THE ORIENTAL MOUNTAIN TORRENTS

Near the great city of Barcelona emerges a complex mountain system from which they derive in numerous mountain range. This mountainous group of continental appearance has the name of Montseny. Both its north face and the south slope contain numerous small streams of crystalline waters, and inhabited by beautiful and colored brown trout.

The torrents are truly numerous, very covered with vegetation, of an overwhelming leafiness, they are somber and of somewhat lugubrious aspect but with numerous trout placed in their stones and bends.

But the trout did not arrive at Montseny by chance. The hunting and fishing service belonging to the Ministry of Agriculture of the 50s and 60s was the one that started up with the help of the nursery and the forestry engineers of that time, what are now mountain torrents inhabited by common trout and mountain barbel

Without these opportune repopulations, no river of the Eastern Mountain Range would have a single salmonid. The origin of the trout I do not know, it may have come from the pisciculture of Soria and the Monasterio de Piedra, but it is a supposition. The trout reach average sizes between 18-22 cm, others less numerous of 24-28 cm and finally some rare specimens reach 30-35 cm and even more. In fact I have caught trout born in the river itself of 45 cm, but they have been fish counted with the fingers of one hand.

The most named rivers in the Montseny are the Tordera, the Riera Major, the Riera d’Osor, the Gualba and a long etc …
In all these courses there are free and other limited sections. The fishing season opens in mid-March and ends in mid-October. The great problem of these water courses, is precisely the shortage of this since they are rivers of absolutely pluvial regime. If we add to this the large number of water bottling plants, we can conclude that the flow, runs more on the road on board a truck than the river itself, which has its springs literally emptied and continuously sucked by the great brands of bottled water and all well-known. In short, the aquifers of the Montseny mountain are being overexploited. If the year is rainy it hardly has any influence, but the current year, which is very dry and windy, is fatal for these mountain streams. To all this we must add the geology of the area. Granite and broken granite rock that results in a material known as sandstone, in Catalan “sauló”, is tremendously absorbent and covers the entire riverbed acting as a real sponge that absorbs water with an inexhaustible capacity.

Large amounts of stones are also very common in these eastern rivers as a result of the movements of the tertiary period. As far as fishing is concerned, trout bite very well to dry, this being the most practiced by a large number of fans. Trichoptera are very abundant in all torrents and deer hair is especially effective throughout the season. As I like to throw with a fly rod, I use a fly rod 7 feet and line 5, with a leader of 4 meters finished in a 15% tippet. With this and a little bit of expertise it is enough to have fun fishing trout all day long. In the evenings of May, although they do not allow themselves to be seen enough, they bite caddis flies very well, with very fast climbs and catching the artificial insect spectacularly. They are wild, very clean looking and with vivid colors, especially the red carmine fluorescent spots on the sides and the yellow nickel-gold belly.

Some people use much longer rods and prefer to fish them on tip or with small nymphs. In summer from June-July fishing is really difficult because the flow of the river is so meager that it is very difficult to pose the fly somewhere with water and also have a trout underneath. In these conditions of extreme dryness, salmonids end up lethargic and stop eating, except some pools with enough water or derive their appetites in the early hours of the morning and at the end of the night. As of August, the storms return and with these the river area recovers enormously. Then the numerous fishing returns and they go out to eat the best examples of the river, that is to say, the trophies, that can be fished until the middle of October. If these late summer storms do not occur the river flow is so minimal that it is a success that the fish do not die asphyxiated. In this, the vegetal cover is very important. In this way, alders, ash, wild plum and other deciduous trees provide the necessary freshness to shelter the heated trout.

An important detail to keep in mind, is the use of high water boots instead of waders that are usually too hot, or there is still a better solution, which are the modern breathable pants with neoprene sock to which we incorporate the boot of Wading This is in my opinion the best solution, since we do not have to wade deep but sometimes with high rubber boots, we end the day with socks soaked with water due to an untimely slip or to get too deep in some deep pool.

The oriental rivers of the great mountain of Montseny are all within a framework protected by the regulations of Natural Parks and by UNESCO, being at the moment this the best guarantee so that they remain in a state of conservation that we could qualify as acceptable. Its dry fly fishing in the months of April and May is delicious and the environment is so leafy, fresh and silent that it will provide a pleasant and pleasant day, without forgetting that the restaurants and inns in the area have a wide menu and menus of very moderate prices but extremely tasty for demanding palates. The wine and champagne and also the menu is also highly recommended and very good to drink after a day of fishing.

~ Carles V.