PYRENEES ZEBRA TROUT (PART 5 end)

“El latiguillo” was an extremely effective technique in the Alto Segre where until 1988 it was widely used and fishing with a very notable amount of trout of all sizes. Sagal de Martinet, already an old man at that time, always continued fishing with this technique and always told me:

– I still get six kilos of trout in five hours and if in summer it’s about to rain, I fill the basket in an hour or so.

Trout up to half a kilo were caught well, but the large ones required some work to catch and you had to go down the current quickly to get the fish into the landing net. It must be said that this technique was practiced with fishing lines from 40 years ago and they did not last as long as they do now, apart from being less careful with the diameters. The net was a long staff with a small metal ring and the net it held was equally shallow. The net served both as a wading stick and as a net to catch the trout before putting it in the basket.

Now you can fish exactly the same with modern fly rods and everything else, but knowing that you have to use a small choked fly rig with two flies or one fly and a nymph at the end. The difficulty of this technique lies in the precision in properly placing the flies, giving them a natural and not sudden fall, and then comes the most difficult thing, which is to handle them gently and skillfully so that they slide in the current at the required depth and with a very light tension that allows us to work with the fly and at the same time is attractive so that a trout bites and that we nail it, no matter how subtle its bite may be to one of the flies. This seems easy a priori but it is not, because we cast upstream and we do not see the flies on many occasions since they remain in the aqueous film or far below it and therefore we must use our touch and our piscatory expertise to fish.

The Mediterranean trout from the Pyrenees is a fish for which this technique is perhaps the best and most suitable for great fishing. Naturally, like all fishing techniques, you have to believe and trust in it so that it gives the expected results.

Wet fly fishing can also be fished by casting downstream and crossing the riverbed, that is, across. El latiguillo fishing is a technique adapted to the currents of the upper Segre in which two wet flies were used, but not traditional drowned fly fishing.

Finally, the large pools of the Segre and Noguera Pallaresa rivers always have some large trout that live in the deepest waters and rarely rise to the surface to eat dry flies. It is also difficult to make them bite a nymph since they are too deep, often more than 4 meters with current, and carrying a nymph, no matter how heavy it is, to this depth in one of these rivers is very complicated and even more so for the nymph to remain. enough time to fish properly. These specimens are usually stationed on the bottom with their belly attached to it or very close to it.

These large trout are, as everyone knows, great eaters of minnows, whether minnows or small trout, therefore it is very convenient to fish with a streamer, either with one or two at a time. For streamer fishing in these rivers with very strong currents, it is convenient, if not essential, to use ultra-fast sinking tip lines. Depending on the numbering of the rod we use, we can fish with 150 grains or 130 grains. The tackle for fishing in these waters must be short or very short (one meter to one and a half meters max) with a streamer that is not very heavy since the line is already heavy and waiting a little longer it will reach the bottom and do its job. The most suitable colors are black, green and white. Naturally we can assemble these swimming flies by mixing colors such as red with white and black with green. Streamers can be as small or large as you prefer, but a 3cm swimming fly is sufficient for Zebra Trout in these rivers. The models that have given me the best results are the black Mattuka, the Gray Ghost and the well-known Woolly Bugger. Tube-type salmon flies can also be used on more than one occasion.

The rig, as I said, must be short, not much more than a meter and very resistant. A 1X or 0X line is very suitable for this system, since the bite of the fish is quite violent, together with the depth and strength of the water, it is more than convenient that the line be resistant and of a considerable thickness that allows us Helps you comfortably cast a large fly and hold a large fish.

Finally, I recommend that you always carry a good rain jacket and a wading pole when fishing in the Pyrenees. The first will protect you from the storms that are very abundant in these mountains and the second will prevent you from inopportune falls into these mighty and brave rivers.

~ Carles V