Fishing in France?

Going for a week to France at the end of July and was wondering if anyone has ever fished there before, and what I could expect (assuming I can sneak of for a day). Based in Bayonne in the south west corner. I presume there's bass etc on the lure and from what I am reading there is a lot of freshwater flyfishing, but has anyone any experiences/recommendations of fishing down there?

Hi

French anglers VERY cagey about releasing information to johnny foreigner.
Yes, bass fishing in rocky areas with lures - apparently a "caper shad" is the bees knees now.
Damned if I could find one for sale in any of the tackle shops mind...

Standard beach fishing produces small flats, LOTS of small weaverfish (especially close in) and can produce bass and spotted bass (beautiful fish). Float fishing will get you lots of gars if they are about as well as mackerel and launce. Flatfish are less common than here...

In the rocky areas, you get lots of bream as well as wrasse, including some nice new species.
Prawn is an excellent bait here, but chop up a handful and chuck them in to keep them interested and hanging around. Did not get any pollack or coalfish.

FWIW

Hi,

In the South-West of France if can fish from the beaches, you can get bass, differents bream species and giltheadbream.

For the bream use a kind of running leger with a long snood and not too big hooks. Worm baits works very well.

If you buy them from the shop, you will find rags from "normandie appats" in green and redish box.

Buy the red ones as the worm are "hard" (dure in French), they are as they will last longer, and will stay on the hook well.

You can also find what is called "American worms" and they are very good as well.

After fish baits like sardine, mackerel works well for bass, and other bream species ....

Unfortunately don't expect "monsters" as most of the fish in Frnace are small now

Enjoy your holidays

Thanks for all the advice lads. Hopefully I'll get a day in somewhere, and if so I'll post up a report.