Twenty-two fish a day by Graham Mole Given the chance to create Utopia, any fly fisherman would opt for the ideal stream. Cool, clear water would rush from snowcapped mountains, tumbling through rocky gorges into deep eddies, then slide serenely through wildflower meadows… and it would be brimming with hungry trout. Added to this might be a perfect climate and some fabulous food and wine. A classic example of this dream-come-true is the river Irati-a onetime haunt of Ernest Hemingway-which skids down from the Pyrénées toward Pamplona. Hemingway fished it, and immortalized the river in his novel The Sun Also Rises, in which two of the characters take a break from the Fiesta de San Fermin, also known as "the running of the bulls," in Pamplona and the heady social life of San Sebastian, to go fishing. A statue of the great novelist resides in Pamplona's center, where restaurants serving his favorite dish, trout bleu, abound. Along the Pyrénées, there are numerous rivers on a par with the Irati; most are on the beat of Gourmet Fly, a company run by an avid fisherman, Nic Toldi. Toldi's trump card is his ability to weave his way through the labyrinth of bureaucracy involved in getting a fishing license in Spain.
While Hemingway fished the river with a worm, the locals employ a metal spinner. Using a dry fly is a huge challenge since the river is so rapid and the fish are quick. The locals have devised a method that involves hanging up to five wet flies from a plastic sphere called a boya, or buldo-from the French bulle d'eau meaning "water bubble." It's cast out and retrieved just like a metal spinner. You have to be careful in assembling the cast, as it's easy to put it on upside down. But it's effective-why else would the limit be 22 fish a day? |
