Chalk · Normandy / Calvados (Pays d'Auge)

Touques

Touques venue image
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The Touques is the one French sea trout river that still justifies the journey.

Species

A good day — worth the effort

Low and clear — careful approach country. Small and bright, long leader, careful approach.

75% confidence in this read
Water temperature for sea trout
Ideal
9°C est.ideal 8–15°C
0°14°28°
Why this score · for sea trout
  • Temperature10028% weight
  • Flow6022% weight
  • Clarity8518% weight
  • Feeding Time5013% weight
  • Pressure857% weight
  • Prey Activity4512% weight
Conditions
Level
Dry recently
No gauge reading
Water temp
8.9°C
Estimated
Clarity
Clear
Air temp
10°C
Wind
SW 19 km/h
Gentle breeze
Pressure
1012 hPa
Rain · 48h
0.2 mm
No meaningful rain
Rain · ahead
5.1 mm
Light rain · next 48h

Live readings — water temperature is an estimate where the gauge does not record it.

How to fish it · for sea trout
When
Sea trout enter late April; main run June through August. Evening into night where the night extension applies. Fish the drop after rain when colour brings fish up.
Where
Lower river from Lisieux to the tidal limit; the Calonne and Orbiquet tributaries. Pool tails and weeded glides walked in daylight before fishing them at night.
Method
Across and down on a floating line with a size 10 wet — Steer's Head and soft-hackle emerger patterns suit clear chalk water; Medicine and Stoat's Tail when colour enters. Steady swing, never hurry.
Kit
10 ft #6/7, floating line, 8 lb fluoro tippet. Spare leader on a wrist spool. Permit with timbre migrateur — non-optional.
Why this works
Good conditions. Temperature is favourable (100), Prey activity is weakest (45). ⏰ Sea trout become most active after dark, but this stretch closes at 20:18 — before that window fully opens. Fish hard in the last legal hour: overcast skies and warm evenings can bring fish on early even in fading light.
Through the year
0–3 scale · May highlighted
J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Sea trout runRun
1
2
2
2
2
2
1
Trout seasonSeason
1
2
2
2
2
2
1
Large Dark OliveHatch
1
2
2
1
March BrownHatch
1
2
1
Iron BlueHatch
1
2
2
1
Blue Winged OliveHatch
1
2
2
2
2
1

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

Gallery · 1
  1. Terrain map of the venue
    Terrain map
Permits & access
Permit required — see local rules.
  • Carte de pêche with timbre migrateur required for sea trout
  • AAPPMA permits
  • Check Calvados departmental arrêté for exact dates and quota.
Directions
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About this water

The Touques is the one French sea trout river that still justifies the journey. It rises in the Pays d'Auge — apple country, Calvados country — and runs north through Lisieux to the sea at Deauville, a chalk stream carrying clear, stable water over clean gravel for most of its fifty-odd kilometres. The fish counter at Breuil-en-Auge recorded over six thousand sea trout in 2023, and the basin is estimated to hold five to six thousand fish in a good year. This is not a marginal fishery clinging to existence. It is the most abundant sea trout system in France, and it fishes accordingly. Sea trout enter from late April and run through October, with the main body of fish arriving June through August. Fish the lower river and its tributaries — the Calonne, the Orbiquet — on the drop after rain, when colour gives the fish confidence to move. Evening and night fishing from June, floating line, size 10 wet flies fished across and down. The Touques is open water in a country where most migratory salmonid fishing is now closed. Fish it while it lasts.

  • Chalk
Seasons & zones
  • SalmonCLOSED → CLOSED
  • Sea trout25 April → 25 October
  • Trout2nd Saturday of March → 3rd Sunday of September

Salmon: Banned (2026) — Atlantic salmon fishing banned across the Seine-Normandie basin in 2026.

Sea trout: Seasonal open (2026) — Touques — the most productive sea trout river in Normandy, draining the Livarot/Lisieux hills to the Channel near Deauville. Active, well-documented sea trout fishery with genuine localised stocks and a night-fishing tradition. Permit required (AAPPMA local chapter). Night extension rules apply on designated reaches.

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