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The St Connan or Etang Neuf reservoir in the Côtes d'Armor region of Brittany offers a beautiful playground for Breton fly fishers. Situated in a beautiful setting, fed by two rivers including the Trieux, and with a surface area of 6 hectares, it provides good trout fishing all year round, but it's often between mid-October and early March that I go there, usually accompanied by friends.
At last, a weather window!
The weather this autumn/winter is not sparing us in Brittany, and the rare days without too much wind and rain are few and far between! So we have to try to be available when the planets align to enjoy a rare fishing session in winter.
This time it's a Saturday, as it's not always possible to go during the week with work. The weather's been kind to us... Fire up!
Arriving on site at 8:30 am, the day is just breaking and it's always a pleasant moment with nature waking up.
A few cormorants are already out fishing. A real scourge everywhere! They're doing considerable damage to our fish populations, since they're still protected, even though our AAPPMAs are trying to obtain shooting rights to control populations. On some rivers, canals and lakes, it's a real tragedy, not just on the big French rivers in Eastern France, but even in Brittany, where they cause considerable predation. Sedentary cormorant populations are increasing every year, perhaps because food is easier to catch.
We're going to have to get things moving if we don't want to have real fishing deserts all over France in the years to come!
Strategies and adaptation
Today, I only rigged up 3 rods, as my strategy was to do a bit of streamer fishing between two waters to start prospecting around the pontoons, try static fishing on fish that have already been coveted since the start of the reservoir season (late October-early November), and a plunge-line fishery to find fish often close to the bottom in this season, if between two waters the results are slow in coming.
So I start with a single streamer on an intermediate line, combing first the edges and then a little further out. On the fifth cast, I take a nice stop on the line and quickly strike. A powerful fight ensues with these trout, which are really combative in these cool waters. I'm using a 10-foot 7-gauge line, which allows me to restrain the fish a little, but at 18° you still have to watch out for the violent rush of these supercharged rainbows!
Static fishing
Then, no more hits, so I try static with a technique I recently learned called "au bouchon". It's the same system as bung (float) fishing, but with a CDC fly that floats high and is easy to see. I've rigged a chiro at 70 cm below the "pompon" and an imitation egg tippet at around 2.20 m.
It's always fun to try new approaches, and personally, that's what I enjoy most. Learning, again and again. Vary your fishing.
Casting this rig is not easy, especially with a well weighted tippet fly. My egg is rigged with a 2.4 tungsten bead to sink fast, but not too fast either, in case the trout are interested in a fly that descends rather slowly in the water column.
I prospect from the shore out to sea and after several casts, nothing much happens. Then I spot a gobage and cast close to it. On the way down, my egg is intercepted as I see the cork leave and immediately cast! I'm on a 9-foot 6-grain silk and the sensations are very pleasant. The rod bends and works, while the fish gradually tires. But it's incredible how powerful these fish are. At last it comes into the net. A well-proportioned fish with beautiful fins. Superb!
I continue for a while, but no more gobbling and no touching either on the shore or all around my pontoon.
Aggressive fishing
So I use a plunge line on which two boobies are mounted. A colored one at the end of the line, at about 40 cm and a black one at 1.5 m behind with 5 mm eyes to keep my flies close to the bottom, as in this season this is often where the trout hold on even if they can be mobile and move in the layers of water.
After several throws here and there, still no touch. I change animation almost every time I throw to find out what might trigger them. It's on a small acceleration that I feel a small dry tap. A trout is behind, but it must be nibbling its tail.
Finally, I switch to rolly-polly, which is a technique for bringing in flies quickly and continuously. You hold the rod under your armpit and strip with both hands.
On the first cast, I take a very nice touch and the fish spikes. Another good fight and a trout in the net. I think I may have found one of the solutions, but apart from another hit, I don't catch anything.
Changing spots and adapting techniques
I move to the pontoon closest to the trees. I start with the streamer and once again catch a trout on the "hang", i.e. the rise of the fly to the surface at the end of the run. It's a great sight action, as I can see the fish charging at the fly, missing it, then coming back and taking it. I hook it visually!
Then again, nothing.
I try static fishing again and on the first cast I catch a trout on the way down. I followed this up with 5 hits on the same small spot. I get 4 and land one. Nothing on the other spots around the pontoon. Weird! Then it calmed down. A rolly-polly in plunging silk, but no success this time.
Then it's time to eat. Time flies when you're fishing!
After quickly wolfing down my sandwich and banana, which I left in my car so as not to jinx myself! I change pontoons again. I start with inter and streamer. Nothing at all. A dip and an egg, but nothing either. After 15/20 minutes in this spot, I decide to go to the pontoon boat, which is close to the deep end.
The key to success: fly animation!
I go straight to the booby and start from scratch with the animation. Slow animation. Nothing, fast animation and pause, nothing either. Then I think to myself that my bites have always been on very fast animations and decide to animate my two boobies at the bottom, but very fast without any pause. It didn't take me long to get my first fish. I would go on to catch many fish in this way, on both boobies.
I will continue in this way on this pontoon and then on others and it is really this animation that has made the difference when friends had fished here a fortnight earlier and the trout were only taking static on the bottom!
As you can see, when you're fishing, you have to keep changing and looking for what the fish like. Above all, don't stick to one technique or certain flies or patterns. Adapting and varying your techniques is the key to success!
I'll still catch two or three trout statically, but it's on the bottom, by irritating the fish, that I'll make the greatest number of catches, especially in the deeper areas.
A great session that made me happy, with around twenty fish hooked and an evolving strategy that worked and gave me some great fishing. But there was certainly room to catch even more trout, having understood certain things earlier.
