French sea bass on the fly

There is one behind your fly, strip faster! says Jean Baptiste. Indeed a black shadow is out of the border and am my fly at full speed. Suddenly, between two strips, the fish engulfs my fly, fish on! After a few minutes of fighting, we admire a superb Breton sea bass with a dark back. A quick photo shoot, and the fish is released.

This was the first fish with Frenchmen Jean Baptiste Vidal. A fly fishing guide since 2005, Jean-Baptiste has guided for large foreign companies like Nervous Waters, Untamed Angling, Frontiers and Ponoi River Company. Based in Brittany in the Finistère department, he was able to guide in Argentina, Russia, Bolivia and Iceland among others.

Since 2014, he works as a guide in Brittany as he builds up his family having now a daughter of 3 years old. He guides for salmon, shad and trout and since 2018 for pike and sea bass. It is on this last fish that we will concentrate our efforts for three days.

The common sea bass (dicentrarchus labrax) is a superb sportfish of the family of the moronids that lives in the coastal waters of the North-East Atlantic, the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. This fish has a longevity that can exceed 25 years for a weight greater than 10 kg. However, individuals over 5 kg are now rarer than before. Jean Baptiste proposes to fish them by boat or on foot in an estuary for sight fishing, from mid-April to the end of November.

We begin by fishing on a river estuary by boat. The Carolina Skiff used by Jean Baptiste is perfectly adapted to fly fishing: a flat bottom to navigate in shallow water, two platforms for fishermen, thermal and electric engines and a state-of-the-art fish-finder. Top-level equipment to make beautiful drifts and prospecting properly with his fly!

Our fishing guide Jean Baptiste and his boat.

Jean-Baptiste opens the hostilities with a nice little sea bass and we continue our drift along the rocks.

Only a few minutes after putting the boat in the water, we start to get to work. The patterns we use are all handtied by Jean-Baptiste during the winter months. They are beautiful tapered streamers with light colors that launch quite well. They must be placed near the rocky edges battered by the current and tufts of algae. The sea bass are active and we record a lot of curious follows. Jean-Baptiste opens the hostilities with a nice little sea bass and we continue our drift along the rocks. Some fish come out of nowhere in 5 meters of depth and grab your fly at the boat, a feast for the eyes! The small specimens are often in small groups, so you have to know how to profit from a hooked fish to hook another!

The patterns tied by Jean Baptiste are very effective and cast like a charm.

The large specimens are solitary and much more suspicious ... It’s very dynamic fishing, and imperative to know how to bring back a fly very quickly. As Jean-Baptiste told me «do not hesitate to really strip like a moron!» The mastery of the backhand cast is also essential in order to cast during windy days. The next day, we try a different South Brittany estuary, slightly different than the one we had fished the day before. We start by exploring the many oyster beds. Oyster traps are usually located in bays sheltered from bad weather, so the water is often relatively calm and therefore clear.

The sea bass then hunt in shallow water, looking for mullet, crabs and other prey that have come to shelter or feed near these structures. A floating fly line is then ideal to avoid getting hung, but having an intermediate line can be useful. Jean-Baptiste sometimes uses gurglers on these spots, which give spectacular attacks, even with small specimens. We caught some medium sized fish, then went to the coast to make a long drift of more than one kilometer. We methodically explore each corner, each clump of algae, but the activity seems to be declining, not a follow-up during the drift!

Yellow pollack on the fly !

In the process, he will also take a small ... yellow pollack ! A first for Jean-Baptiste with the fly rod…

Just before seeking shelter from the wind in the harbor of Port Manec’h, we try some casts near the house of the SNSM building (National Society of Rescuers at Sea). While he was talking about a sea bass, Jean-Baptiste takes a good hit! After a nice fight, the fish is in the net. It’s a beautiful specimen with a dark back, just like the tint of the algae from which it came. Jean Baptiste explains to me that the sea bass often mimic the color of their hunting grounds. Some have light gray backs, others have almost black backs! In the process, he will also take a small ... yellow pollack! A first for Jean-Baptiste with the fly rod…

For the last day, we went fishing for sea bass on foot. En route in the car, Jean-Baptiste explains how much this fishing is like hunting: you have to be discreet, have the right timing, and sometimes stay posted for a long time on the same spot, waiting to see a sea bass glide by and be able to put your fly under its nose. The places we fish are small creeks of briny water that are full of life at certain times of the tide: sea bass, salmon, mullet, shrimps and crabs, they are all there!

