Annecy is the postcard lake that happens to be a serious fishery, which is an unusual combination. The water is clean enough to drink in most years — the town has spent decades making sure of it — and the Arctic char (omble chevalier) live down in the cold deeps where they always have. Most French anglers fish the char vertically from a boat with weighted nymphs at forty metres plus, which is not quite fly fishing in the sense Norman Maclean would have recognised but is certainly the best way to reach the fish. The shoreline gives up trout and perch to a reasonable caster in the spring and autumn edges, and the féra (lavaret) can be persuaded with small nymphs on a gambe rig over the mid-depths. You will share the lake with paddleboarders and pleasure boats — this is Annecy — but get up before the town does and you have it to yourself for the hour or two that matters.
- Lake
- Limestone
