Caddisflies
The Risle was Charles Ritz's own water — his stretch was at Aclou, on the middle river — and it is the largest of the Normandy chalk streams. It enters the Eure a modest ten metres across and, once the Charentonne and the Bave are in it, can run to thirty between Brionne and Corneville. That range is the point: the same river asks a different question of the angler every few miles. The lower river is big riffles and long glides over gravel, and its advantage to the fly fisher is that such water can be read from the bank before a line is put on it. Wild brown trout share it with barbel, dace and chub, so a rise is worth identifying before it is covered. Fish the seams where the current concentrates, and do not be shy of a heavier line than the small reaches need — a nine-foot five-weight is not over-gunned here. Upstream dry fly remains the sport, on olives through spring, the danica mayfly at the turn of May, and sedge into the evening. The upper reaches cross less permeable ground and respond faster to rain; the lower river is chalk and fines down quickly. There is no-kill fly water at Corneville-sur-Risle, Appeville-Annebault and Saint-Philibert, held by the Pont-Audemer association and included in its day and week permits.
- Chalk