Getting back on track
We decided to take a rowboat so that we could move around the whole lake and access areas that were impossible to fish from the shore.
To our great surprise, there are 7 float tubes on the lake, and a rowboat in addition to us. It's a rare occurrence on this Breton reservoir, but it's the vacations and conditions are finally right. Nevertheless, the winds are north-westerly, which is never very good, as the winds are cold, but the sun is out and so is the desire to do battle with the lake's combative trout.
It's time to get back into the fishing, and as soon as I make my first casts I hook my first trout, which shyly comes to take my orange booby presented close to the bottom. It's 5°C this morning, and the water is cold, so bottom fishing will be the order of the day.
A few casts later, I spike a beautiful rainbow that doesn't put up much of a fight. But all of a sudden, on arrival at the boat, she decides otherwise and storms off into the rope connected to the anchor! It's rare for me to be fooled like a rookie, but on this occasion she hooked the fly into the rope and broke my leader! It started off badly, but at least I got a few hits.
It's Kévin's turn to hook a wild rainbow trout! It goes off in all directions and the silk flies through the rings!
It's a tough fight, but she makes it to the surface, close to the landing net, when all of a sudden the line breaks and the fish escapes us. Kévin looks at his rig and the fish hasn't broken and the knot hasn't let go. You can see it at the end of the leader. The line slipped through a micro-turn of the hook eye, which wasn't closed. Unlucky!
Then, as I quickly brought back my flies to try and trigger some hits, I took a big hit and got broken! Decidedly...
Trout stuck to the bottom
We move the boat to another area, still in the deep part of the lake.
Talking to other anglers on the lake, the trout are not very active at the moment, and not many are being caught. On our side, apart from the lack of success, things have started off rather well.
We're back at the boobies to fish flush with the bottom, as this seems to be the way to fish. In winter, this is often one of the most effective techniques, as there are very few "chiro" hatches in this lake and the waters are dark. It is fed by two tributaries, including the Trieux, one of the trout and salmon rivers in this part of Brittany.
I try a few shots with an intermediate silk fly line, a streamer tippet, a cormorant (small black fly) and a blob stem, but no success.
Then on a small black booby with orange eyes in size 10, I catch another trout, which this time comes all the way to the landing net so I can validate it and take a photo!
Then nothing. Kévin has no more touches despite various fly changes.
I get back on with my sparlker booby and catch two trout by bringing back in line by fast knitting without pause. And I'll be broken on a violent touch!
It's 1:00 p.m. and we're out of the water to eat our sandwich in the fishing room, which is reserved for anglers. There's a microwave and kettle, so you can eat and drink hot. There's also a room for collecting equipment for the boats.
The other anglers aren't working miracles either. All the fish are caught on the bottom. Slow fishing with occasional acceleration. No color stands out either. Orange, black, white and yellow all caught trout this morning.
Fighting fish!
Kévin and I decided to change sectors more often to try and cover more water. With float tubes, the others fish quickly and often move around while fishing. This allows them to cover more ground and find the fish. Their approach is also much more discreet than in a boat, where dropping the anchor has to scare off a few fish!
Kévin catches a new trout at the first station, which also comes to be photographed. It's a pleasure, because the bites are really few and far between. We don't have any short bites.
On several corners where we usually catch fish, nothing happens.
Float tubes are here and there and we choose our spots according to their movements.
After two hours without a single touch and having changed colors and techniques, I caught my only trout of the afternoon on a black booby with an orange tail. Changing flies doesn't pay off either. I think you really have to land on the fish, which aren't as numerous this year as in previous years. On the other hand, they're very combative and some of them unwind silk and make candles! Which is very pleasant in the middle of winter.
Kévin poked at one last trout, but after having had it for at least 30 seconds, it unhooked!
L'Étang neuf is a beautiful lake, but not always easy to fish. We're a long way from the catches you can make in the reservoirs around the Île de France, where the density of fish is much higher! The management and type of environment are very different. But the price of our Breton reservoirs is also much lower, and we're delighted to be able to fly fish in autumn/winter.
But no matter. That's fishing. You have to find what works, and that's what's interesting. Today, almost all the fish were caught on S5/S7 booby lines. Personally, I did some fast continuous fishing without the line sticking to the bottom, but no intermediate streamer line, chiro, small flies or blob.
A complicated outing with few fish, but it's always nice to share a fishing moment with a friend. This outing will bring the year to a close. We'll be back in 2025!
