The upper Lignon rises on the granite of the Velay around Tence — a thin, clear headwater network that the local federation has been quietly protecting for decades. The fish are wild browns, local-strain, and present in genuine numbers where the habitat is right. The upper reaches demand a walk — an hour or two along a forest track, sometimes more — and that's the filter. By the time you get there you've earned the solitude and the fishing tends to reflect it. Baetis and caddis make up most of the surface food; terrestrials take over when the water drops. Work upstream with short, careful casts and expect small fish willing to work for a drag-free drift. The atmosphere is half the point. You don't fish the haut Lignon for a trophy. You fish it for the walk out at the end of the afternoon, with a flask of something warm and the light going over the Monts du Vivarais.

• Granite