Hello Nicolas, can you introduce yourself to the readers of Fishing.news ?
Nicolas Gavoille -My name is Nicolas Gavoille, I obtained my BPJEPS diploma in Ornans (25) 13 years ago and since then, I am a fishing guide on the 1000 ponds plateau (70). Before becoming a fishing guide, I was a geomatician and I was co-managing a land use planning office in Lozere. My work consisted in formatting statistics and geographical data to produce decision support tools mainly for elected officials and state services on topics such as urban planning, environment, natural risk management ...
After 8 years in this field, I decided to come back to my native region with my little family. I joined the family farm to develop the tourist activity, already started by my parents with a guest house. I chose to make a living out of my passion by becoming a fishing guide and by building the Domaine de la Patte d'Oie on the land and on the edge of the ponds that have belonged to my family for three generations.
Today, the Domaine de la Patte d'Oie welcomes fishing tourists for fishing and relaxation stays at the water's edge. Indeed, my partner also works on the domain, as a masseuse, which allows us to propose a complete offer so that the fishermen and their family can spend a pleasant moment there.
I also had the chance to meet very early the Rapala VMC team, whose offices and main manufacturing site of VMC hooks are located 40 minutes from the Domaine. Today, I participate in the development and testing of many of the group's products on the themes, in particular, of fishing with jigs or feeders, fly fishing and trout fishing with lures. For example, I designed the VMC7019 and VMC7016 hooks for jigging and feeder fishing and I participated in the development of the Rapala float tube range (FT100, FT120, FT140, FT160) on which we worked for 2 years before their release in the catalog!
Why did you become a fishing guide?
Nicolas Gavoille -I was lucky enough to be born in a region where water is omnipresent and thanks to the family ponds, I was able to track carp or pike from an early age. I got my first reel at the age of 6 and, with my childhood friend Philippe, we spent our time fishing.
I left my passion aside for the time of my studies and my first professional life, but then the passion came back at a gallop! Indeed, when I dipped my first lures in the lake of Charpal, in Lozere, I seriously started fly fishing again with the guide Stéphane Faudon. It was time to put the computer screens aside...
With the arrival of our first child, my partner Claire and I decided to leave Lozère to return to our native region, to completely change our professional life and to go into tourism. The job of fishing guide came to me as an obvious choice.
What kind of guidance products do you offer?
Nicolas Gavoille -I have the chance to live in a region with a wide variety of fish farming: ponds, first and second category rivers and many gravel and sand pits, so I can offer a wide variety of products.
For years I have guided clients to learn to fly fish on the banks of our small rivers in the Vosges saônoises (Ognon, Breuchin...). Unfortunately, the populations of these rivers have suffered too much these last seasons and the repeated droughts have pushed me to stop this product as the conditions have become so uncertain. So I don't practice river guiding anymore, but I still fish a lot for my personal pleasure, with flies or lures. I had forgotten the feeling of a trout hitting a lure and I have rediscovered a lot of pleasure in this type of fishing, which has seen the arrival of many new products from Rapala VMC in recent years. For example, the Cheboo range from VMC for soft lure fishing with cheburashka rigs; and Rapala hard lures like the Shadow Rap Solid Shad, specially developed for trout or the Countdown Elite, version 2.0 of the famous Rapala Countdown with which we all caught trout!
I have also offered until today introductory services to pike fishing with float tube lures in casting. This is a very interesting activity as an instructor which answers a strong demand from customers who want to discover the float tube and especially to learn how to adjust and use the casting reels.
But, from the 2023 season, I have chosen to refocus on my specialty: the tracking of specimens. At the Domaine de la Patte d'Oie, we have a specific lake: Prehistoric-fishing and its "light" variation: the baby-Prehistoric on which I do most of my guiding in search of sturgeon and catfish. It is a very technical feeder fishing. Indeed, sturgeons are big fish (record of the domain: 1,85 m for 45 kg) but which have a behavior and a way of feeding very specific, what results in very difficult to detect and to hook. It's a really fascinating fishing !
I also propose to fish sturgeon "Chinese style", it is an ancestral technique which comes to us from Southeast Asia. To make it simple, it consists in fishing with a very flexible and resistant telescopic rod to be able to fight specimens which can exceed 30 or 40kg without elastic or reel!
In guiding, I practice two versions of this fishing: a "light" mode on fishes of a few kilos, which lends itself particularly to the initiation of the youngest or to a school animation for example. It is very simple and playful to implement and the rhythm of the touches is guaranteed thanks to the great density of small sturgeons present on the water. And an "expert" mode where you have to get your "big arms" out to hold a rod with a 50 kg line, and a 20, 30 or 40 kg fish at the end, in direct hold, without shock absorber!
