Back to a familiar stretch
I arrive late in the afternoon due to family obligations and to start my session I decide to go to a course I fished a long time ago and where I have fond memories. I had come across a beautiful otter that had visited me a few meters away before running off. Then I hooked one of my biggest Breton trout at the time, which gave me the slip!
This river is fed by a dammed lake, which enables it to maintain adequate flows even in periods of low water and/or drought. This year in Brittany, we've had little water despite the rain that fell in autumn and winter, but spring has been rather dry. So I've come to see how things are going on this beautiful river where the pretty trout are plentiful.
The water is still lower than I'd hoped, but clear and cool.
After quickly putting on my waders, I go down to the water's edge to set up my rod, as I usually do to observe what's going on, a SAGE Dart 7.6 silk 4, well adapted to our small streams.
A few small gobbles appear, but they seem to be small trout. Few insects present and this year the trout have started to gobble small flies and even midges very early in the season.
I mount a long point after my point-holder to be discreet and avoid the micro-drags that are frequent on our Breton rivers and to which trout are very attentive. I tie a small sedge in 18 which has worked well over the last few days on the rivers I frequent regularly.
I quickly caught a magnificent 30 cm round trout, which hadn't gulped. It rocketed up on my fly, making a very big ripple! It's by fishing the water that I'll get it to rise. The trout here are very round and in Brittany, they jump a lot and are very combative despite their "limited" size due to slow growth.
Discovering new sectors
After getting a few more trout on the same fly, on small discreet gobbles under the foliage, I tried a tandem rig, with a beetle on which I hooked a small pheasant tail to see if it would work and bring me more trout, as activity was still low. But the trout weren't interested in either fly, much to my surprise!
After a good run on this first sector that I was able to rediscover, I decided to prospect a new route where I'd never set foot. I love seeing other stretches of river, or changing streams altogether. This discovery phase is always great!
I park in an area that seems to give access to the river, then approach it discreetly. This looks like a nice spot, and I descend into the water. Activity is still low, but a gobble here and there comes into view.
I go up to the first post, and once again catch a beautiful trout on my small sedge, which trout seem to love. The water is very clear and a delicate, careful presentation is the order of the day.
Then the air temperature begins to drop, and a few flies appear. The trout gradually emerge from their hiding places to feed. Each landing on a small gobble is rewarded with a rise. I'll miss a few very lively trout or, on the contrary, some that will rise very gently. The problem is that each gobble is different. The common point is that my sedge continues to please and I decide to keep this model, but I'm obliged to change it because it doesn't look like anything after this dozen or so trout have taken a good bite out of it! The deer hairs have been damaged and most of them are gone.
Beautiful hatching and active fish!
The evening continues to go well and the trout are now more active. I catch three more beautiful trout over 30 cm, which in Brittany are very nice fish. They're always wide and high and in good shape. They put up a very good fight on small tackle, which is a joy. Above all, they seek out obstacles and try to unhook themselves by going into aquatic ranunculus or under stumps! You have to restrain them right away and not let them do what they want, otherwise you're sure to lose.
I use a 6X Rio Powerflex tip which allows me to be discreet, but also to master these fish. It's quite possible to hit a fish over 35 cm or even 40 cm and more. So you have to be careful, because in these small environments, it's not always easy to get them out of the area they know by heart!
I'll miss another slow, discreet gobble that beautiful trout are used to making. Once again, the timing of the hooking is not easy as their behavior is so variable.
For the last half-hour, I couldn't get my head around the fact that the trout were all out of the water all of a sudden. Every little stream was home to a fish, whether it gobbled or not.
I'll end the session with more than 20 trout or even more. Sometimes I count my fish, just for fun. This time, I lost count!
A very nice session, which I'm really pleased about, as it's only my second evening's work this season. It will make me want to come back to this river and why not take some of my trainees.
