La Loue - a day on a classic french river

I was recently in Lausanne, Switzerland for a wedding, and prior to heading over I did a bit of research on the fishing options in the area. Just over the border, about 1 1/2 hours north of Lausanne in the Jura region flows the Loue. The Loue is one of the classic French rivers, a lot of fishing history has come from the area, which also includes the equally famous Doubs and Ain. Aime Devaux, Charles Ritz and Madame De Chamberet are some of the names linked to the area that jump out. On top of that, when I was living in Italy, I heard the Loue mentioned a number of times, it was one of "the" places one had to fish, especially the section of the river belonging to the Sansonnens family. The "Parcours Sanso" is widely regarded as one of the best fishing sections in France. The opportunity to fish somewhere I had always wanted to fish was finally going to come to fruition.

I posted up a query on the PIPAM forum and thanks to a helpful forumite - thanks Silvano - managed to obtain Sanso's phone number (+33 3 81 60 32 17 - no email there...) and other information including a very handy link to the river levels Once in Switzerland, the weather was good, the river levels were right and a quick phone call to Sanso confirmed that all was good, so I set off. Shortly after Pontarlier one enters the valley of the Loue, a breathtaking spot. The Loue is actually born from a cave, the area is all Limestone and the "Source de la Loue" is worth a visit. From there I drove on to Ornans, through the town and onwards till the small hamlet of Cademene. From there it was a question of following the phone line poles out of town, and staying right un til there was onl y one line left. The road gets smaller and smaller, runs through some thick forest and finally ends at the farmhouse - google maps link I parked, and after a quick chat with Madame Sansonnens and paying the 30 Euros for the day off I went. I parked the car next to the river and immediately saw lots of fish. The stretch is catch and release and absolutely packed with grayling and trout. The trout in particular are very distinctive, they are brown trout with 3 black vertical bars and are native to this area only. They are known as "truite zébrée" and are very striking.

The view downstream from the farm house


The river upstream


I started fishing from the car, with a tiny nymph suspended under a klinkhammer. There were plenty of fish out and about but given the fairly intense fishing pressure (there were at least a dozen other anglers on the same stretch that day, and it was mid week) they were tough. Refusals were the norm, even with 7X tippet. I did manage to catch a few, and lost a few more, the bigger ones getting away. One especially large grayling refused the fly twice, took it the third time and came off after about 1 minute. Was a shame for it was a cracker. I worked my way upstream, dodging other anglers and had a little bit of success, but all susbsurface, there were no rises. I did see the occasional large mayfly, the proper one, i.e. ephemera danica, but the fish didn't seem interested. They make great photo subjects though:

The grayling were also stunning, their large dorsals full of red and blue spots:


A small but colourful grayling


As the day progressed things got quieter and quieter. The other anglers all disappeared for a long lunch, I thought they had it figured but I managed to catch a number of fish deep nymphing while I had the river all to myself. As evening approached activity started to increase and I finally managed to catch one of the prized "zébrée" trout while fishing a #16 comparadun up a riffle:

Around 8pm the river really came to life, with at least 6 different types of mayflies in various stages of their lives floating down the river, along with the occasional caddis, in varous sizes and colours. The fish started rising everywhere but it took me a while to figure out what they were taking. I started from the largest mayfly and worked my way down. Not surprisingly, they were taking the small cream coloured one, and after digging out a #18 cream CDC thorax dry from the box, it was 5 grayling in 5 casts, the largest going at least 1 1/2lbs, a great fish and a great way to end the day. At 10 they were still rising but I had a long drive home.

So all in all the Loue lived up to it's reputation. I only had one day and chose that stretch, but there are a number of other options, another well known stretch being the one run by the Hotel De France. There are other options as well on the nearby Doubs and Ain, and 1 week could be easily spent in the area.

NZ 2008 Trip Report

This year I headed over to NZ on a solo trip. Well solo in that I flew over solo, but once there I was picked up by my good friend Dan and we fished together most of the week. I flew into Christchurch and next morning Mat flew in from the North Island and the three of us headed off.

Day 1

We headed up the Rangitata valley, and we started fishing some backwaters and side streams. Almost straight away we found some fish but my rustiness showed and I missed an easy take from a good brown. Shortly afterwards the weather changed, the colour of the river started to look more and more like coffee so we pulled the pin. We headed over towards Fairlie and fished rivers and backwaters in that area. I struggled to stay connected to fish, but one of the best moments was when we drove through a small backwater, only to look out the window and see a brown trout cruising towards us. Dan was the quickest and managed to get an eat but missed. So the car was duly parked and we headed off. There were a couple more fish in the backwater and Dan succeeded in hooking a good brown, but when I went over to offer my help the fish bolted to the other side of the stream and broke him off.

