Fishing from a raft: more technical than it looks
With a friend, we set off for a week to conquer the Royal River, using only a raft built from salvaged material. We were looking for catfish and asp, and we were well served!
Fishing from a raft or other craft on the Loire has many advantages. You can access spots that are difficult to reach from shore, and where fishing pressure is therefore lower. You can also cover a lot of ground in record time. Last but not least, you have the chance to fish on sight and "vertically" in the pits, where you can only cast blind from the shore.
However, there are a few major drawbacks. Being in the current all the time, it's difficult if not impossible to insist on an area. Whereas from the shore, you can insist on the same area to trigger wary fish, in a raft, without a motor, we only had a few possible casts per spot. This implies having the rod already in hand and making perfect casts. A tricky mission when you also have to paddle to maneuver the raft... During our trip, the catfish were all posted in the pools. So you had to be reactive and get your rod out quickly if you hoped to get the lures to fall in front of their mouths, or risk drifting away and losing the opportunity.
Large catfish
As we passed Orleans, we became aware of the exceptional catfish population in the Loire. Hundreds of moustachioed fish were lying at the bottom of the river in the city of Jeanne d'Arc, some of them well over the 2-metre mark. Despite being the kings of the river, catfish like to camouflage and hide. They probably feel sheltered, as there are (almost) always bigger fish than them... We noticed that sandy pools were home to very few individuals. Conversely, as soon as there were a few stones or weed beds in these same pools, we were almost certain to encounter catfish.
By dint of patience, we ended up luring a few large specimens, including 2m10 and 2m40 in a single morning: a free muscle-building session!
Asps
The reputation of this fish is now well established. It's an incredible sport fish, especially on the touch!
During our drift, we only caught two fish over the first 4 days, so the average was quite low... As usual in summer, the asp hunting season was very short. We only observed them early in the morning, at the edge of the grass beds. So getting up early in summer is the best advice you can get when it comes to stalking these silver arrows. And get out the surface lures!
On the last day of drifting, the skies darkened and rain threatened. As a result, our surface lures were completely ineffective. But when we quickly passed our minnow jerkbaits close to the weedbeds, we systematically hit the nail on the head! In particular, the famous Ryuki 80S in white proved fatal throughout the day.
