Mont-Cenis is technically a reservoir — the dam went in in 1968 and flooded the old pastures and a hamlet or two — but it sits at 1,974 metres in the Vanoise granite and it fishes like a genuine Alpine water because that is basically what it is. The drive up from Lanslebourg is half the pleasure and half the filter: you arrive and the lake is quiet and the trout are wild, which is exactly the combination mountain anglers go looking for and rarely find. Ice-out is late — often not until the end of May — and the fishing season is tight, but the window that does open is genuinely good. Expect small fish, genuine wild browns, and the sort of day where the only sound is your fly line and the wind over the col. The char population exists but is modest and the trout are the real reason to come.
- Lake
- Granite
