The Adour is the salmon river of Gascony — running from the Pyrenean headwaters above Bagnères-de-Bigorre all the way to the Atlantic at Bayonne, with the main salmon fishing concentrated on the middle river around Dax and below. Spring is the season: April and May are the best weeks, when the runs come in on the rising water after Pyrenean rainfall and fresh fish push up through the lower pools. Fish the rising and falling water properly. Tube flies of an inch to an inch-and-a-half in coloured water, dressing down to doubles and singles as the water clears. The main holding pools are well known to the local AAPPMAs and the beats rotate on a system that generally works. Sea trout run with the salmon and take the same flies in daylight, as they do across the Cantabrian salmon rivers — this is not night-fishing country. Brown trout and grayling in the upper valleys for the non-salmon weeks. Check the regional arrêté before fishing: French salmon regulations tighten almost yearly and the quota system is strict.
- Mixed