Jean-Baptiste parks the car and we take a small path. He warns me that we’ll walk a lot today and that I shouldn’t take too many photos of each spot. Indeed, finding these areas took a lot of time, and he wants to preserve these places for his customers. He even refuses to guide people living in Brittany! We fish with imitations of crabs tied by Jean-Baptiste, on #8 floating lines. Green crabs are, according to him, the favorite of big sea bass. The beautiful specimens are lazy and willingly take a small imitation properly presented. You have to stay on strategic points and wait for a sea bass to come and inspect the shore edges for shrimp or crabs. Some fish don’t hesitate to feed just at the water’s edge, right in front of you! It is then necessary to cast as discreetly as possible, without making too many false casts so as not to scare the fish.

An impressive sea bass caught by JB while sightfishing from shore.

On the advice of Jean-Baptiste, I positioned near a big rock against which the current runs strongly and wait for the passage of a fish, while he goes 50 meters further to another spot. The mullet are in turmoil, some are so big that they’re sometimes confused with a big sea bass. Suddenly, I hear Jean-Baptiste calling me: there is a fish of almost 3kg in front of him. I watch him put his fly ... Too far, the fish didn’t even notice the imitation crab! Jean-Baptiste bites his fingers. 20cm closer and it was in the bag! He then tries a few blind streamer shots at the spot I was watching, and takes an angry juvenile sea bass.

We change locations again and navigate large rocks that overlook a sort of «flats» in Brittany, with large tufts of seaweed and rocks, where sea bass come to feed. It will be even more important to be discreet to avoid spooking the fish. We wait, each of us at his post, but no sign of fish.

We were going to change places, when two sea bass appeared in front of us below. In the heat of the moment, I pitifully placed my fly, but that didn’t seem to bother the two fish that were rushing on it. One of them sucks my fly: «Hook it! Jean-Baptiste told me. The fish is on and runs at full speed in shallow water, what an incredible sensation. No doubts they love these imitation flies! We admire this fish for a few photos, take the fly from the corner of its mouth and release it on the flats of Brittany.

Golden grey mullet on the fly !

Finally, we attempt to take a mullet on fly in some of the surrounding shallow mud creeks. It is not entirely clear what these fish feed on primarily, but Jean-Baptiste uses small nymphs that look like a small invertebrate. The mullet schools are easily identifiable but difficult to approach because you must walk through 50cm of mud…Waders and good physical conditions are obligatory!

We have to hurry because due to the changing tide so the fish will be harder to find. We then put the fly on the trajectory of a school of mullet and we give a light twitch when the fish are on it. After a few minutes, I hook one! I had never taken a mullet by rod and must admit that I was impressed by the power of this fish for its size. The one I’d hooked had so much energy that we ended up thinking it was foulhooked but once landed, it was properly hooked in the mouth! A superb specimen of golden gray mullet. Jean Baptiste then hooks another, which is unfortunately lost.

The tidal conditions become less and less interesting for us and it is time to return. French Brittany definitely has a lot to offer for the fly-fishing enthusiast. To have great chances of hooking the seabass of a lifetime on the fly rod, the best months are October and November. I personally can’t wait to hunt for those big boys again with Jean Baptiste’s excellent company

TRIP CONTACT

Jean Baptiste speaksfluently English andSpanish. To book a flyfishingtrip for sea bass inFrench Brittany, contacthim here :

enjoy.fishing@hotmail.fr

+33 687 303 456