La Loire - has anyone fished this amazing river?

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Mole-Patrol
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Re: La Loire - has anyone fished this amazing river?

Post by Mole-Patrol »

The Vienne and Charente are my local rivers. They are both roughly the same length as the Severn, but the Vienne has a catchment area four times the size. There are barbel and carp all along the river. The barbel though do not seem to run very large. Many ex-pat anglers report that they struggle to find fish over 6lb. I have had a few larger than that, but they are hard to find. Carp however are ubiquitous and run to mid forties in the middle reaches and possibly larger further downstream. It is quite common to catch carp to 20lb in the same swim as the larger barbel of 7lb to 9lb. Catfish are also everywhere and will trash your barbel tackle.

The Charente enters limestone country around Charroux, about a third of its way downstream and quickly becomes very verdant. From Angouleme downstream the river is excellent for carp, barbel, catfish and other predators. It isn't an easy river to fish though being mainly very clear, deep and the weeds are a yard thick and stretch bank to bank in some places. Night fishing venues are few and far between. Again, barbel of any size are difficult to locate. The middle reaches are amazing with the river splitting into multiple channels and offering a variety of different types of swim. there are good chub, perch and roach in these sections from around Charroux down to Chateauneuf-sur-Charente.

Fishing is free as long as you have a Carte de Peche or rod licence.

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Barbulus
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Re: La Loire - has anyone fished this amazing river?

Post by Barbulus »

Yes; very happy memories of both Rivers; wild carp, wild places and one of the most violent "takes" I have ever experienced that was heading down river so fast I would have been unable to keep up driving a Ferrari. Fantastic river fishing with absolute "monsters" ............and hardly fished for either ! :Ok:

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Olly
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Re: La Loire - has anyone fished this amazing river?

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Tengisgol
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Re: La Loire - has anyone fished this amazing river?

Post by Tengisgol »

Olly wrote: Wed Oct 02, 2019 11:23 pm Like this? :- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrjRbgCKVUQ
Steve Edge, nuts!
Where the willows meet the water...

https://sites.google.com/site/tengisgol/

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Mole-Patrol
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Re: La Loire - has anyone fished this amazing river?

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BoltonBullfinch
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Re: La Loire - has anyone fished this amazing river?

Post by BoltonBullfinch »

Olly wrote: Wed Oct 02, 2019 11:23 pm Like this? :- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrjRbgCKVUQ
What a barmpot, lol....

Thanks
BB
'We fish a lot' Forrest Gump.

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Barbulus
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Re: La Loire - has anyone fished this amazing river?

Post by Barbulus »

Exactly; although Shimano "Baitrunners" on the River there................ Best Wishes. Steve

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Rotrax
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Re: La Loire - has anyone fished this amazing river?

Post by Rotrax »

I am a new member, accepted today. I saw this old thread and can offer expierience of a couple of days fishing above Tours and below Amboise.

My wife and I took our Ford Transit motor caravan on a cheap 5 day ferry trip and ended up in a camp site in a tiny village - Noizey IIRC. After a little exploring and shopping I got the tackle out - a Milbro hollow glass spinning rod and my faithful Intrepid Elite. Found a shallow rocky run that had a deeper glide and ran a piece of flake under a medium cork bodied float. No joy for over an hour. Locals were whipping fry out on tiny hooks every cast. I changed to a 3/4 inch flyspoon and was soon into a real rod bender, a perfect condition Chub of about 3lbs. In the fast shallow water it fought really hard. Seeing the bend in the rod I was soon surrounded by locals offering advice in the local patois. My wife bought the net, it was landed, photographed and returned asap.

The locals were agast! Non, non M'suir mange, mange!

A chub - not likely. IIRC they are supposed to taste like muddy cotton wool stuffed with pins.

Following day caught three more chub, much smaller, on bread, from a muddy tributary stream. Tried my faithful fly spoon and got snapped up by a larger fish, no idea what but it pulled really hard for a moment or two before the line parted, so perhaps a pike.

Went back to Amboise some years later to find the run I caught the Chub in dry - the Loire had changed its course.

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