The Artibai is a short Basque coastal river, around twenty kilometres from its gathering on the northern slope of Mount Oiz to the Cantabrian Sea at the fishing port of Ondarroa. It rises where mountain streams unite near Iruzubieta and Markina-Jemein and runs down a steep-sided green Bizkaian valley before the tide reaches up from Berriatua to meet it. This is a small, lively river of clear, cool water off the limestone-and-sandstone hills of the Basque country, draining a modest catchment of a hundred and seventy square kilometres through wooded slope and farmland. Like the small rivers of the Cantabrian coast it once took runs of salmon and sea trout off the sea; neither is a fishery today, and it is fished for its wild brown trout. The character is intimate, quick, steep-valley freestone with short pools and runs. Wading is steady on firm rock and gravel, the small clear water rewarding a quiet approach.

Wading: Quiet approach on small clear water

In the steep, often pressured Atlantic rivers of the Basque Country, trout opportunities centre on spring olives and other up-wings when flows and colour briefly line up, with caddis and buzzers helping to sustain sport into early and mid-summer, and terrestrials from grassy, wooded margins adding surface food in quieter, recovering reaches.