River Lot, France. June 2020

[Steve Arnold]

France has had all the problems the UK anglers have had, just we were a couple of weeks ahead of the UK!

My year started with a few fish before the Cov19 lockdown, I was looking forward to a good year and building on what I had learnt since moving to France. Then the lockdown left the river just outside the limit of the allowed walking distance - with police patrols along the road!

When lockdown was eased and fishing allowed again we had drought - followed by a week of thunderstorms and rain - followed by drought again. The river has bounced between a torrent and low summer levels, the fish have been spawning or hiding - certainly not feeding!

Today I needed to dump our accumulated bottles at the bottle bank near the river, my wife fancied an outing as well. Grabbed the rod and some bait - just in case!

Yesterdays thunderstorms and torrential rain had raised the river a few inches and added the slightest colour. There was a little flow!

First cast a good dragging bite - missed! The second cast my paste and boilie bait got nailed properly.....

A nice barbel that put up a proper fight!

Next few casts brought constant mini-bites. Eventually I found a bream hanging on...

The following bream went 5 lbs, no photo as it put up a better fight in the puddle at the slipways edge!

Missed several more bites but it was clear a shoal of bream had taken up residence.

Nice dragonfly landed on my belly and stayed for several minutes....

Sally (the wife) read her book. Maybe she is my fishing "good luck charm" - will take her again!

Thought I had lost my fishing Mojo, glad it's back!

 

[sylvanillo]

Beautiful photos.
That's France: beautiful rivers, love stories, good fishing, and all this along with good bottles of wine!!

 

[Windy]

The Lot valley is wonderful.

18 years ago I spent an idyllic three weeks driving from Bourdeaux along the valley with an old girlfriend. We stopped overnight in a series of Gites on the way, taking it steady and stopping for two or three nights at a time. Spent a wonderful sunny day calling in on St. Emilion, one of my top five places on the planet to be. Chateau Petit Figeac my favourite wine of all. Can't afford it, but the dozen or so bottles I have drunk over my lifetime has always been memorable and wonderful.

We travelled further East along the river and then a small detour south to the extraordinary Rocamadour, a mediaeval city built into an almost vertical cliff face. Google photos of it, human ingenuity at its most impressive. However no photo gets close to the amazing experience of being there, looking up at the city with the Eagles wheeling in circles at the top of the cliff hundreds of feet above. Add in Durandal, the impossibly romantic sword of the legendary hero Roland embedded in the cliff wall, and a bloody genius eponymous Goat's milk cheese to die for.

A wonderful trip in the best of sunny late autumn weather, perfect temperature and a delight.

Only drawback, no fishing... girlfriend at the time expressed herself very clearly on the point !

Plus which, I have no idea what the rules are in France, permits needed or whatever...

I was planning to repeat the trip this autumn with Nicky who is as much of a wine enthusiast as I am, but she has never been to St. E. Covid19 hasn't helped the planning, but the main problem is that I find there are no longer any car ferries (or any ferries at all as far as I can see) sailing from the UK to Bourdeaux. Very disappointed.

 

[sylvanillo]

The "lowest" destination port in France would be St Nazaire I think. But it probably takes a long time, so St Malo would be equivalent maybe in terms of journey duration.

In terms of wines I always stop at Calais, at the main supermarket or at a cave, that's my only option. Even if I didn't have to travel, it would be cheaper to get a £60 day return ticket + car fuel, rather than buying here. Not the same though, compared to visiting local producers that's for sure.

I think we should all relocate to where Pelamid lives and we'd have a local guide.

 

[Hugh Bailey]

I was planning to repeat the trip this autumn with Nicky who is as much of a wine enthusiast as I am, but she has never been to St. E. Covid19 hasn't helped the planning, but the main problem is that I find there are no longer any car ferries (or any ferries at all as far as I can see) sailing from the UK to Bourdeaux. Very disappointed.

Not sure where you are but there are ferries from Portsmouth or Plymouth to Spin ( Bilbao or Santander). Its a long sea trip but not too bad a drive back up to Bordeaux - 3-4 hours or so.

 

[Roger Johnson 2]

Pleased to see you’re enjoying the déconfinement, with a few good fish. I’m pleased to report a few bream and barbel from the Dordogne and with levels dropped doing a bit of fluff chucking.
I’d be interested to pop down for a crack at the Lot and you’re more than welcome to pop up here if you fancy a Dordogne dabble, I think we’re only about an hour thirty minutes away.


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[Steve Arnold]

Everyone who visits us is enchanted by this part of France. I doubt I will leave and my wife is content - we both feel we have landed in the right place at the best time (retirement!) of our lives!

Anyone who plans to visit is welcome to drop by. If it's for the fishing I know many access points to the river, slipways and some decent swims. Like any river though, the weather can transform the Lot immensely! Outside of the main holiday season the river is fairly quiet. I avoid fishing public holidays and Mondays (many locals work the markets Sunday, so Monday a day off), but it's never as busy as most English rivers.

Given decent weather September and October is best for fishing, that holds until the first heavy rains.