Time for one last stream, saw and missed a couple of fish and off to the pub.

Day 2

We headed off with Mat and fished the gorge section of the Opuha. We walked down river in the blazing sun, and at the first backwater I managed to hook and lose a lovely brown - that monkey was starting to get quite heavy by then. We carried on downstream and when we turned to start fishing our way back the weather had changed. It was initially spitting rain and slowly got worse. We saw a number of fish, Mat caught a lovely 5lber and by the time we got back to the car I was soaked. Time to beat a hasty retreat to a warm dry place. After some dry clothes and coffee Dan and I drove back down to his place. We had a short session on the Nunya after dinner but the fish were oh so spooky. The monkey was now a gorilla.

Day 3

Dan had to work so I went and fished the Hakataramea. I had a very enjoyable morning, I caught heaps of fish, but nothing larger than 2 1/2lbs, but I used my 2 weight most of the day and flicking a para adams under overlying bushes with it was a blast. After dinner Dan and I went and had a look at a nearby water race and I caught a lovely 3 1/2lb rainbow on my 2 weight Scott. The fish was sitting just below a pipe, Dan spotted it, I cast a small comparadun as close as I could and up it came.







Day 4

After breakfast Dan and I loaded up his truck and headed off. Plan was to fish a high country river for 2 days, staying in a hut. We drove up past Omarama, and fished the middle section of the Ahuriri without much luck, but it was a good break in the trip, but we still had a fair way to go so we jumped into the car and kept on trucking. The drive up to the river was fantastic, especially once the asphalt ended, and we had to ford numerous rivers to get there.




While crossing one of these streams we both were impressed by what we saw, so grabbed the rods and went for a looksie. First pool Dan missed a fish, second pool there were 2 fish, and I hooked the first one only to have the fly drop out after a few seconds... I had barely recovered from the anguish when I heard a yelp and Dan was hooked up. A short battle later and a 5 1/2lb brown was on the bank:







We drove a bit further to the hut and settled in for the night

Day 5

We woke up to a glorious day, had breakfast and went back down to the side stream of the evening before to sort out some unfinished business. Sure enough the fish I lost the day before was back in station and gladly ate the Carty's GFF that I drifted over it's head:







When we got back to the car, we were just about to head off when we heard the ominous sound of a helicopter. Sure enough, a chopper had landed just upstream at the start of the run we were planning to fish. Highly irritated we headed further up and started fishing. We didn't see a large number of fish but all the fish we caught moved a fair distance to grab the foam cicadas. We did see the same helicopter drop another group in upstream though, so much for the wilderness effect...

Between the main river and side streams we caught about a dozen fish for the day, mix of rainbows and browns, all on dries.













At the end of a long but enjoyable day we returned to the comfortable hut for a plate of pasta and a bottle of Shiraz, drunk from wine glasses too...




Day 6

Next morning saw us catch a few more fish from the main river and the ever reliable side stream, and once again the chopper from the day before... 3 groups in 2 days... what more can I say. We headed back to Dan's after an enjoyable day and a half of fishing, apart from the bloody chopper...




Day 7

Dan was busy so I headed up the Ahuriri, but when I got there the nor'wester was howling. I persisted for a few hours, but casting and seeing the fly was tough, let alone spotting fish. I did manage a nice rainbow though. I ended up back in Omarama where I fished the Omarama stream for lots of fish, the biggest was about 3lb and it really gave me a hard time on the 4 weight - after going from one undercut bank to another it buried itself in the weeds. All I saw was a tail sticking out so I scooped the lot up in my net. Little comparadun again did the damage

Day 8

Dan and I headed off to his secret 10lb stream. It was a beautiful day and in the first pool we saw a huge fish but he wasn't playing the game. We saw a number more, and Dan was the first off the mark with a great 7lber




A few pools later we spotted another good fish, it was sitting at the end of a pool in a feeding lie but not moving much. After a number of presentations it finally decided the GFF was tasty enough and grabbed it. It took off downstream and I had no option but to follow:




After a lot of scrambling, plus an impromptu swim Dan finally managed to net it for me, a lovely 7lb brown:




Fairly lean fish, it was 68cm long...

20m further up in the same pool Dan spotted a cruiser, and when I plopped the cicada fly on it's back it couldn't resist, and a 6 3/4lber soon ended up in the net:










Perfect way to finish off the week, and Dan and I headed off to the pub for a celebratory Speights.

Once again a fabulous trip, NZ rocks and a huge thanks to Dan and Liz for their generous hospitality.

Bring on 2009