From mid-October, the reservoir fishing season begins. First-category rivers are closed, and if you want to fish for trout, it's either on second-category rivers or in reservoirs.
A reservoir is a private body of water where trout, often rainbow trout, are introduced to create a fishing product during the winter break. The trout are not wild, but they learn quickly, making fishing interesting for salmonid anglers who don't want to "lay down their arms" for 6 months of the year!
First outing of the year
It's always interesting to change playgrounds, and even though we have a few bodies of water and reservoirs in Brittany, my friend Jean-Marc and I decided to make our first outing on this reservoir. It's not far from Saint-Malo, an hour and a half's drive from Guingamp, where my fishing partner is staying for the day.
During my first outing on this pretty lake, at the end of December 2022, we experienced a beautiful cold winter's day when the trout were very active from the very first casts. Jean-Marc and Kévin and I caught over 20 trout each, using a variety of techniques.
Very different conditions
As soon as we arrive, we quickly put on our waders and get our gear ready to get in the water and make our first casts, as the day has only just dawned. This is often a good time for the trout to get closer to the bank.
A fisherman is already in the water on the beach not far from the parking lot, and he must have pushed the fish back. Too bad. We also enter the water quietly, and cast our first flies, each with our favorite imitations we trust. The Sablonnière reservoir offers the advantage of wadding on two large beaches. Some anglers, like us, enjoy being in the same element as the fish.
I soon hit my first trout on the streamer, but it unhooked after about ten seconds. I won't know if it was the white or the black that appealed to this fish. A piece of information that could already have given me a clue. In a reservoir, you have to constantly look for what the trout want. The positions. Depths where they are. The type of flies and their animations. So you have to keep changing silks, flies and the way you bring them back to find one of the equations. Then refine your fishing. A very interesting little game, because fishing is above all a perpetual search. Questions to ask yourself to find what works.
This trout is still encouraging, but then nothing. The fish aren't active on the surface. Are they there in front of us? Or at another station?
My partner and I changed flies and ways of animating them, but nothing helped, until I caught the first one with an intermediate silk worm apps. A worm with long legs, and for this one black, brought back in "rolly-polly". This technique, where you wedge your rod under your armpit and bring it back quickly with both hands, can sometimes be very effective.
For the moment, however, only this trout has responded to the fly and animation. Jean-Marc moves on to the other beach.
I stay put and rig my rod with a plunging line to try boobies on the bottom. A technique that can catch a large number of fish when they are close to the bottom and/or fussy. Apart from a timid touch, no results.
The trout are moving on the surface in front of me on the other side of the lake, where Jean-Marc is.
I decide to go when JM, as we call him, catches his first trout. It's 11:00 and it's time for the hostilities to begin!
Find the peach
I arrive on the spot and stay on the bank at the bunghole, while JM, in wadding, seems to have found the fishing of the moment, I specify, because this can change quickly, and takes several trout in a row.
He says, "Chiro rouge". The trout are actively jumping and gobbling here and there. Indeed, although we can't see any hatchlings, they seem to be well established, even if gobbling is rare and scattered!
I stay with my tackle and my flies and try again with an intermediate worm line. First cast, and a trout takes hold of one of my flies (two-fly rig) then goes off in all directions, shakes its head and finally unhooks! With barbless hooks, unhooking is a regular occurrence, especially when the fish jump or headbutt hard!
I continue, but no more hits. Jean-marc must be up to 6 or 7 trout still with the same fly, even if he tries to mount another fly below his stem.
I then set up a "chiro" or chironome, i.e. the larva of the mosquito or mud worm, on a so-called clothesline rig. A few casts later, the first trout comes along on the famous red chiro! I land another with this technique. Then I switch to floating silk with a montana tip fly and a chiro stem. The first takes the helmeted "montana", then on the next cast a trout comes so violently to take one of my flies that it breaks the whole leader! I had to do it all over again! Sometimes chiro hits can be very powerful and take everything away from you.
Constantly adapting to trout requirements
The "chiro" is one of the most important food sources in lakes and ponds around the world, forming the basis of the food chain. Newly-introduced trout, and especially those that have already been bitten on various flies, often start feeding mainly on these insects. It is therefore a fly to be used and tested on every reservoir outing, whether on the surface, between two waters or closer to the bottom.
All that remains is to determine the fly's height, size, color and, of course, the animation that trout like!
Thanks to this "find", Jean-Marc and I hooked up with several fish. Then, just after our lunchtime snack, the trout had moved on to other spots, or were no longer active!
We try different flies again. I caught one on a white streamer with an orange helmet, then two on a canary-yellow blobby in a washing line, but with no consistency. Jean-Marc, for his part, catches nothing.
After this phase of testing and research, I decided to go back to the "chiro" option and this time mount two of them on my floating line. I try with two models smaller in size (16 hook) and not weighted. The first with a red throat on the stem, as this color seemed to interest them, and the other with a flash pearl kristal hoop on the tip.
I decide to cast further out to see if the trout have retreated. This is often the case when they've been fished for a while. It's true that my friend and I insisted on this this morning. As soon as I made my first cast, and after only a few seconds, my line started to tense up violently. Here we go again!
I'll string together a large number of trout that will take one or other of my imitations.
As the wind picked up, my silk made a belly that animated my flies. There wasn't much I could do. Just cast as far as I could, and let the wind do its work. When the bites didn't show, I'd do a big slow pull to bring my flies to the surface and they'd take! These bites give superb sensations and it's always a great pleasure to have these violent pulls on the silk. One of the reasons I also use chironomid rigs. I had a great time!
Jean-Marc took a few touches, but couldn't find the peach any more. He preferred to search on his own, even though we exchanged strategies.
He caught two trout before we left, while on my side, the trout had a field day for most of the afternoon!
Next time, maybe the opposite will happen, and JM will catch more trout than me. Sometimes it doesn't come down to much. Reservoir fishing requires constant adaptation to find out what the trout want. Their mood can change quickly, as can their activity.
A good day out with the guys. With a lot of fish, but we had to earn it!