Recently I started a little project on Google Earth. So far, over the 40 k of the Lot east of Cahors, I have listed over 60 fishing spots and slipways. Not all of them are accessible at the moment, lockdown meant no work clearing riverbanks and paths this spring. The growth of hawthorn, brambles and Japanese knotweed has been quite incredible!

 

[Steve Arnold]

Pleased to see you’re enjoying the déconfinement, with a few good fish. I’m pleased to report a few bream and barbel from the Dordogne and with levels dropped doing a bit of fluff chucking.
I’d be interested to pop down for a crack at the Lot and you’re more than welcome to pop up here if you fancy a Dordogne dabble, I think we’re only about an hour thirty minutes away.


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Hi Roger, when you fancy a trip to the Lot please message me, I will try to find some swims to get you started.

I tried to PM you but the message seems to be blocked. Maybe my settings for messaging are wrong, there are a couple of choices and I did change them but no luck either way. Would have given you my phone number if I could get the message to send!

Regards,
Steve

 

[Roger Johnson 2]

Hi Roger, when you fancy a trip to the Lot please message me, I will try to find some swims to get you started.

I tried to PM you but the message seems to be blocked. Maybe my settings for messaging are wrong, there are a couple of choices and I did change them but no luck either way. Would have given you my phone number if I could get the message to send!

Regards,
Steve

Hi Steve, Drop me your number on Rog.johnson@hotmail.com or a call on 06 42 97 77 60.
Regards
Rog


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[Steve Arnold]

Last week I took delivery of a new Chromebook laptop. My first one had too small a screen for serious viewing but this new one makes photo work a real pleasure.

As I use Google Earth a massive amount I found I could do a project on it and add photos, videos and links to my own personal map. Here is a screenshot of what I ended up with....

I now have a map with the fishing places I have found, over about a three hour drive of the river Lot. Along with slipways, local info videos from Youtube and interesting stretches still to be explored - Google Earth seen with a good laptop screen is a wonderful tool!

Yesterday I tried a new swim at Bouzies, along with a fishing buddy. No bites at all! On the way home we stopped at a swim we know often fishes well and caught several barbel to 4lbs.

My first fish was a bream of about 2.5 lbs. It was a bit sickly and bore some recent scars.....

I have a suspicion it may have had a brief encounter with a silure. Any other suggestions?

 

[Windy]

I have a suspicion it may have had a brief encounter with a silure. Any other suggestions?

Were there any similar markings on the other side of the fish ? Suggestive of a catfish mouth clamping down ?

If not then my guess would be a bird strike of some sort, heron, stork or cormorant (if you have them ?) from the way that the red bleeding mark seems to be either a stab wound or perhaps a glancing knife like blow from above ? Guesswork I know.

On a serious note, can you give us any guidance or summary as to the French fishing laws and regulations ? ie. is there any equivalent of a general or local rod licence required, or possibly both ? Plus what if anything is owed to the property / riverbank riparian owners / any local clubs down there ? And where do you get or buy the relevant permits ??

Or is it free fishing. Welcome if it is, but unlikely I suspect.

Don't want to roll up with a rod and line and then spend the next few hours in a cell trying to explain to a Gendarme that no harm was intended in my schoolboy French !

 

[Steve Arnold]

Hi Windy, you will need a license to fish the rivers in France - but not the sea.

You can buy your license locally, usually the tabacs. Some towns it may be another business, in my village it is the quincaillerie (hardware shop)

Easier to buy it online https://www.cartedepeche.fr/

Use Google Translate and you should be able to work your way through that site.

You can get permits for the day, week or month and for individual departments or (for a little more) for the whole of France (a couple of exceptions). Most departments have reciprocal agreements with the others, so a "Carte Interfederal" gets you legally fishing almost any river in France. There are a few regions that are not covered, the link shows a a map of those that are included.

So, the licence covers you for river fishing and most tracks leading to the rivers are public or allowed for the use of fishermen to access the river. Occasionally you will find a track marked "privé" and I usually respect that - though sometimes it's an incomer trying to keep people off what they really should keep accessible! Not worth an argument, and how do you make your point in french! Some tracks will be marked "au riverains" (for locals), with a fishing permit you still can use that road for river access.

Lakes are another matter. There are many private carp lakes (not covered by the license) and most towns will have a "plan d'eau" (ponds) that are fishable. Your river licence will have a list of any "plan d'eau" that it covers. Many of these "plan d'eau" require a local town licence, ask in the tabac or campsite - if they don't sell them they will know who does. Usually you can only buy a town water licence if you have already got the river licence.

When you get your Carte de Peche ask for a Guide de Peche for your region. This link has the one for the Aveyron https://www.pecheaveyron.fr/reglementations/ . Some regions may have the guide in english as well, try the local tourist offices for these.

As for the marks on that bream, yes we do have cormorants! It crossed my mind that may be the culprit, but there was bruising both flanks and in two main places both sides. Possibly drag marks as the bream did its usual panic flip move? I have had a couple of small barbel with single strike marks that were almost certainly from a cormorant strike.

France is a wonderful country!

 

[Steve Arnold]

Here are some regulations for my department https://www.pechelot.com/reglementation/

There will be variations around the country, so do check before fishing.

