Spate · Mixed · Pyrénées-Atlantiques / Pays Basque, FR

Nive

Photo of Nive

The Nive is the salmon river of French Basque country, running with assured composure through mountains and beats where every family has fished for generations.

Poor · Brown Trout
Pheasant Tail Nymph · 14-18
New ruleReported 4 Sept 2026

Severe drought restrictions (crise) in force

VigiEau lists this venue's surface-water zone (Bassin de la Nive, dépt 64) at crise, under an official préfectoral drought arrêté. Fishing is not itself banned by it, but water levels are low — go gently on stressed fish.

Arrêté préfectoral n°38003 ↗

Temporary notices from official orders and recent fishery reports — they clear automatically once out of date. Always confirm locally before travelling.

Closed season
Out of season. Try elsewhere.
Closed — confidence not applicable today.
What moved it
  • Level0.30 mLast reading 11h ago
  • Water temp20.2°C
  • ClarityClear
Today's fly
Pheasant Tail Nymph
Pheasant Tail Nymph14-18
Upstream
Conditions on the water
Live gauge
Level
Steady
0.30 m
Last reading 11h ago
Water temp20.2°C
ClarityClear
Weather24°C
WindS 24 km/h
Pressure1014 hPa
Rain · recent2.6 mm
Rain · ahead7.6 mm

The nearest gauge doesn't record temperatures, so we've estimated it — defer to the river keeper's advice.

Water temperature for Brown Trout
Warm — slow
20°C est.ideal 10–16°C
0°14°28°
How to fish it · for Brown Trout
When
Through the open trout season. Spring olives April through May; sedges through summer evenings; small dark flies into late September.
Where
Upper Nive through the Basque Pyrénées is tight pocket water; the middle river through Cambo widens. Pool tails and the seams behind boulders.
Method
Upstream dry to risers; dry-dropper through the riffles. The Nive's Basque water is clear — long leader, fine tippet.
Kit
9 ft #4 — French freestone default. Floating line, 12 ft leader to 4 to 5 lb fluoro. Studded boots.
Why this works
Water at 20.2°C — above the brown trout caution line (18°C). Fish dawn or dusk only. Land it fast, wet hands, no air shots.
Likely species
Caddisflies
Gammarids
Hatch timeline · todayPeak at 6am

Hatch predictions

Today's headline hatch shown — see all 4 active hatches hour by hour as a supporter.

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Sub-surface · on the nymphunder the surface

Hatch predictions

Supporters see the full sub-surface read.

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Beyond the hatch · worth watchingambient prey(1)

Hatch predictions

Top prey shown — see all 2 as a supporter.

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Evidence
Survey-backed · regionalHigh confidence

Backed by regional invertebrate surveys; no sampling on this exact reach yet.

Through the year
0–3 scale · September highlighted
J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Trout seasonSeason
1
2
2
2
2
2
1
Autumn DunHatch
2
3
2
March BrownHatch
2
3
2
Late March BrownHatch
2
3
2
Large Brook DunHatch
2
3
2

Numbers are intensity 0 (none) to 3 (peak) — a guide, not a guarantee.

Ranked for today
Brown Trout fly box

More balanced than the mountain-river pack. French nymphing still matters, but there is more room for dries, spiders and general searching flies.

Permits & access
Permit required — see local rules.
  • Basque AAPPMA permits
  • Mandatory catch-and-release in some years — verify with local federation.
What's coming
Plan ahead
5-day outlook
Water here around 20°C. Nothing cooler within range — carry a thermometer.
Gallery · 2
  1. Photo of Nive
    Nive — image via Wikipedia (Nive)
  2. Terrain map of the venue
    Terrain map
About this water

The Nive is the salmon river of French Basque country, running with assured composure through mountains and beats where every family has fished for generations. Salmon fishing is closed across the Adour and Gaves basin under the 2026 prefectoral order. The river remains spate-responsive — a five-hour lag from mountain rain to river rise — which means a competent angler can read the weather and plan the fishing with precision. Brown trout in the headwaters and tributaries offer orthodox dry-fly sport above Saint-Étienne-de-Baïgorry. Sea trout enter on the floods and are fishable in season. Check the current AAPPMA arrêté: the Basque federations manage their waters with exactitude, and the regulations shift yearly.

Hatches & food

No venue-specific emergence timing has been documented, but OFB monitoring upstream of the Bastan at Bidarray confirms a strong stonefly, caddis and mayfly fauna is present (including Perla, Rhyacophila, Baetis and Ephemerella) — a genuine food base without a confirmed hatch calendar.

  • Mixed
Water quality (WFD)
  • Ecology: Good
  • Chemical: Unknown
What this classification means

WFD ecological status Moderate → Good corrected to EEA WISE 2022 (3rd RBMP) classification for waterbody FRFR271C (was a stale earlier-cycle value). Source: EEA WISE SWB_SurfaceWaterBody (discodata.eea.europa.eu), verified 2026-06-18.

WFD classification · FRFR271C

The full read · show the working · for Brown Trout · confidence 80%
How the 0 is built — score × weight = contribution
Temperature11 × 28%3.1
Flow80 × 22%17.6
Clarity95 × 18%17.1
Feeding Time70 × 13%9.1
Pressure80 × 7%5.6
Insect activity60 × 12%7.2
Limiting factor: Water temperature (20.2°C) is outside Brown Trout's preferred range (10–16°C)= 60
Can you trust it?
Water temperatureair-to-water estimateestimated
Level / flowon-river gaugeobserved
Prey activitysurvey-backed invertebrate datasurvey
What would change the calculation
Cooler water — back toward the 10–16 °C ideal band — would lift the score and ease welfare.
Directions
Apple MapsGoogle Maps
Seasons & zones
  • Trout 2nd Saturday of March → 3rd Sunday of September

Salmon: Banned (2026) — Salmon fishing is closed across the Adour and Gaves basin under the 2026 prefectoral order (Nouvelle-Aquitaine), which renewed the 2025 total prohibition.

Sea trout: Seasonal open (2026) — Nive — the Basque river draining from the Pyrenees through Bayonne. Sea trout (truite de mer) confirmed as a seasonal quarry alongside salmon. Active sea trout fishery in the Basque Pyrénées-Atlantiques zone. Supersedes earlier 'verify_locally' provisional status.

Related guides
Pyrenees PlaybookFrench riversEuro Nymphingsubsurface methods
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