The gravel pit is my last playground, in search of record carp and catfish. I am lucky enough to be able to practice on highly populated private lakes located 15 minutes away from the domain. I offer services to learn the basics of carp fishing in battery: sounding the spot to determine where to fish, clipping the line to fish and baiting accurately with spod, ice fishing technique ...
In addition to the technical lessons, these days of fishing in gravel pit are often the occasion for my customers to beat their record. For example, during the last guide of the season 2022 in gravel pit, the records fell for Bernard and his son who pose in front of the camera with 4 carps of more than 20 kg in the day, one of which passes the 27 kg !
Finally, I organize fishing camps for teenagers: the RAPALACADEMY! These are multi-fishing courses, organized at the Patte d'Oie domain: sturgeon fishing with feeder or chinook, carp fishing in gravel pits and catfish fishing. We are at the 27th edition of the RAPALACADEMY and there are courses organized every summer.
What does being a fishing guide mean to you?
Nicolas Gavoille -For me, being a fishing guide means first of all making a living from my passion. It is a choice that is not so easy. People often tell me: "Nicolas, you have a beautiful job! Of course, I won't deny it! Being at the water's edge, with people to whom you can pass on your passion, on a day when the weather is nice and the fish are biting, it's a dream! But it is not the case every day, there are days when the cold numbs the fingers and pinches the cheeks, there are days when the fish do not think of feeding...
The fishing guide always has this little pinch in the heart until the first fish is in the net. We are probably the only instructors to have this obligation of result. A kayak instructor is just paid to go from point A to point B, but for the fishing instructor, we add the challenge of catching a fish.
Once you have avoided the hood, being a fishing guide is gratifying: you pass on a skill, a knowledge and especially values. The transmission, particularly with the youngest, during the training courses that I organize with teenagers is a very motivating element. Teaching them to observe nature to locate fish, to take care of their play partner (the release of fish must be accompanied by the necessary measures to be done in the best possible conditions), to respect others and to take pleasure together at the water's edge. My best reward is to be able to follow my clients over time as they become self-sufficient at the water's edge, and to see their smiles on the photos they share on social networks.
Finally, in guiding, we only see the result on the day of guiding, but most of the work is done upstream: scouting of fishing spots (up to the creation, the maintenance, the stocking of the spot when you are the manager), preparation of the equipment and the baits, and even preparation of the lunch! A fishing guide must therefore be versatile, it is a lot of logistics, preparation and work upstream to ensure a comfortable fishing day for the client for a maximum of pleasure at the water's edge.
Do you fish or not fish when you are guiding?
Nicolas Gavoille -It depends! The type of fishing: for fly fishing, I don't take a rod, it's only the customer who fishes. And the number of people: if I am alone with the customer, in float tube or feeder for example, I can fish (generally at the request of the customer). It's more friendly and it allows to find the fish faster. But if I'm with a group, I don't fish and I concentrate on the supervision of the fishermen.
What do you do when you are not guiding?
Nicolas Gavoille -When you manage a fishing domain, there are many things to do besides guiding: administrative tasks, marketing (development and updating of websites, filming of videos, etc.), maintenance of the domain (mowing, maintenance of the water bodies, stocking, various works, etc.), constructions (I personally built all the cottages of the domain).
The management of the Domaine de la Patte d'Oie is therefore an integral part of my life, especially since my partner also works there. However, we manage to free up a little more time with our family, now that we are well settled, for small escapades and especially for bicycle trips.
What is your view on guiding in France?
Nicolas Gavoille -As far as training is concerned, guiding is well supervised by the BP JEPS Pêche de Loisir diploma even if I think that we train too many guides. The selection should be more severe because once in the professional world, the places are expensive and the guides who really live from it are very rare.
The demand for guidance remains very low in France, French fishermen are not ready to invest in guidance, unlike other countries, such as the United States where guidance has become a way of life and fishermen have realized the added value provided by a guide.
What advice would you give to people who would like to start this adventure?
Nicolas Gavoille -You have to be aware that it is difficult to live exclusively from guiding in France (very few guides manage to do so). Most of the time, guiding is part of a multi-activity project (like me, in addition to renting accommodation for example). The professional project must be well thought out before entering the training program.
I advise not to train as a fishing guide too early, it is a profession that requires experience in many fields, it is not by chance that this profession is often a project of professional reconversion, after a first experience in another field.
As a fisherman what is your dream?
Nicolas Gavoille -That our rivers in the Franche-Comté region return to a good condition allowing trout and grayling populations to develop naturally.
I also dream of going to the United States for a long road trip from East to West with a list of projects (not exhaustive!): tarpon and peacock in Miami, black-bass in New Orleans, cutthroats, brookies in Montana, sturgeon on the Fraser River, bull trout and lake trout in Canada, wild rainbows and steelheads...