One method of fishing has been banned on the Lot since 2015 but is still (unfortunately) in common use. That is the "cassant" method (translates to "brittle") also referred to in UK as the washing line method. I have had problems due to anglers using this method twice in the last week. The first time a boat had anchored 20 yds out and had fishing lines, bow and stern, tied to branches about 70 yds away to fish the same bank. That covered 140 yards of bank and three swims that had vegetation cleared by local shore anglers.

Two days ago I went to fish a local swim and found a heavy braid line coming from 30 yds to my left and tied to a tree 30 yds to my right. I spotted another line covering 130 yds to the opposite bank - right across the boat channel!

The line in front of me I pulled in and tucked it behind a mooring cleat so I could fish over the top. A few minutes later a carp angler emerged from his hidden bivvy to retrieve his line attached to the bushes. He did not respond to my "Bonjour"!

Whilst this was happening a paddle border had to negotiate under the carp mans other line!

It's obvious why this cassant method is banned but where it's a way of catching some impressive carp anglers will still chance it. Using this method basically means the carp angler can fence off a couple of acres of river for themselves. Other anglers risk an argument to fish! Very territorial behaviour!

Does that sound like a "rant"? Fortunately the vast majority of anglers here are considerate to others, like the french are about most things!

 

[Roger Johnson 2]

Hi , thanks to Pelamid(Steve) for the description of the “brittle”method, I had been wondering what it was, and had not been able to find out from our local very trout orientated guys. I had been thinking it was a ban on floating crust or casters!
To build on the licence issue, I think it is incredible value at 100€ per year to give access to thousands of rivers and lakes across France including the option to take up to 6 trout or 3 pike per day. Fortunately the “No Kill” movement is growing strongly amongst younger anglers.
It’s also worth bearing in mind that waters “free” on carte pêche are also public waters and may have multiple usage which might be frustrating, but it’s a big country, there’s usually somewhere where you can get away from it, the department where I live, Correze, has a population density of 48 per Km sq, with dozens of lakes and rivers, of there’s a lot of fishing per person!
Fishing Magic French fish in sometime?
( will catch up with you soon Steve, when I’m not up to my armpits in tiles grout and plaster......2022!)


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[Windy]

Fantastically helpful, thank you P.

Must confess the permits aren't cheap are they ? 100Eur for the big one, or 33 for a week... Mind you that's a hell of a lot of water available without paying further fees. Hmm. Maybe a better bargain than at first sight, though frankly I'd appreciate a fortnight for my 33E rather than just 7 days.

Maybe we shouldn't complain as much as we do about the UK rod licence fees. Hat, coat, and duck, run for taxi and don't meet the mob's eyes...

I say UK but is it still the case you don't need a rod licence in Scotland ? Just thinking about catching my first ever Trout on the island of Skye when I was 12 or 13. Loch Leathan, 13 foot fibre and cane rod, string as fly line, level mono leader and a Soldier Palmer. Them's were the days !

 

[Roger Johnson 2]

Fantastically helpful, thank you P.

Must confess the permits aren't cheap are they ? 100Eur for the big one, or 33 for a week... Mind you that's a hell of a lot of water available without paying further fees. Hmm. Maybe a better bargain than at first sight, though frankly I'd appreciate a fortnight for my 33E rather than just 7 days.


Really!! 33€ for 7 days even at the rubbish current exchange rates that’s less than £4.50 a day! The weekly card from most departments include “reciprocity” across the country.
In theory you could fish a different river in a different area and “if you’re lucky/good enough” eat a free trout or six every day ( size limits apply) for a week for £4.50 a day.

Sorry to snap back, but in comparison to a days skiing or golf or when the cost of top sporting/concert events are in the hundreds (apparently), I think £4.50 per day (£6 if you have 2 days off!) is outstanding value.

Despite our disagreement, I remain your friend in angling.
Regards
Rog


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[Roger Johnson 2]

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[Roger Johnson 2]

Oops, not getting the use of quote and reply quite right.
The technonumpty strikes again!
Windy, I hope you picked up on my reply to you OK.
Rog


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[Windy]

No probs, feel free to snap away ! I'm just a tight Welsh git.

If I was living in France and able to make use of all those waters over the course of a year then 100E is a bargain compared to cheaper British rod licence + fees left right and everywhere for clubs, books and day tickets etc.

The thing about a holiday permit is that I don't have a problem paying 33E, but with the other half in tow (as she must be) I am in reality going to be lucky to get more than a day or two out of the 7 actually fishing. 14 days would give one a rather better chance of getting some value for the 33E invested...

 

[Steve Arnold]

Apart from this year, and river work delayed due to lockdown, the slipways and picnic areas plus some swims on various stretches have been cleared and maintained. The authorities and local associations restock with carp and salmonids. For the 100 euros a year you really do get a lot for your money.

The water quality is pretty damned good as well, though today the river rose from clear summer levels to a muddy torrent. We had a couple of thunderstorms two days ago, looks like they had a lot more upriver in the mountains. The Lot is a long river!

video...