IMPORTANT
SITE UPDATE:

Visit the relaunched
Fish & Fly at fishandfly.com

Now Wash Your Hands

Another June 2002 contribution from Jon Beer

Jon Beer reports on a recent trip to Brittany.

I have no idea why it has taken me this long to go fishing in Brittany: it is just my sort of place. If ever I get to go on Desert Island Discs and Sue Lawley asks me for my luxury item, I shall ask for a couple of miles of the River Penzé. And, if I can trade in my bible and the complete works of Shakespeare for a rod and line, you will not hear a peep out of me for some time.

If the River Penzé does not count as a luxury item then I don't know what does: it is about perfect. I was there in the first week of June when the pale hulks of mayfly heave themselves out of the surface to stagger up into the sunshine. They would have staggered up into a light drizzle on the morning I arrived. I had trundled out of the ferry into the early morning streets of St Malo and the same light drizzle. I had taken the motorway west towards Finistère where France frays off into the north Atlantic. The drizzle stopped at Morlaix but it was not, by any stretch of the imagination, balmy. I turned inland towards the village of Loc-Eguinier-St-Thégonnec and the only gîte de pêche in the departement of Finistère.

These gîtes de pêche – do you know about these? There is a little book put out by the folk at Gîtes de France: it is called "Séjours Pêche 2002". It gives details of any gîtes (rural self-catering accomodation) and chambre d'hôtes (rural bed&breakfast) that cater especially for fishermen. This usually means that there is good fishing nearby or even on the property, that the owner can get the necessary tickets or help you get them and has facilities for the local type of fishing. It usually means that the owner is a knowledgeable local fisherman. But not always. The little book gives details of the local fishing, including the river categories (these describe the type of water and hence species) and the best seasons and techniques. The book is a handy little item to have and I might ask Sue Lawley to bung it in with the rod and line. It costs 9€ (That's the closest I can get to a euro symbol on my keyboard).

M. Jean Martin owns Ty-Dreux, a gîte de pêche on the banks of the River Penzé near Loc-Eguinier-St-Thégonnec. He was a bit gloomy about the weather: it had rained solidly the day before and there was a good chance, he said, that the rivers would be swollen and "sale" and unfishable with a fly. On the other hand, I was here and the nearest excitement was the Friday night disco two miles down the road in Loc-Eguinier-St-Thégonnec. Today was Wednesday. We thought we might as well go and look at the river anyway.

No-one, it seems, had told the Penzé about the weather. It was bowling along, lightly tinted to the shade of weak china tea and looking every bit as tasty. The Penzé is the sort of river I love – a perky stream hurrying through a green tunnel of trees and more or less as nature intended. The bottom is sand and gravel with, here and there, dense clumps of ranunculus wafting deliciously in the tumbling currents. And there, in a deep pool lit by a weak sun struggling to break through the clouds, was a trout. It was not a huge trout. It was an honest trout of about 10" which is a good fish in a wild stream. We had only come to look at the river but, at the edge of a back eddy, something happened which sent me back to the car for a rod. I had seen my first Penzé "gobage" – a trout rise – a delicious word I intend to use at every possible opportunity. I did not catch that trout but on the way back to the car a willing little fish hurled itself at my dry fly. I had caught my first Penzé trout.

There is little point describing how I fished the Penzé: I fish much the same wherever I go. The joy of travel fishing is to learn from someone else. I learnt a lot about fishing this delightful stream from Nicolas Bourré, a local fisherman who M. Martin had persuaded to join us on the river that evening.

The drizzle had stopped, the clouds had broken and the mayfly had something decent to flutter up into. They were taking full advantage of the change. The trout could not have cared less. We watched any number of mayfly take off for the dappled shade of the trees but not one was eaten. Nicolas fished dry – or dryish, at any rate. The rises we did see were just under the surface: the trout were taking emerging nymphs. Nicolas selected a Hare's Ear, tied with long straggling fibres where the hackle might have been.

"This fly sits in the surface, not on it", he said. He might also have added that virtually every fly he ties is made of hare's ear fur: he loves the stuff. And so, it seemed, do the trout.

We were fishing at Coulart above an ancient stone clapper bridge – Jean will show you the spot if you ask him. Nicolas lowered himself into the water. Wading is the key to fishing these bosky rivers. Once in the water you are inside the green tunnel of trees with the fish. From here you can fish every run and bend rather than just the occasional spot where the bank is bare – which is where everybody else fishes anyway. We had seen another fisherman upstream of us when we had arrived. Nicolas said that was unimportant: the man wasn't wading: he could reach only one fish in twenty.

Once in the water, Nicolas fishes every inch. I am always hurrying on to the rise I have spotted upstream or the next tasty bend. Nicolas works his way with infinite patience, inching up the current. This way he moves silently and covers every possible place a fish can lurk. Where he cannot cast he uses the rod like a bow and arrow, pulling back on the fly to bend the rod then releasing it to catapult into the tightest corner.

It was patient work. Nicolas covered no more than 100 yards in an hour or more – but in that 100 yards he hooked half a dozen fish. He did not land them all: you don't with the trout of the Penzé. As soon as they are hooked they take to the air which usually does the trick of getting them free – and if it doesn't then they take to that luxuriant weed which also works. Either way half of those fish got off and, as always, it was the bigger ones that escaped. That's how they get big in a land that eats whatever it catches.

And what fish they were. The best was twelve inches, which is a fine wild trout. Most were ten inches and, on the understanding that you leave some for when I return, I urge you to go thou and do likewise.

Finding fishing in Brittany is ludicrously easy. From 1st June you can buy a Carte Vacances. This will cost 30€ (around £20). It allows you to fish on any of the waters of one association for 15 consecutive days. The Morlaix association has 100 km of trout rivers including this stretch of the Penzé. Tickets are available from "Au Fil de l'eau" (a tackle shop), 7&9 rue de Brest, 29600 MORLAIX, Finistere. For information and advice on this fishing, phone the owner, Philippe Le Maux on 02 98 63 38 80.

Jon Beer contributes regularly to publications including Trout & Salmon and The Telegraph. If you have any comments, do not hesitate to get in touch or use the message board.