South of France advise please?

[Jayball10]

Hi Lads.

Heading over to visit family at the end of May for a week. Havnt much planned so was hoping to get some fishing in. Will be staying in Carcasonne which is land locked but was looking at heading over to Narbonne for a few of the days. Only bringing a cheap telescopic rod so will hopefully be targeting Bass and Bream. Has anyone fished down here before? Any advise would be gratefully appreciated. Also if anyone has any tips on fishing the rivers around Carcasonne also.

PMs welcomed.

Cheers,

Jay.

[kieran]

Hi

Only place in the area likely to hold bass is further west towards the Spanish border in the very rough ground. In the harbours and piers on the coast out from Narbonne you will find lots of mullet, small bream, eels and on the bottom you will get sting rays and flats. Better fishing on the beaches at night and you might find a bass there. You also get lots of small bait robbing octopus - absolute pests!

HTH

[pete]

Jay,
Have fished the Tarn river which isn't a million miles from you, had some nice barbel but the carp fishing is pretty good in a lot of the rivers over there. Worth bringing a rod no doubt. Make sure and suss out a few tackle shops over there too, ones i went into had lots of interesting lures/soft plastics I'd never seen over here.

Pete

[Deleted User 3488]

Bound to be a few Bream knocking around any of the estuaries over there Jay. Pier fishing is similar to our own country,,,numerous mini species close in. Any Hyper U supermarket will have a fishing tackle section and live bait in the fridge,,,small rag and frozen bait in the freezer section, or some nice juicy shrimp at the fish counter,,and please try not to eat the shrimp THEY'RE FOR BAIT, buy a packet of skips instead!

Best of luck amigo

[Jayball10]

Lads thanks a mill for all the advice. Didnt get as much fishing in as hoped but did a few hours off a pier in the daytime. After throwing out biggish baits of crab and rag type worms with no success I got the small hooks out and lobbed in close to wriggle out some Wrasse like fellas. They looked like Ballans but Im not sure. Got pics but phone decided to do a runner after a night on the beer Conditions were not what im used to. Crystal clear water, very shallow featureless beds, off shore breeze made for flat calm conditions. Would like to go back and fish the beaches at night. Probably will cause I love Carcassonne. The food and drink is by far the best in the world!

Thanks again lads.

[The Austrian]

you can strike point 1 off your wish list now

[Jayball10]

you can strike point 1 off your wish list now

Not just yet Martin. Im holding out for something weirder

I think they were just small Ballans. I need to do some research to see what species of Wrasse can be found in the Med.

[The Austrian]

...need to do some research to see what species of Wrasse can be found in the Med.

this is very region specific Jay, the med offers a vast difference in habitats, you have for instance indigenous African shoreline species or Sicilian, Greek or even Adriatic species. A selection is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:F ... ranean_Sea
Actually the Med boast more species as we have available around the British isles and was always rich in fish and an exciting place to fish, unfortunately this has changed in the not so different past as many of those of culinary value were brought to near extinction due to commercial pressure. I was often in Croatia as a young lad and we fished for mullet in crystal clear bays and large shoals of mackerel and sardines were to be found in many harbours nearly all year round. And then in the 70s the end to all of that came in the form of cheap mass tourism...