{"id":9230,"date":"2023-04-17T10:07:53","date_gmt":"2023-04-17T14:07:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/feathersandwhiskey.com\/?p=9230"},"modified":"2023-05-23T09:41:36","modified_gmt":"2023-05-23T13:41:36","slug":"fly-fishing-in-the-pyrenees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/feathersandwhiskey.com\/?p=9230","title":{"rendered":"Fly Fishing in the Pyrenees"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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By Brian Smith <\/h6>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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I was reading Ernest Hemingway\u2019s novel The Sun Also Rises<\/em>\u00a0for the third time and as a result I got the idea stuck in my head that I wanted to go fly fishing for trout in Spain.\u00a0 Hemingway has inspired many travel and sporting adventures I have participated in over the years, and I have not been disappointed.\u00a0 I think Papa had good taste in adventure and sport and he has a way of describing a country in such a way that makes me want to explore it myself.\u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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I booked the fishing trip with Ivan Tarin of Salvelinus Fishing Adventures<\/a> located in the village of Aren in the Eastern Pyrenees.\u00a0 The lodge I stayed in was the Ribagorza Lodge and Spa. \u00a0This is an Orvis endorsed fishing outfit that has good reviews and a nicely designed website.\u00a0 Getting to the lodge was a relatively easy affair.\u00a0 I flew into Barcelona from Atlanta arriving the morning of May 9th.\u00a0 I took the train from the airport to the Barcelona Sants train station and stayed at the Barcelona Sants Hotel, located in the train station, which was a nice and convenient place to stay.\u00a0 The next morning, I took the train from Barcelona to Lleida which was about an hour ride and I met my guide Aitor at the Lleida train station.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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There were some good fishing areas between Lleida and the Village of Aren where the lodge was located.\u00a0 Lleida was about an hour from Aren and I had arrived in Lleida at about 9:30 a.m. \u00a0We headed out to some good tail waters and started fishing.\u00a0 The scenery was absolutely stunning, beautiful mountains and crystal clear waters, flowers in bloom everywhere.\u00a0 There were red poppy fields on the banks and yellow wild lilies blooming on the banks.\u00a0 We started fishing with the 4 weight rod, floating line with a deer hair nymph, number 18 hook with a golden bead head caddis nymph number 18 hook tied as a dropper to the dry with a 5x tippet.\u00a0 Pretty soon after getting to the tail waters I was catching some nice brook trout on the nymph\u2019s.\u00a0 The fish were beautiful and fought strong.\u00a0 After catching several nice brookies and rainbows we waded to a deeper run and Aitor introduced to me to what he called \u201cSpanish Nymphing\u201d. \u00a0The way this is done is with a 9 foot rod and two nymphs tied in line with a piece of colored leader between the fly line and the leader.\u00a0 There was not indicator tied to the line, the object was to \u201chigh stick\u201d the rod keeping the colored part of the leader out of the water.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

The casts were short roll casts into the deep water of the run.\u00a0 I started trying this method in the run and ended up hooking the largest trout I had ever hooked on a fly rod.\u00a0 I would estimate it was at least a 10 pound trout and this was on a 5x tippet and 4 weight rod.\u00a0 I was ill prepared to fight such a fish; you most definitely cannot \u201chorse\u201d a fish like that in.\u00a0 I could also tell Aitor was caught off guard as well.\u00a0 The fish made several runs down stream and made a lot of runs to the bank.\u00a0 I did manage to fight the fish to my feet a couple of times over the next 15 minutes. \u00a0Every time Aitor would try to try to get close with the net he would make another strong run.\u00a0 Finally we made one last attempt to net the beast and he broke off.\u00a0 Young Aitor\u2019s hands were shaking after the ordeal.\u00a0 What I did not know at the time was that this was the largest fish hooked that season and we were not fishing waters that they typically go to for the \u201ctrophy\u201d trout so hooking that pig in that spot was quite a surprise.\u00a0\u00a0 We continued to fish until about 7pm, then made our way to the lodge were I met Ivan and Juan Antonio.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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The Sun Also Rises is a 1926 novel by American writer Ernest Hemingway, his first, that portrays American and British expatriates who travel from Paris to the Festival of San Ferm\u00edn in Pamplona to watch the running of the bulls and the bullfights.<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Ivan and Juan Antonio are partners at the lodge.\u00a0 Juan Antonio runs the lodge which has very nice rooms, a restaurant and a spa.\u00a0 The place has been in Juan Antonio\u2019s family for 500 years.\u00a0 The food was excellent.\u00a0 When I got into the lodge at 8 p.m. I was introduced to Juan and they proceeded to bring out a variety of \u201ctapas\u201d.\u00a0 I believe we had 7 or 8 courses that night and had a nice selection of regional wine and cheese.