- codfish,
- red mullets,
- dogfish,
- sharks, such as blue sharks or thresher sharks, and moles.
Squid and cuttlefish are fished from July to September with jigs. They can then be used as bait for drift-fished sea bream, which rafole small squid.
Where to fish by boat?
- The road of the Teignouse ,
- The Cardinals Reef ,
- The wrecks, very numerous around the island,
- The plateau of Murmures and the road of Béniguet between Quiberon and Houat are famous for their large curly rays. Be careful, however, as this area is subject to very strong currents. You should avoid venturing there with too frail boats equipped with too little power engines.
