The Allier is the Loire's great salmon tributary and the most important wild Atlantic salmon river left in mainland France. Every salmon entering the Loire system to spawn in the Auvergne highlands comes up this river. There is no stocking. Every fish is wild, every fish has run 900 kilometres from the Atlantic, and every fish deserves to be returned. The legal fishery is concentrated on the Haute-Loire beats — Brioude, Langeac, Lavoûte-Chilhac — where spring salmon lie in the deep pools of the gorge sections from March to July. Fish the Brioude beats with a floating line and long leader when the river runs low and clear; switch to an intermediate and small tubes when the water carries colour after a spate. Best taking windows come three to five days after a rise, when levels are falling and the river has regained its glass. The Poutès dam reconfiguration (completed 2020) reopened access to critical upstream spawning habitat for the first time in 80 years, and the run, though still small, is showing signs of recovery. A TAC quota system governs the entire fishery — once the annual catch ceiling is reached, salmon fishing closes for the rest of the year. The Allier is also first-rate brown trout and grayling water throughout its middle and upper reaches, with strong Baetis and stonefly hatches. The gorge sections above Langeac, where the river cuts through volcanic rock, are particularly good.
- Granite