\u00a0 Every evening I was greeted by a wonderful assortment of tapas and excellent wine.\u00a0 We also had a very nice breakfast at the lodge every morning.\u00a0 When fishing, the lunches were packed; however it was a much more formal affair than I am accustomed to on a fishing trip.\u00a0 When it was time for lunch they always found a picnic table, pulled out a table cloth, wine glasses, plates and silverware, and the table was prepared with nut tray, cheese tray, salad, main course, wine, dessert and coffee.\u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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On the second day of the fishing trip I fished with Aitor again and we went to a different section of the river that was wider and more mountainous.\u00a0 We fished with dry\u2019s as well as nymphs and I caught a lot of nice brookies and rainbows ranging from 12 to 18 inches.\u00a0 When we arrived back at the lodge that night I discussed with Ivan a plan to have some formal instruction from him the next day.\u00a0 I was getting quite tired from all of the casting and I wanted to improve my casting as I had never had any formal training and I thought it would be a good investment of time. \u00a0I also needed some coaching on how to land a large trout like the one I had hooked earlier.\u00a0 We came up with a plan to go to a tennis court located in the little village near the lodge and work on the casting techniques on dry land.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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The next morning, the third day of the trip, we went to the tennis court where Ivan conducted a clinic for me.\u00a0 I would say that his clinic was worth the entire cost of the trip.\u00a0 He is an excellent, organized and professional instructor and I consider the decision to swap some of my fishing time for the instruction to be a wise investment.\u00a0\u00a0 The instruction I received will pay huge dividends in future trips with more hooked and landed fish.\u00a0 We spent the first half of the day working on casting on dry land which was also a part physics lesson; you would have to be there to understand.\u00a0 After lunch we went to a section of river running through a local park primarily for applying what I learned on the water more than to catch fish; however I was able to land a few of the native zebra trout, averaging about 6 inches in length.\u00a0 Ivan was impressed with my progression and I was feeling confident and much improved.\u00a0 He gave me a couple of options for the next day; we opted to go to water where I could concentrate on trophy trout and try to catch some on drys.\u00a0 This would be more challenging fishing than what I had done earlier in the trip and the training was necessary to make it productive.\u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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The fourth day of the trip I was guided by Ivan and we were hunting for what he called \u201cthe big guys\u201d.\u00a0 We traveled to a section of river known to hold some large trout and we started stalking the river looking for rising fish we could attempt to catch on a dry fly.\u00a0 We did find several nice brook trout and made an attempt to get them to take the fly with no success.\u00a0 We continued up the river and found a pool that was clear and deep behind a stump and was holding some large fish.\u00a0 We started trying to get a nymph down to them without success.\u00a0 Then I started casting in the more shallow fast water that was flowing into the pool.\u00a0 Soon after starting this I hooked a pig.\u00a0 I fought it hard and then lost the fish, and proceeded to hook another three nice fish, losing each one.\u00a0 My casting had improved greatly; however my landing skills were lacking for such large fish.\u00a0 Ivan took some time out on the shore and grabbed the line and played the role of fish and gave me instruction on how to land a large fish.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>

He also grabbed the line and pulled it until it broke off to give me a feel for how much pressure it took to break.\u00a0 I was not applying enough leverage and needed more trust in the equipment.\u00a0 After this instruction I gave it another try and I was successful in landing the largest rainbow I had ever caught on a fly rod.\u00a0 It was a beautiful 6 pound rainbow that gave an excellent fight and it was great feeling to land this fish.\u00a0 That fish was caught on a beaded head nymph.\u00a0 After that we were back to concentrating on catching some \u201cbig guys\u201d on dry flies.\u00a0 We proceeded up stream and it was not long before I did hook a very nice brook trout on dry fly, he gave a good fight and I landed him as well as two more of similar size.\u00a0 After this we continued up stream and found another fish rising.\u00a0 I worked the bank trying to get this fish to take the fly.\u00a0 After a lot of coaxing and playing with this fish I hooked into another 5 pound plus rainbow and landed him and we let that be the last cast of the trip, ending on a good note.\u00a0 So, I finally did get the hang of landing the big fish on the light tackle, the last fish being the 5th fish in a row I landed that would be considered trophy sized fish.\u00a0 That made for a nice end to a great fishing trip, and then Ivan drove me back to Lleida where I would catch a train back to Barcelona.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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