For the last 3 or 4 years I've heard whispers of great things happening 'fly fishing wise' in the Spanish Pyrenees. Rumours of trophy wild brown trout, fast flowing freestone rivers, stunning scenery, wildlife, quaint bars and great food. I started to 'coin' it as the European catskills, which started to raise a few eyebrows.
No 'coms' for a whole week... Ummmmmm
Anyhow, last March at the Spring Flyfishing Show I mentioned it to a few guys who like an adventure and they were all up for the expedition. All-be-it, an adventure in a motorhome, not a 'Bear Gills' SAS style expedition! A few guys soon became 7; Keith Wallington, Jacques van Niekerk, John Zerihoun, Alex Gustafsson, Kris Haith, Dale Rushby and myself. We all met up at Bilbao airport on a rainy day in Spain. John and Alex were the first to arrive, so they got the wheels and stock plied it with beer.
No 'coms' for a whole week... Ummmmmm
Anyhow, last March at the Spring Flyfishing Show I mentioned it to a few guys who like an adventure and they were all up for the expedition. All-be-it, an adventure in a motorhome, not a 'Bear Gills' SAS style expedition! A few guys soon became 7; Keith Wallington, Jacques van Niekerk, John Zerihoun, Alex Gustafsson, Kris Haith, Dale Rushby and myself. We all met up at Bilbao airport on a rainy day in Spain. John and Alex were the first to arrive, so they got the wheels and stock plied it with beer.
Dale Rushby, John Zerihoun, Steve Thornton, Keith Wallington, Kris Haith, Alex Gustafsson and Jacques van Niekerk.
Once we had stocked up with rations from the local supermarket, we drove 350k up into the Spanish Pyrenees, looking at maps, eating tapa's and polished off our first case of San Miguel.
Ummmm... vodka, bacardi, wine...
Enough rations for a couple of days...
The scenery in the Pyrenees is, simply spectacular. High limestone mountains, gin clear rivers, giving essences of wild garlic and rosemary.
The next morning after we waded through the bureaucracy of getting our fishing permits, we hit the Rio Aragon. This was our main destination for the next 6 days along with its many tributaries.
We travelled, fly fished, took photos, drank beer, talked s**t and had a fantastic time. The locals were friendly, the food was great, (we could even smoke in the bars and restaurants, regardless of the smoking ban)
We could even smoke in the bars and restaurants, regardless of the smoking ban...
We fished till after dark, kris cooked food for us all on our mini cooking stove; we drank some more, told stories, played our iPhone music like hippies from the 60's, got mesmerised by a full moon and starlit skies, fell asleep, woke up and went fishing again. 7 blokes on a childhood adventure.
We saw some big fish and were so excited until we realised they were barbel. Some looked like English record breaking barbel, easy 15lb plus! Dale hooked one and he shook for a while. The hatches were impressive, big Californica stoneflies, perla's, turkey browns, light olives, dark olives, needleflies, thousands of adult caddis, billions of Hydropsyche and cased caddis, rocks crawling with big Heptagenia and stonefly nymphs and too many terrestrials to name. Yet, no rising fish, strange!
Ummmm... vodka, bacardi, wine...
Enough rations for a couple of days...
The scenery in the Pyrenees is, simply spectacular. High limestone mountains, gin clear rivers, giving essences of wild garlic and rosemary.The next morning after we waded through the bureaucracy of getting our fishing permits, we hit the Rio Aragon. This was our main destination for the next 6 days along with its many tributaries.
We travelled, fly fished, took photos, drank beer, talked s**t and had a fantastic time. The locals were friendly, the food was great, (we could even smoke in the bars and restaurants, regardless of the smoking ban)
We could even smoke in the bars and restaurants, regardless of the smoking ban...
We fished till after dark, kris cooked food for us all on our mini cooking stove; we drank some more, told stories, played our iPhone music like hippies from the 60's, got mesmerised by a full moon and starlit skies, fell asleep, woke up and went fishing again. 7 blokes on a childhood adventure.We saw some big fish and were so excited until we realised they were barbel. Some looked like English record breaking barbel, easy 15lb plus! Dale hooked one and he shook for a while. The hatches were impressive, big Californica stoneflies, perla's, turkey browns, light olives, dark olives, needleflies, thousands of adult caddis, billions of Hydropsyche and cased caddis, rocks crawling with big Heptagenia and stonefly nymphs and too many terrestrials to name. Yet, no rising fish, strange!
Although we caught brown trout many where in the 8" to 10" region, and some to 16" but the rumors of monster browns eluded us all. The Spanish Pyrenees maybe spectacular, but, for us, on this occasion it ain't the Catskills... I have published a few of the sensible photographs taken over the 7 day trip.
