A mysterious fishing site
The main tributary of the Lignon, the Dunière collects streams around St-Régis-du-coin in the Loire department. It then crosses the Haute-Loire (43) before joining the Lignon downstream of the sub-prefecture of Yssingeaux.
The Dunière at "Pont de la Vache" is barely recognizable. It has to be said that she hides her game well!
It's one of the most mysterious fishing spots I know. The river is difficult to access. To reach its banks, you first have to take the path that overlooks them below the bridge. Sometimes it approaches, sometimes it leaves. You think you've lost her, but you can still hear her lapping through the branches. So we keep going. Then, after a few hectometres of chaotic travel, what is now just a trail plunges deep into the gorges, through a ten-metre tunnel carved into the rock.
They call this place "The Devil's Gates". Beyond this threshold, there's nothing but scrub and brambles. I've always wondered why, no doubt a long time ago, men, and perhaps women, worked so hard to carve out the cliff. Why did they use shovels and pickaxes to open up a passage that leads nowhere? Indeed, if you want to find the river, you'll have to wade through dead branches, brambles and rocks to finally, after much effort, reach the water's edge.
Gates of Heaven or Gates of the Devil?
This is the Dunière, confusing and often disappointing. The trout are never very big, but perhaps we lack the perseverance to get the best out of them. The access is so difficult and ungrateful that we hesitate to come back here. When, on the second attempt, success is not forthcoming either, the choice between two evils becomes salutary: either we abandon all hope of being rewarded for these efforts, or we consider that we'll have to be patient and that a river like this might just have to be earned. We'll be back another day.
What's next? How many attempts and unsuccessful fishing trips will it take before the Devil's Gates become the Gates of Paradise and the angler finally unravels the mystery of the Dunière?
